Another of our series of interviews with bands who played at HRH Prog XV. Nic Beales from SWEETPOOL joins me to answer the questions nobody usually asks…
DB: Please introduce your band and band members (as performed at HRH PROG 15)
Hey Doris, well Sweetpool have Jase Holgate playing groovy Motorhead bass and rather strange moog noises, Ant Cook thrashing away on the drums and adding space noises and me, Nic Beales grinding away on the electric guitar whilst shouting over the noise!
DB: Did you enjoy the festival? Any highlights/ mishaps/ disasters?
I made, perhaps, the greatest decision of my life and decided to drive the four hours in the sunshine rather than wait until the Friday to travel during the brunt of storm Claudia- how could it have been cloudier-it was bloody awful! It did mean that I managed to see The Hawklords, Ebb, Teiger and most importantly, take part in the after show jam party on Friday night-what a true joy that was! I made the rather brave choice of singing Alvin Stardust’s’ My Coo Ca Choo’ to a prog audience – to be honest , it seemed to go down rather well!! Oh , how we laughed!
DB: If you had to change your band name what would it be?
Well, I think in hindsight, I would have chosen a name that didn’t include the words ‘wee’ and ‘poo’ – so it would probably be STL-which isn’t a very good name!
DB: What is your favourite item of clothing? (Doesn’t have to be a stage outfit)
Errm..does face paint count as clothing? If not I might go for the Tuxedo I bought from the charity shop in Chipping Campden or somewhere in the Cotswolds – I mean, they would have Tuxedos at charity shops in the Cotswolds , wouldn’t they??!
DB: What is your favourite trash TV programme? (Can be Netflix etc)
Lasso and Slow Horses, truly brilliant! Now, if you were moving onto to films -that would be The Muppet Movie and Real Steel – flipping brilliant!
DB: Books or computer games? And which ones?
My sons are at genius level at computer games, I can barely turn the computer on – so let’s say books- don’t know really-I like Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, although these days audio books have taken over and I do love a good ‘who done it?’
DB: If you had to be an animal which one would you be and why?
Cat-definitely, they find it so easy to sleep at any point and anywhere-whilst I struggle with that sleeping thing -hence the ‘3 am, a head of snakes’ title of our next album.
DB: Pick one superpower
Ooh, now. I’ve always thought that the ability to see just five minutes into the future would be the greatest super power- that could A. avoid a lot of disappointment and B. win a lot of money on horse races and the last minute goals!
DB: Describe your music to an alien who has just landed on Earth
What bass groove with space noises – they’ve probably heard this before!
DB: What is the most annoying thing in life?
Wasting time – it’s so easy to do but then all of a sudden, another year has gone!
DB: What’s on the cards for the band over the next year?
Well, the next album will finally be out, we’ve already got gigs sorted, including next year’s HRH -we obviously hope that things will move at a rather more exciting pace
DB: Anything else you want to share or plug with the HRH readers
Yep, of course- new album ‘3am, a head of snakes’ is available to preorder now on 12” vinyl through Sweetpool Bandcamp – release date February 2026. First 100 copies come with signed lyric sheet, poster and all sorts of stuff! Also we’re playing at Second City Sonic Attack Festival, Castle and Falcon, Birmingham (matinee) Nov 30th and Tower of Song, Birmingham December 20th.
LINKS: https://www.sweetpool.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086496535558
Get the new album here: Bandcamp: https://sweetpool.bandcamp.com
Author: Doris Brendel