I missed Waiting Room when they last came to the UK; I heard about the tour just as they were leaving, so I was very glad to hear that they were coming back! Waiting Room are a three piece band from Australia, and many people will know their front man as Dr Karl Kennedy from Neighbours. His real name is Alan Fletcher, and he agreed to do an interview before their show at the Walkabout in Brighton on May 24th. So I went with my flatmate and fellow Neighbours viewer Susanna and we talked to Alan about the UK, student appeal and Angioblastic T-Cell Lymphoma…

Jess – How has the tour been going so far?

Really well! This is the third tour, and it’s been rocking. It’s a little bit of unfortunate timing with school finals and Uni finals, so in some cities it’s been harder than others. I’ve got a lot of emails from fans saying, “come next week!” you know, it’s obviously a very important time. We’ve played some cities where we’ve played before, and cities we haven’t been to before, and they’ve all been wonderful gigs.

Jess – So what do you think of the UK?

I love it, I’ve been over here for four pantos, three band tours and I’ve been here as a tourist a lot and I’m actually actively looking for a place to live for when I finally come to live here. I’m thinking maybe Brighton!

Jess – Brighton is very nice! How does it compare playing over here with playing in Australia?

It’s the same because in Australia we play to primarily Brit fans on a Monday night in Melbourne. So we get 200 people down in our local pub, and they’re very enthusiastic, they all sing along, they do what everyone here does. But here, sometimes we can play to between 400 and 1500 people. So the scale just gets bigger as the crowd increases.

Jess – Is it overwhelming when you have a big crowd?

I never get used to it, I never get used to the thrill of it. I find it harder to play when I’m a long way away from everybody, like on a big stage. I like to get up close and personal with the crowd.

Susanna – How did the band form?

Well I met Tommy (Rando) and Chris (Hawker) at a gig. They were playing a gig and I actually got up and did some songs with them. They suggested that maybe we should get together and do some work together and it seemed logical for me that we would be doing it for UK fans of Neighbours, it makes sense. That’s how it was born and once venues like the Walkabout and Universities found out about the band they asked if they could book a tour, and bang! Off it went.

Susanna – Are you all into the same kind of music?

Yeah, Tommy’s a prolific songwriter, he writes a lot of beautiful ballads and he recently wrote a number one hit in Australia. The guys gig separately as well, Chris plays in a band called Airway Lanes which is made of quite a few very well known Australian musicians. They’re a new band and can be tracked down on My Space (www.myspace.com/airwaylanes.) We’ve all got our own things, Tommy has his own website etc, so our interests in British rock, which is what we do at our gigs, and our own style, is pretty common amongst the three of us.

Susanna – So it’s quite easy to decide which covers you want to do?

Oh, yeah. Well, to be honest with you, the way I start doing a cover is if I hear it on the radio, and just go, “that’s a great song”. I mean, Kaiser Chiefs’ ‘I predict a riot’, you can’t beat it. Franz Ferdinand, ‘Do you want to’, The Killers, ‘Somebody told me’, just great, great songs. Plus we keep doing songs that just always work like ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’, everyone likes to sing a long. That’s the thing about UK audiences. Australian audiences tend to be a little bit more reserved, whereas UK audiences just go berserk!

Susanna – Do you find it difficult to fit in practise time around your Neighbours schedule?

No, I don’t really, because the good thing about guitars and singing is that you can do it anywhere. When I’m at Neighbours I always take my guitar with me to write and I always go off into the quiet room and practise, so it’s actually much easier than when I was doing my own photography business and I had to keep rushing home to do that. This is actually easier on me.

Jess - Obviously, you’re most well known for your role as Karl Kennedy. Does it annoy you when people refer to you as ‘Dr Karl’?

No, I love it! If they’re calling me Karl it means they’re watching the show, if they’re watching the show it means that I’ve still got a job! I mean, I accept that totally as part of my job. If you’re going to be in a program that’s shown in 69 countries or whatever then people are going to recognise you. And it’s part of my job and my responsibility to make them feel good about it. If I go to a public place, I fully expect that I’m going to have to say hello to people, that I’m going to have photographs taken and that doesn’t trouble me.

Jess – Did it take a while to get used to everyone calling you by you character’s name?

It kind of bled in slowly. It wasn’t really until the first time I came here to do panto that I had any idea, really, of the popularity of the character, but the popularity of Karl has grown over the years as he’s been there longer, particularly with the student population, which I think is just fantastic.

Jess – Do you think people come to see Waiting Room because you are Dr Karl, and is it an advantage in regards to gaining new fans?

I think most of the people who come to see the show are coming to see Dr Karl. The great thing is, at the end of a gig, when we do our signings and meet people, the crowd want to meet Tommy and Chris just as much, and all they want to do is talk about the set. We always ask what everyone thought of it, and everyone just says it’s a wicked set and great entertainment. So yes, ok, they’re coming to see Dr Karl, but when they’re coming back for the second, third, fourth times, they’re coming to hear the music.

