It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are Ward XVI who play the Sophie Stage on Wednesday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Ward XVI is situated in Whittingham Asylum which is in Preston, although the inmates that reside within are from various places from the north west of England ranging from Birkenhead to Barrow.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Ward XVI’s house band was first brought together by Psychoberrie in 2013, there have been several changes in personnel since then… Some made in mysterious circumstances where the drummer was never seen again.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Ward XVI was based upon the name of the ward in Whittingham Asylum in which the majority of institutional nasty things occurred to patients in the early 20th century and subsequently got the hospital closed and demolished.
We changed the 16 to the Roman numeral XVI as we wanted our name to be mispronounced for the rest of our lives!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We’ve been called all sorts of things over the years from circus metal, avant-garde theatrical metal, progressive goth rock and so on.
We’re just Ward XVI. I think what makes us ‘special’ is our commitment to bringing the theatre to the stage with an emphasis on theatric, we are mid way through releasing a trilogy of concept albums about Psychoberrie’s sordid past, and we are committed in using actors, scene sets, props and anything we can get our hands on to make the show as 4D as possible.
Every part of our image, look, music and stage show is conceptual and tied to the story in the albums.
If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Our show has evolved over the years to the point we now know who we are and what boundaries we can push.
We’re well known for our show, but the new show is a step or 10 above what we’ve tried before. The album was written with the show in mind, and we’ve spent the last 4 months building Sets/ monsters and so on to allow the story to be told in a fun way.
In the past the show evolved the more we played through trial and error and us gaining more confidence in who we are as performers . This time we’ve been planning the most monstrously over the top theatrical experience from the start, and the size of the Sophie stage has also made us scale up several times than we’d previously envisaged. We aren’t coming to Bloodstock just to make up numbers.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
We played on the new blood stage in 2017 after winning M2TM.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
The wonderful Mr Hall ed us in March/April time. We had to keep it a secret for the longest time imaginable which was pretty difficult. It’s been our aim to return on our own for 4 years so it was a phone call that I was saying yes to before Simon had finished asking the question.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Not one you expect but it won’t be one you’ll forget. We’ve 30 mins to showcase who Ward XVI are. Every second and square inch of the stage will be maximised.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
We’re playing the first night (Wednesday) so we aren’t clashing with anyone, so you all don’t have an excuse.
What are you working on at the moment?
Perfecting the show in time for this and a full UK tour to promote our new album Metamorphosis.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
There’s so many, as a theatrical band we have loads of props and it’s common that we play a venue that’s a little snug resulting in props being on the floor/ pit in front of us.
There’s always a clever dude who takes pleasure in stealing our gear/props. Last time this happened a 4 month pregnant Psychoberrie flying kicked a huge fella from across the stage and kicked him through a table and wooden wall.
She autographed the part of the wall that was smashed.
I’ve also broken bones in my knee and foot while being shot and dying on stage etc.
During our set in the final of M2TM we also blew the house PA, we ended up doing a sing song of The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” while they fixed it, must have been that that won us the night.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
We’ve so much prep beforehand and organisation of costumes/ sets/ props etc.. that we don’t drink much before hand. Maybe a shot or two of Cloven Hoof (raise the hoof!).
Ward XVI: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | bandcamp | youtube
