Pete Dale Reminisces About the Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayer

You've played pretty much every Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayer, what's so special about it?
Well, it's always a great atmosphere and they always go for bands that are interesting, a mixture of older bands and new ones, that's the thing that I like about it I suppose.
 
When it first started, could you imagine that it would grow into the semi-institution that it's become?
No, not really, it just seemed like something that they were doing and I didn't expect them to keep doing it for years. They were very exciting those early ones, in different venues like The Chameleon and places like that that were really lively.
 
There's talk that this year might be the last one, would you be sad to see it end?
Yeah, I think so but things change over time and it's been going for a long time. I, myself ran a label for many years in the '90s, then in 2000 I decided that I didn't want to do it anymore. I'm an advocate of the DIY scene but I think there comes a point where you can get quite tired out if you do DIY stuff because it's quite demanding on your time.
 
Do you have a favourite story from the Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayers that you've played?
For me, the most memorable thing, and I think most people would say the same, was at The Chameleon and Standard Fare were playing. Everyone was jumping up and down and the floor was going to give in. I went to the bar downstairs and everyone was wondering whether we were going to have to go and tell them to stop. It was really dodgy, very exciting but I did go up and try and get them to slow down a bit and to forewarn the crowd about the danger from below.
 
You mentioned the DIY scene, we're both old enough to remember when "indie" meant independent rather than a genre, what do you think "indie" means nowadays?
Well, that's a topic about which I'm formulating my ideas at the present time and I can't give you a simple answer on that question. I suppose the nub of it is around Marxist economics in my view, the critique of the old system, craftsmen and the old bourgeois trades.
 
The name Milky Wimpshake, is it just a spoonerism of Wimpy Milkshake?
Yes, it was only chosen because I was walking down Ashford high street in 1993 when I played the first gig with me and this drummer, Joey, it was originally just a two-piece with me and her and then shortly afterwards it was with Christine and then we had this drummer Grant for many years. We've had lots of different drummers over the years but the name was just because my friend Matthew just made the spoonerism and it seemed like a good idea because I didn't think I'd still be doing it 24 years later.
 
So you never imagined that you'd still be going this many years later?
No and I think that it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Sean from Fortuna Pop! because when my label stopped, we'd done one album and two singles on that label and some other bits and pieces on some other labels and he said that he'd really like to put out Milky Wimpshake on Fortuna Pop! Then he put out five albums by us so he always kept us in touch with a scene of younger bands, which I now see as multiple generations of younger bands because I've stuck with for a long time. That whole scene really excites me, which brings me back to your first question and that is what's exciting about the Nottingham All Dayers, that it's new bands and some older bands that I've previously known about. Probably a bit far on the new bands side today I feel but I appreciate the fact that I am hearing all of this new stuff. I don't want to be seen to be ageist about it because I do like this scene of young bands, an open-mindedness of youth about music, which I appreciate. It's sometimes found in older people too and there's a lady knitting in there that I was chatting with and she was older than me and I like that pan-age thing about today, lots of different ages and that's cool. There have been some great things today but I won't mention any names because I don't want the other bands to think that I'm criticising them. So they'll just have to guess.
 
Finally, you've done some gigs this year performing the band's first album and you've been doing some solo gigs, what's next?
I have some songs that I'm working on in about a week's time that we're going to try and record and make available through some means or other, which at this point, because of Fortuna Pop! closing down, I could just do them myself. But back then it was a different world of people trading cassettes and things like that. Things have moved on and I'm out of key with that because I've had Sean looking after business for me, which has been very lucky. But the songs will be recorded. I have a song called Capitalism Is A Perversion, which I'm quite pleased with.

Pete Dale played the Nottingham Indie Pop All Dayer on the 7th of October 2017.

Milky Wimpshake website