The Boy Least Likely To
How can anyone live up to their hype when they send you a text that says “Come find us, we’ve got LIVE PUPPETS!”
by Joanna Orland & Isla MC
The Boy Least Likely To are Pete and Jof from Buckinghamshire, along with their merry band. A staple on this summer’s festival circuit, they have recently completed a two month tour of North America to huge acclaim. ‘They really liked us! Well that’s what they told us. They didn’t slag us off to our face!’
Pete and Jof met in their teens through Jof’s brother who now does all of the artwork (think LIVE PUPPETS sewn together by the lady who did the Tweenies) for TBLLT. They bonded through a shared love of record shopping and car boot sales – a fact that is evident on their album ‘The Best Party Ever’ by the somewhat eclectic choice of instruments it features! ‘It’s mainly children’s instruments and banjos…’
A sublime mix of shimmery, eccentric, English folk/pop, the boys proudly describe their music as ‘totally the opposite to rock. ‘We didn’t want to use electric guitars, loud drums, wailing vocals. We take a list of rock requirements, that would make a great rock album: loud vocals, we’ve got whispered vocals; loud drums, very quiet drums; no glockenspiel, too much glockenspiel; no recorders, LOADS of recorders!’
Pete writes the music and Jof writes the lyrics. However, Pete did try to persuade us that he wrote the lyrics as well, and that Jof’s job was to write them out in neat handwriting! I attempted to compare them to songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but I couldn’t remember David’s name! I like to think they were quite flattered by my attempt, although Jof wasn’t too happy with the notion that he, as the lyricist, might be forgotten too. We assured him this would not be the case – his stage presence is far too charming!
After this interview and roaming the site looking for live puppets, we caught their live show and my God it was great! A lovely, sweet, jolly set with a great band dynamic. They performed their cover of George Michael’s ‘Faith’ for the first time in England. We actually have Dermot O’Leary to thank for this as he was the one who forced them to perform one of their own songs, along with a cover. I have to say the best bit was when their three live puppets finally came out to play (I actually offered my services if they needed a body to fill another costume. I wonder why they didn’t take me up on that?). Anyway, they were adorable! I actually thought I’d fallen in love with the drumming dog.
Finally, one word (or three) to sum up The Boy Least Likely To? ‘Shambolic. Country. Disco.’ Sounds about right to us!
Hmm, we never did find out – least likely to… what?
