Yungblud: 'That time was mad, still no one in the UK wanted to sign us, no one cared'

This week’s episode of The YUNGBLUD Podcast features YUNGBLUD’s guitarist Adam.

The two reminisce on personal, unheard stories from earlier in their careers and describe what it was like going from living in a damp flat to playing all over Europe with fans camping out to watch.

Please find quotes below. In any coverage please use the following credit: “Listen to BBC Radio 1’s The YUNGBLUD Podcast on BBC Sounds.”

YUNGBLUD on meeting Adam:
“I met Adam on Phil Taggart’s Slacker night in Old Street in East London and I was like, I needed a guitar player. I needed kind of someone who would be the Sid Vicious to my Johnny Rotten, or the Carl Barât to my Pete Doherty or whatever. And I remember we were both wearing Harringtons and you came up to me and passed me a beer and it was that doppelgänger thing and I was like ‘ah, hello!’. Within two weeks of meeting each other we’re in a band and living together!”

YUNGBLUD on the early struggle:
“Things weren’t really going well in camp YUNGBLUD. We’d had meetings with labels, we’d had meetings with press, we’d had meeting with agents and no one cared. We wished people were saying bad things, I wished people were talking sh*t on us!”

“That time was mad, still no one in the UK wanted to sign us, no one cared. But I remember, the craziest night for me was that first show in Amsterdam, do you remember when we turned up in Amsterdam and it was sold out like 150 people? From being at home in a damp flat, going to kind of Amsterdam and Belgium and France and people actually turning up and camping out like they would now was such a mental turning point for us.”

“We turned up at the show and every major label exec in America was in the crowd to see us. Our manager told us before we went up on the stage, ‘oh yeah by the way every music exec is in town, this is your shot. Don’t blow it.’ I walked in the toilet and threw up. But we didn’t blow it, did we?! Somehow.”

On missing touring:
YB: “It’s just the best thing in the world. We’re just so naughty. It’s just wild and we can’t wait to get touring and I can’t wait to see you all. If you’re listening to this, we can’t wait to see you all like! You are so part of that fun more than anything. The best thing in the world is coming on stage to you every night. The best thing in the world is playing to you every night and just feeling that noise back init, you know what I mean?”

Adam: “Yeah I definitely miss it a lot.”

YB: “Dude, so do I. I miss you getting food poisoning on the Vans Warped Tour and going on stage even though you were throwing up in a bucket at the side of the stage!”

Adam: “They had to put me on IV after one of the shows.”

YB: “Bruv I remember you were so ill. I think you lost 2 stone in an hour. You were looking at me like ‘I’m gonna sh*t myself on stage!’”