Susanna – You regularly attend Neighbours nights. What actually happens at them?

Yeah, a guy in Melbourne set up the Neighbours night with two other people years ago, and it’s just grown and grown. It’s actually won tourism awards for attracting so many backpackers into Melbourne. He also runs bus tours of Ramsay Street and tours of other tourist attractions in Melbourne, so he’s a good entrepreneur. The Neighbours nights have just become enormous. In the height of summer when everyone’s down in Melbourne, or during a big sporting occasion like Grand Prix or something like that, he’ll sell out every night, there’ll be like 300 people in this club to meet Neighbours actors, and then they’ll often hear Waiting Room play afterwards.

Susanna – Are you the only band that plays there?

Yeah. Well, we have done separate band nights and there’s Ben Nicholas who plays Stingray in Neighbours, he’s in a band called Batman Street and his band have played with us as well. They’re great, they’re like a swing jazz band, but they do contemporary songs too.

Susanna – Would you ever consider re-recording the Neighbours theme tune?

(Laughing) No, no! I won’t do that because Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent have made enough money off that already!

Jess – A lot of people at University watch Neighbours, as you’ve said; a lot of your fans are students. Why do you think that Neighbours and Dr Karl are so appealing to them and why your band is so appealing to them?

I don’t know, really. Well, there are two things in the UK that really stick out to me. One is that University campuses here are sort of mini societies, you know? And the social organisation of the campuses through the Student Unions is really solid. It’s not so much in Australia; people tend to go to Uni and then go home, they don’t tend to go to Universities in different cities. So there’s that, Student Unions bind everyone together, and people are looking for a communal activity to do, and so watching Neighbours is something they do communally. There are a lot of Neighbours societies and things like that. I think, also, it’s fun for a lot of students. They like to have a bit of a laugh at it too, at some of the more cheesy aspects of it. In terms of my character, I really couldn’t tell you, I don’t know. You’d have to go and interview the students on my account! But I’m pleased that they do.

Susanna – Who are your interests? What kind of music do you listen to?

Well, my iPod’s got about 15,000 songs on or something, there’s a huge range of music that I listen to. But lately, I’ve found I’ve given up listening to a lot of stuff I used to like, which I find a bit boring now. I used to listen to Country a lot and things like that, but now I’m listening to a lot of solid heavy rock and British rock like Arctic Monkeys etc. My influences date back to the punk era, with Elvis Costello and the Attractions, they were a big influence, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, really strong guitar-based music. And now, because I like writing songs that are a bit quirky in the lyric, bands like the Kaisers and Franz Ferdinand are really appealing as well.

Susanna – If you could spend the day with any famous person, dead or alive, who would it be?

John Lennon!

Jess – Do you ever have any arguments with your band mates when you’re on tour?

No, we’re a pretty chilled lot.

Jess – And have you ever received any weird gifts from fans?

Yeah! Someone sent me a book on military aircraft. Go figure!

Jess – Was that a UK fan?

(Laughing) Yeah.

Jess – Ah right…
Susanna – You’ve played Dr Karl for years. Have you picked up any medical knowledge or tips?

Sure! I mean, I can say Angioblastic T-Cell Lymphoma just like that!

Jess – Do you know what it means?

Yes, I do actually, it’s what Alex Kinski died from. You pick up terminology, you pick up little bits of technique and things like that.

Jess – Can you do CPR or anything like that?

You know, I wouldn’t even trust myself with CPR. I’d probably kill somebody!

Jess – Are you planning on touring the UK again?

Yeah, we’re coming back in November. We’ve got at least 6 Unis already booked, and we haven’t even started advertising it yet.

Jess – Are there any cities you’d like to go to in November that you haven’t been to this time?

Yeah, I desperately want to go to Edinburgh, and I really want to get to Newcastle, there’s a huge fan base there. I’d like to go to Durham again, I’ve been to Durham twice and I love it there, I love Liverpool… I’d like to go to Loughborough; I’ve been to Loughborough Uni twice but I’ve never played a gig there.

Jess – What are your plans for the future?

Well, I won’t be doing panto for a while, while I’m doing the touring, but my ideal would be, for when I’ve finished Neighbours, to continue what I have been doing for years, and that’s music theatre, and hopefully get some work in British TV and film as well. So I don’t look at it as either being in the band or this and that, it’s more like a whole range of stuff.

Jess – Would you like to do photography again?

Yeah, I mean, I enjoyed it, but I think this is more creative and interesting.

Thanks very much to Alan for letting us interview him, especially as it was during sound check when he was meant to be onstage! We went to the gig later and it was excellent; both their original songs and their covers were received brilliantly by the crowd (which was, indeed, mostly students), and everyone had a great time; I’d definitely recommend you go and see them on their next tour – a guaranteed fun night out! You can find out more about Alan at www.alanfletcher.net and more info about Waiting Room at www.alanfletcher.net/waitingroom. Coming soon, we’ll have a special Waiting Room competition up at Rock Pulse, so keep checking back for that!