The Hoosiers’ debut single Worried About Ray stayed in the top ten for an impressive ten weeks, but now, drummer Alfonso Sharland tells rucked.com, he’s more worried about England.
Hello Alfonso, mind if we can call you Al?
Not at all.
Good stuff Al, so what you been up to?
Just been doing lots of gigging and loving life really.
First single’s a huge success, not bad going…
It’s crazy, we’d more or less kept under the radar a bit, but this single shot us out of orbit. We’re so chuffed, so many good bands don’t get a break but it’s amazing when a record connects like, we’ve been totally spoilt.
Okay Al, onto the rugby. First memory of our great game…
My earliest memory is being forced to go out on a school field in Bracknell and standing there at full back with my sleeves over my hands not wanting to get the ball. I played for my school until I was 16 and I must have been okay. I paid my dues as a player but I probably wasn’t the most committed.
What was your biggest achievement in rugby?
Just surviving! Just getting through each match was as good as it got, I’d catch the odd ball – that was good. But then I’d get nailed by a fat kid a second later, I never really had the physique for the game. I’m not really built for sport in general, I’m more built for drumming.
So, you had a few bad moments then?
Well, we were more of a footballing school but we used to play rugby against a posh school called LVS quite a lot and we just got hammered every single time. One game they beat us with a three figure score to zero! It was no contest, it was pretty embarrassing, all good fun tho...
All good fun?!?
Hmm, I don’t know why I said that actually, it was no fun at all. The only ‘fun’ bit was the final whistle. Still, at least I’ve got a good story under my belt.
What do you like about rugby?
I was thinking about that this morning actually, I think it’s because it’s just so gutsy – it’s so much about heart. I think you can get a lot further in rugby with just pure dedication compared to other sports. Some of the great players are just machines and it’s amazing to watch them, I’ve got total admiration for them.
Musicians are like rugby players: discuss…
That’s a tricky one, but I reckon the drummers and bass players are kind of like the forwards in that they do a lot of the work with no credit. Whereas singers like Irwin (Sparkes – Hoosiers’ lead vocals) are like the backs because they look pretty and get all the glory on the back of our graft!
Would any of the other Hoosiers make good players?
Yeah, I think if he was a rugby player Irwin he would be a bit like Jason Robinson, because he’s very quick. He’s probably the quickest person I know – in terms of talking and with his feet. Martin (Skarendahl – bass) would be good too because he’s quite tough.
Excited about the World Cup?
I’m really looking forward to it, although it coincides with some gigs so I might a few of the games. I was quite intrigued by Brian Ashton’s squad though because he’s gone for some of the old guard. I’m kind of hopeful that the experience will shine through, but I just hope we can get out of the group. I’m not too optimistic!
Hoos going to win? (see what we did there?)
Yes, very good. New Zealand are going to win it aren’t they?
Finally, which singer would make the best rugby player?
That’s a tough one too, but let’s go for the singer from Keane – he would make a good prop! Is that slightly offensive though? Okay, let’s go with that.
The Hoosiers new single Good Mr A is out on 8th October with the album being released on 22nd October.
