Friday, January 15, 2016
Former Lib Dem MP goes on tour with his rock band
Norman Baker was never your average MP. In fact he was never an average Liberal Democrat MP. It is no surprise therefore to see him embracing life outside the House of Commons by rejuvenating his rock career with his band The Reform Club and going on tour to promote a new album.
The Independent reports that Baker's group, The Reform Club, first came together in the early 1990s, but it became increasingly difficult to combine pop and Parliament after his election in 1997:
“I was still performing live when I became an MP, but people said: ‘Why are you doing this, are you after the youth vote?’ I said: ‘No I’m just doing it because I like it.’
“People were sniffy about it – I suppose if we had been in a string quartet it would have been all right, but they didn’t like us being in a rock group.”
Baker, 58, described the new album, Never Yesterday, as “quirky observational stuff which is very
English” and draws on the spirit of the Kinks, Madness and Blur. It has been picked up by a record label that specialises in rereleasing albums from the likes of Adam Faith, Culture Club and T Rex. “I have played it to some young people, who have said: ‘If you were 23, it would be a massive success, but you aren’t 23’,” he said.
The paper reports that Baker has no interest into going back to politics. They say he is now lecturing, giving seminars, presenting on an internet channel as well as on a radio station and has published a book of memoirs. And living out the fantasy of middle-aged men everywhere of fronting a rock band.
Well I am impressed anyway.
The Independent reports that Baker's group, The Reform Club, first came together in the early 1990s, but it became increasingly difficult to combine pop and Parliament after his election in 1997:
“I was still performing live when I became an MP, but people said: ‘Why are you doing this, are you after the youth vote?’ I said: ‘No I’m just doing it because I like it.’
“People were sniffy about it – I suppose if we had been in a string quartet it would have been all right, but they didn’t like us being in a rock group.”
Baker, 58, described the new album, Never Yesterday, as “quirky observational stuff which is very
English” and draws on the spirit of the Kinks, Madness and Blur. It has been picked up by a record label that specialises in rereleasing albums from the likes of Adam Faith, Culture Club and T Rex. “I have played it to some young people, who have said: ‘If you were 23, it would be a massive success, but you aren’t 23’,” he said.
The paper reports that Baker has no interest into going back to politics. They say he is now lecturing, giving seminars, presenting on an internet channel as well as on a radio station and has published a book of memoirs. And living out the fantasy of middle-aged men everywhere of fronting a rock band.
Well I am impressed anyway.
