Hard to believe the legendary band are touring again, we had a brief chat with Neil Barnes from Leftfield about the imminent Space Ibiza gig for Come Together.
Spotlight: Leftfield back together, what's going on?
Neil Barnes: Well, we were both asked to tour Leftfield. Paul decided not to tour this summer. But wanted to concentrate on other things. I wish him luck with this. I decided after much thought to carry on without him and tour Leftfield on my own with a new group of people. I have been in contact with Paul throughout this and he is made fully aware of all our dates and activities.I think he is really happy with the way it has all gone.
Tell us about the tour so far?
Gigs have been fantastic. Our live set up is drums, synths, samplers, vocals, percussion and mad tricks! Learning the material again has been tough..really! It feels very natural up on stage. I really enjoy performing these songs again though.
Is this one of the smaller venues you're playing on the tour.......some of the others are open-air festivals, for example right, so how do this affect what you do?
Doesn't change a thing. crowds and venues might change. We might have to draw certain audiences out. But we treat all shows the same. Put the same amount of effort in. Sometimes you are happily suprised by a crowd. Benicassim was an example. We wer'nt on untill 3.20 so this was very late. However I needn't have worried cos the audience loved it...they followed the show.
I remember Sasha once said "if an alien came to Earth and wanted to know what dance music culture was, that it should take an E and listen to Leftism". After 15 years, how do you assess Leftism on a personal and professional level?
We just wanted to make the best album possible. The fact that it has become this "classic"....is a strange thing to me. However I respect peoples views and realise that it is really important to some people. I do still love performing tracks off it.
