I’m dressed as Black Swan. I’ve donned the heavy eyeliner, forged a crown out of tinfoil and survived the entrance to theUnionwithout freezing my feathers off. And somehow, surreally, I’ve ended up sitting opposite Charlie Simpson (yes that Charlie Simpson from the classic boy band we all loved.)

Luckily for me it’s the Halloween Ball and my attire doesn’t seem to startle Charlie at all.  Rather my sudden appearance. Darting into the artist’s room for my quickest interview ever, he is just about to leave as I hastily pull a scrap of paper and pen from my outfit (don’t ask me where). Darting past the tour manager in a floppy cap, I indicate towards the nearest seat and he allows himself to be seduced into a chair as I scribble down his responses.

During the interview I repeat in a loop round my head ‘don’t mention the boy band, don’t mention the boy band, whatever you do… don’t mention the boy band’ because I don’t think the manager would have appreciated it. I focus instead on how Charlie became interested in music. I learn how he first picked up a guitar aged seven and how he loved playing it for his parents, one of his biggest musical influences being the band Deaf Tones.  I ask him to repeat their name after initially mishearing but this allows a gap in the conversation for Charlie to enquire about my shorthand; he points at the sheet of paper on my lap covered in black scrawls, ‘is that really how you’re going to write up from this?’ He isn’t nasty when asking me this; in fact he breaks into a wide smile which relaxes me slightly as I sense his manager’s eyes boring into the back of my head.  I say, ‘Oh this?… This is just my own interview style…speaking of style’ I turn the conversation towards fashion, an odd choice you would think, but as this issue of Concourse is focused on fashion I felt it was worth a shot. ‘So how would you describe your own ‘look’?’ He seems baffled at that moment; his eyebrows knitted together, those famous brows. I shake the image of the young Charlie in the video for ‘The Year Three-thousand’ out of my mind’s eye. He responds honestly.  ‘I guess I like to shop normally really. Anything casual, I shop at All Saints, Rees’.

Fair enough, really. I end the interview on whether he had any advice he would give Students looking to enjoy themselves. ‘Drink Jagermister’ he states with a grin. So no I didn’t ask about Busted. Although I really wanted too.

Justine Denning

This article has been reproduced here by the Concourse Deputy-Editor Design. The original author is credited above.