You may have heard “Crossfire”, the new single by Southampton mod-pop five-piece The Queue, blaring out pre-match at the Emirates, White Hart Lane or Stamford Bridge of late. If you haven’t, simply watch the video placed lovingly below, dear reader. Football Burp caught up with Sean Smith from the band to discuss his twin passions of Newcastle United and those Championship-topping Saints…
The Queue – Crossfire by tascaman69
Newcastle’s blistering start seems to have been tailing off of late…
Yeah, it is. I think we were unlucky against Blackburn on the weekend. I don’t think they deserved some of the goals they scored. I don’t think the Chelsea match was a fair result either. And I think we’ve been unlucky with losing some key players.
Surely Alan Pardew was not amongst your top picks for the job at the time it came up?
No, not really. At the time, I thought Martin O’Neill or someone like that would take the job, so I was quite surprised. He’s done okay. I think he’s rode his luck but obviously he’s made a great start, although now we have to bounce back from two defeats. I think we can do that, especially when Coloccini’s back in the side. Demba Ba’s having a great season.
Do you fear him getting injured? It was reported that he failed a medical at Stoke – whom he of course scored one of his hat-tricks at the ground of – just before he joined West Ham…
Really? Oh right. I hope not, because he seems to be the only one who’s scoring for us at the moment.
There doesn’t seem to be an adequate replacement if he is unfortunately sidelined. A bit like Adebayor at Spurs.
No, definitely. I don’t think Shola Ameobi is quite up to the standard of Ba, to be honest. He’s been at the club for years but he hasn’t really done anything. They’ve tried to get rid of him but he seems like he doesn’t want to leave.
What do you think of his brother Sammy?
He’s okay, I just think he looks a bit weak on the ball. He looks like Bambi on ice sometimes.
What do you think of Yohann Cabaye so far?
He was quite an unexpected signing. We got him for £4.3m. I think he’s worth a lot more than that, to be honest. I heard that Manchester United were in for him earlier in the season but I don’t know if they still are. We can only compete at this level by keeping hold of these kinds of players.
At the very least, he seems to have deflected some of the attention away from Cheikh Tiote. He was getting linked with moves away a while back, wasn’t he?
Tiote’s a good player as well. A lot of our signings from the last couple of years of not-so-well-known players from other leagues in Europe, they come into our team and play key roles. Players in their early twenties. These are the types of players we need to keep bringing in.
“Halfway High”
Have you managed to get to St James’ Park much over the years?
Yeah. The first game I went to at St James’ Park, I was 13 years old and Alan Shearer was still playing. We were losing 1-0 at half-time to Wigan, from a Jimmy Bullard free-kick, then Shearer came on and scored a hat-trick. What an atmosphere. It was fantastic.
How about the best and worst games you’ve been to?
Best game I’ve seen was Newcastle-Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium in the FA Cup. That was when we had the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Kieron Dyer, all that lot. Shearer scored twice that day and Kieron Dyer got one, final score 3-1 Newcastle. It was a great game. And the worst game was probably the first game I saw at St Mary’s Stadium; Southampton got beat 2-1 and James Beattie’s hit the post in the last minute. So unlucky. I think Southampton should be a Premier League side next season. We’re having that bit of luck at the moment, last minute goals and the like. Although the goalie that played against Blackpool at the weekend shouldn’t play again.
Big one next Sunday.
Yeah, Portsmouth v Southampton. I didn’t manage to get a ticket but I’ll definitely be sat in the local pub watching it, shout for Southampton.
Nigel Adkins doesn’t quite seem to be getting the credit one would think he deserves…
Yeah, I dunno. Southampton fans can be quite harsh, I’ve always thought, They’re a bit like Newcastle fans, they expect something straight away. Adkins this season reminds of Pardew, in a way: the underdog, but still doing well. I think we have to take our form into January because that’s when you can really start seeing where you are and what you’re doing.
If you had to pick a five-a-side team made up of Magpies and Saints from your time as a follower of each, who would you go for?
Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, Craig Bellamy, Fabrice Fernandes and Antti Niemi.
How did your show at the Ocean Colour Scene after-party go?
There was quite a lot of good interest there. In February, we’re supporting Steve Craddock at The Soul Cellar in Southampton. Also, the producer from Jools Holland was there and he was really digging our stuff, so it was good to see people of that status watching us play.
Do you consider the Evolution album available on Spotify to be a debut?
No, that’s just a collection of demos from since we were kids, basically. That’s not something we really promote; it’s just a little collector’s item, to be honest. The main thing we push is our Enquiring Time EP, although we are looking to do more recordings in the new year. We’re releasing a single, “Crossfire”, and then we’re releasing another single next year, working towards a full-on album.
Have you come across Chicago band The Queue?
Yeah, we’ve had gig listings which say that we’re playing in Chicago! We’ve got copywrite of the name ‘The Queue’, although by the looks of it on the internet they’re no longer active.
If you had to name your top three albums of all time, off the top of your head, what would they be?
Definitely Maybe by Oasis, Words Gets Around by Stereophonics and Rubber Soul by The Beatles.
Sean, thank you.
“Crossfire”, the new single by The Queue, is out now. For more information and a list of live dates, please visit facebook.com/thequeueofficial