{"id":5787,"date":"2014-01-28T01:11:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T01:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=5787"},"modified":"2014-01-28T01:25:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T01:25:31","slug":"showplug-mayfieldthe-legion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/showplug-mayfieldthe-legion\/","title":{"rendered":"Showplug: Mayfield@The Legion"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Showplugs<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Mayfield<\/strong> are a UK based 8 piece band that write, record and perform original well crafted songs inspired by the very best Soul\/Funk music from the golden period of the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s.\u00a0Mayfield released their first album \u2018Tempo of Your Soul\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 back in August 2013. The album is currently available on vinyl, CD and via iTunes and comprises 12 up-tempo, melodic tracks.\u00a0The musical interests across the band members are wide ranging and as such, their sound crosses over into various genres to include Northern Soul, Modern Soul, R&B, Rare Groove and Acid Jazz.<\/p>\n

Dave Showplug Taylor<\/strong> recently caught up with the band prior to their Showplug show in Swanage at the Legion \u2013 get your tickets here<\/a> folks!<\/p>\n

DT: Who are Mayfield and how did you all get together?<\/h3>\n

GM: Amy Dall (vocals), Adam Bignell (bass) and Dominic Elton (keyboards) had been working together for several years developing many of the early musical ideas.\u00a0To fully exploit and define the overall Mayfield sound, a bigger line-up was required.\u00a0Hence Ryan Crosswell (trumpet) joined the band in 2010, followed by Dominic Channer (drums) and Frankie Lewis (guitar) in 2011.\u00a0Then in 2012, the final line-up was completed with the addition of myself (Gloria Miller) on vocals and Olgierd Koszlaga on saxophone.<\/p>\n

DT: Where did your name come from?<\/h3>\n

GM: Chicago Soul Man, Curtis Mayfield<\/strong> of course!<\/p>\n

DT: Gloria is from the USA. How did she become involved with Mayfield?<\/h3>\n

DE – She came over to England a few years having met her English husband whilst singing on a cruise ship… he\u2019s a magician! They fell in love and have now settled in Portsmouth… thank God! Otherwise, we would never have found her! Being from Chicago, she\u2019s pretty much the \u2018real deal\u2019.<\/p>\n

DT: Who has been your biggest influences on your songwriting?<\/h3>\n

DE –\u00a0I have to say Jackie Wilson, Gene Chandler, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Paul Weller, Terry Callier as well as many Northern Soul artists.<\/p>\n

DT: Your debut album is entitled \u2018Tempo Of Your Soul\u2019. How did it all come together?<\/h3>\n

DE – A number of the songs had been written by myself and Amy over a few years. Once Gloria and Olgierd joined us the Mayfield Soul sound was complete. I was very keen to make some recordings, one recording led to another. Along the way, new songs emerged – some penned by myself and Gloria. Frankie too has proven to have some great song writing ideas \u2018Cold Feet\u2019<\/em>. Several months later, it was clear we had enough original material, so we carried on until the 12 songs that now feature on the album were recorded.\u00a0The album does include one cover \u2018Life Walked Out\u2019<\/em> by The Mist. I first heard Dave Abbot play the track at a Northern Soul do a couple of years ago – it\u2019s a sublime record and I was keen to cover it the moment I heard it. It was obvious that Tempo of Your Soul had to be the album title track – this song is a homage to Soul music and describes how listening to Soul music as a teenager for the first time can then take over your life and become a lifelong passion.<\/p>\n

DT: What can someone who has never seen you live before expect from your shows?<\/h3>\n

GM: A highly energetic and passionate performance! Because they are our own songs we really connect with them. We all love performing and it comes across that way to the audience. You will not be leaving disappointed!<\/p>\n

DT: Who writes your songs? What types of themes and subjects do you deal with?<\/h3>\n

DE: Song writing for us, is a collaborative effort, but the main writers are Amy Dall, Gloria Miller, Frankie Lewis and myself. I think overall our songs are \u2018feel-good\u2019 music! We write about soul music and it\u2019s impact of our lives as heard in the title track of our current release, \u2018Tempo Of Your Soul\u2019<\/em> in \u2018Cold Feet\u2019<\/em> \u2018Fling\u2019<\/em> and \u2018It Shouldn\u2019t Be Like This\u2019<\/em> we talk about relationships; and in \u2018Everybody\u2019<\/em> \u2018Get Up\u2019<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>and \u2018Dance With Me\u2019<\/em>\u00a0and we also write about finding your groove out there on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

DT: What has been your biggest challenge as a band? How were you able to overcome this?<\/h3>\n

GM: We are an 8-piece band so the biggest challenge is getting all of us at the same place at the same time. We have a \u2018secret\u2019 group set up on Facebook and this allows us to communication with each other without having to email and text. So much easier going to one place to find out what\u2019s happening with the band!<\/p>\n

DT: Does the band play any covers during a live show?\u00a0 If so, do you argue over the choice of songs? Who usually gets his own way?<\/h3>\n

GM: Yes, we play the occasional cover. We don\u2019t really argue about what covers to do. We\u2019re all really on the same page, so most suggestions are in keeping with who we are as a band. A cover we\u2019re considering playing to our Swanage audience is \u2018Happy\u2019<\/em> by Pharrell Williams.<\/p>\n

DT: What should we be expecting from the band in the near future?<\/h3>\n

GM: We will begin building our own studio in March of this year and hopefully will start recording our 2nd album \u2018Keep On\u2019<\/em> in the autumn. We\u2019re already writing and performing new songs that will go on this release. We\u2019ll be performing a couple at the Showplug<\/a> show @ The Legion on 1st February!<\/p>\n

DT: OK Dom. Your top ten albums you currently can\u2019t live without please?<\/h3>\n

DE – Well apart from hundreds of Northern Soul Compilation Albums, here goes:<\/p>\n

1. What\u2019s Going On – Marvin Gaye
\n2. Kind Of Blue – Miles Davis
\n3. The Curtom Story – Curtis Mayfield
\n4. Innervisions – Stevie Wonder
\n5. All Mod Cons – The Jam
\n6. Revolver – The Beatles
\n7. Cafe Bleu – The Style Council
\n8. Park Life – Blur
\n9. The Defamation of Strickland Banks – Plan B
\n10. Hidden Treasures – Amy Winehouse<\/p>\n

DT: Any bands we should go and check out?<\/b><\/h3>\n

DE – Quite like \u2018New Street Adventure\u2019 – though I think they\u2019re now signed to Acid Jazz Records.<\/p>\n

Weblinks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayfield Official Site
\n<\/a>Showplug<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Showplugs<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Mayfield are a UK based 8 piece band that write, record and perform original well crafted songs inspired by the very best Soul\/Funk music from the golden period of the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s. Mayfield released their first album \u2018Tempo of Your Soul\u2019 back in August 2013. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":5792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,112,128,73,891,85],"tags":[903,904,905,1191,902],"series":[892],"class_list":["post-5787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eyeplugs","category-gigs","category-hot-plugs","category-interviews","category-showplug","category-soul","tag-dave-showplug-taylor","tag-mayfield","tag-northern-soul","tag-showplug","tag-soul-plug","series-showplugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5803,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions\/5803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}