Worthing-based frontman celebrates new album from The Vapors
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Worthing-based Dave Fenton, original frontman of The Vapors, is celebrating the release of their new album Wasp in a Jar – 44 years since their hit Turning Japanese propelled them into the limelight.
Had the release come a couple years ago, Dave admits he would have been looking forward to it in a different, more positive way. But three years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
“So it's probably a less bright future now but the fans all know and you just get on with it. And I am really chuffed that we've got the album. There are lots of good things to take my mind off it.”
Including dates coming up, among them The Albert in Brighton on March 7.
Wasp in a Jar is the band's fourth album, and it comes five years after the release of the third in 2020 which itself was a little matter of 39 years after the second.
“It was still the pandemic when we put out the last one but we decided not to leave it any longer. It had been made and ready for a year already and so we put it out in May 2020. But there were no gigs obviously and there was nowhere to play and nowhere to promote it and just nothing happening. But I suppose there were people out that were pleased to hear it. It was good. It didn't sell massive numbers. We are still a small band still but the fans loved it.
“And we have been playing every year since then. We've done lots of touring. We've been to America twice. We have about half a dozen dates for this album release and then a support on the Big Country tour and then about 20 dates in the US and then we've got another tour coming up in the autumn in the UK.”
And the album release is itself a big boost: “For some reason it has got a lot more energy than the third album. The tracks are faster, more uplifting, more positive. We've got a good vibe going there. It went down very well and we're excited to listen to it.”
They recorded the album last year in Pennsylvania in a studio belonging to Mike Giblin (of The Split Squad): “We just kept on going and we were in charge of everything. We decided everything on the album, what tracks and how fast to do them. It was all under our control. The first two albums we did, the record company decided what was on them, but this was all us.”
As for the content: “It's the same stuff – girls and boys and love affairs and breaking up and politics!”
Dave is delighted to be joined by his own son Dan on lead guitar: “He has been with us as long as I can remember. We got back together in 2015 or 2016 and then he joined a year or so later.”
The line-up works well: “We don't get into any arguments. Everyone in the band is on the same side. It's just a very happy atmosphere.”
Completing the line-up are bassist Steve Smith and Michael Bowes on drums – an all-Sussex line-up. Dave and Dan both live in Worthing, Michael in Crawley and Steve in Hassocks.