The summer music festival season is well underway and with sets at an enormous collection of festivals including a Friday night at Glastonbury, we spoke to Justin Hayward Young of The Vaccines to get the rock and roll take on football.
You're south coaster, born and raised in Hampshire. So asking the inevitable, where did the love for Manchester United come from?
When I was 3 or 4 and I started becoming conscious that there were football teams and teams that you support. I remember the people around me telling me I should support Southampton and not really being too interested in them or finding them very interesting and I remember watching Newsround or something like that and on there was a kid who had collected every Man Utd shirt from the last 20 years and I remember seeing the shirt and I don't know what it was, whether it was the red of the shirt or what they looked amazing and so they were the only other team I had heard of and I guess I wanted to do something different and support someone who my family didn't support. I guess I got lucky in that sense.
That was around '92/93 just as the tide was starting to turn. So no overly legitimate reason, I wasn't glory hunting – it was something a little more naïve than that.
A Manchester United childhood of the 90s - Erica Cantona and that goal against Sunderland, the flock of Beckham hair styles, Umbro and the outrageous beauty of a Peter Schmeichal goal keeper shirts. What memories are synonymous with you, growing up a United fan?
I think United used to have some of the nicest kits and they haven't had a nice one for a long time. I remember my wall was covered in United posters, the first United poster I ever has was a poster of Gary Rhodes, the TV chef and I remember I got really superstitious because I decorated my room in all my scarves and all my shirts for the FA cup final and we lost – it was around 94/95 (against Everton) and I remember losing and feeling absolutely distraught and so I've never been able to wear a (United) scarf again.
But yeah, Beckham, Cantona a few weird players in there as well – I loved Kanchelskis, Keane, loved Schmeichal – I was a keeper for a while.
Southampton have gone through many ups and downs, do you have a soft spot for them?
Yeah, massively. These days I love them and I do go and watch them with my Dad when I can so I do reserve a soft spot for them but any local club – Bournemouth, I'm so happy with what's happening there and I feel like any semi-local team I harbor a soft spot for.
Your touring schedule is pretty relentless, arguably more demanding than a Premier League player. Dennis Bergkamp would struggle. Can you draw parallels from a football players schedule to yours?
I suppose, I do see parallels in that there are a lot of similarities. Most musicians have very intense and short careers where it's kind of all consuming – it's not just a job you turn up to, it's an extension of who you are and I don't think you can ever really turn off from that or say when it's going to end. It's definitely full of a lot of pressure and you're putting yourself under a spot light that you wouldn't have imagined putting yourself under.
It's funny because there are so many perks that come with being a musician but the one thing I remember when we starting touring and doing really well was that I would feel sad that I wasn't back home with my mates on a Friday night who were going out. It sounds really stupid but having a year / two years of not seeing mates in that way – I think that people think that footballers lives are so easy and compared to most of us, they are but I can understand, there is a lot to sacrifice in being as focused as so many of them are.
Having seen stories in the past of 5-a-side games amidst touring and recording – do you get to fit in regular kick abouts?
We try to, yeah. We've played in some pretty amazing places on tour too like Brazil, Romania, Hong Kong and then in the States as well when supporting Mumford and Sons – they always try and put a game on, on a day off. Arnie on the bass is the only other football fan in the band but a lot of our crew – we've got a mass of us who love to play and wherever we go we try and talk to someone about organising a game.
I hate it when people don't play football seriously so I always like to have defined teams beforehand, proper kits and I really love playing it for real – I'm quite competitive. It's that same kind of adrenaline rush that you get when you're about to go on stage, that same sort of camaraderie and nerves.
It's also incredibly cathartic, playing football when you're on tour. It's one of those things and I think the reason it is so popular – everything else becomes pale in comparison to the importance of that moment of that match.
How would you describe yourself as a player?
I guess I've kind of changed over time. I used to be alright but then in the grand scheme of things I'm probably an average player now. I like to think I make a lot of good passes, I don't keep the ball for too long and fairly gritty. When I play 11-a-side now, I tend to play left back – I like putting in the challenges. My brothers a really good strong center back – he captained is University and I like playing alongside him on the field with him sort of bossing me about. We play a lot together.
A lot of tackles, a lot of headers and a lot of easy passes I guess. I like getting forward and obviously like scoring goals but I don't like being in the center of the park and having too much pressure.
What kind of boots would we see you in on the pitch?
Yeah, the Mundials or the World Cups. I've just bought a pair of white Kaisers a couple of weeks ago which I feel are kind of ostentatious in a really nineties way, kind of before everyone was wearing green boots. I remember this one kid on our football team when I was younger who had the same pair of boots in a blue and a white and he'd always have one white boot and one blue boot and I thought that was just the coolest thing.
I've actually got a couple of pairs of f50s but they're like in orange and seem the most expensive boots you can get but I've never worn them - you've got to be pretty confident that you're going to have a good game if you turn up wearing them.
You're playing Glastonbury. A tasty Friday evening slot no less. It's festival you've played a few times now, not to do any other festivals a misjustice – is that one a little special to you?
Yeah, it is the biggest and most important festival in the world and being a part of it never gets old. Just playing is a free ticket – I grew up listening to it on the radio and watching it on the TV. It's the first festival you ever hear of and I remember going the first time and sort of playing but not really playing and we've played on the Pyramid Stage now and this will be our second time playing on Other Stage and it's an absolute honor every time.
Do you have an on stage kit as it were in the same way football teams sport a kit?
Yeah we do and even if it's just stuff you'd wear everyday anyway, I like changing before we go on stage – it's definitely that dressing / changing room kind of moment for sure. Like Freddie for example, our guitarist he always hangs his stuff up and takes great pride buckling every belt hole and buttoning up his shirt to precision. It gets increasingly ritualistic the more you go on stage as I'm sure it does with footballers too I imagine.
Your rise to where you are after 3 albums and an EP is incredible. In just 5 years you've played some incredible places - are there any football stadiums that you'd like to tick off and play your music in?
We've been really lucky but Wembley and I guess, Old Trafford. But we've been lucky to have done a lot of football stadiums now because we supported Red Hot Chili Peppers across Europe two years ago so we did Stade de France, which we had a kick about in which was amazing. We played in the same stadium in Ukraine where they held the Euro's final so all these incredible places. FC Zenit in St Petersburg is another one. So we've played in a few now and it never gets old. It's got to be Wembley though.
If you're anything like us, you'll go on holiday and think “Is there a stadium near by?” do you get a unique satisfaction from playing these kind of gigs?
I used to be obsessed with football stadiums – when I used to play Subbuteo I would try and build the biggest stadium I could and when I played football I would pretend I was walking through a tunnel onto the pitch as I'm sure most people did. I just love being in football stadiums. There's something really uplifting and they hold such energy. I was at The Valley (Charlton Athletic Stadium) and I was just looking at the grass thinking and wondering about all the players who have played there on that pitch.
Turning back to music - On the latest album there's a lot of big sounding songs. 'Dream Lover' and also 'Handsome' are two that seriously get the blood pumping. Do you have any songs that you may use that for motivation before you go on stage?
We have a lot of songs that we walk on to and naturally listen to a lot of music but with this we listen to a lot of T-Rex – that's kind of powerful and aspirational as well. But yeah we do basically, we turn music on about an hour before we go on and have an ever changing playlist but it's really, massively important. I hate going out having not listened to music.
On the subject of other bands, are there any others that you would like to face in a 5-a-side?
There's a lot of talk about how good a footballer Serge from Kasabian is and obviously he score that amazing goal at Wembley so I would quite like to see how good he is. We've played against Mumford and Sons a lot and we played against Frankie and the heartstrings, we played against Foster the People.
Finally, rounding it off with a Man United question. How do you see your chances for next season?
We're still in a transitional period and there's a lot of United fans I know who are really optimistic about next season but I dunno, it's very tentative depending on who we buy and who we sell and also what happens around us. I don't think there's any reason why Chelsea won't go on to continue to be the best team in the league. I think City will strengthen but they will also have a bit of a clean up to be honest. I'm really happy and fingers crossed, we are back in the Champions League and I dunno I feel that next season we could get second and then the season after we can win the league. That would be ideal.
Big thanks to Justin for taking the time to speak to us ahead of a heavy touring schedule. The Vaccines will be on The Other Stage at Glastonbury tonight. Their latest album 'English Graffiti' is available here along with tickets for their upcoming shows.
