Rizzle Kicks guest hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2013 when Fun Lovin’ Criminals frontman Huey Morgan smashed his mug during the ‘next lines’ round. Which song’s lyric tipped him over the edge?
Harley Alexander-Sule: “Was it ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’ by Fun Lovin’ Criminals?”
Jordan Stephens: “No, it wasn’t. He got annoyed with the Fun Lovin’ Criminals lyrics, but then I went off-book and asked him about Dr. Dre, which is when he smashed his mug.”
WRONG. Though he got pissed off at lines from ‘The Fun Lovin’ Criminal’ and Dr. Dre’s ‘The Next Episode’, it was a lyric from ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ by ‘90s pop star Kavana that proved the final straw.
Jordan: “[Laughs] Oh yeah! I remember joking afterwards, ‘Kavana man, that’s some dangerous music!’”
Harley: “We were big fans of Fun Lovin’ Criminals and had even spoken about doing a song together with Huey.”
Jordan: “He smoked too much and was drinking too much, and they didn’t refill his mug – that was the main issue. That’s why his mug was empty! I love him as a musician, but he was being irritating throughout the whole thing, constantly muttering in between rounds. It was building up and I felt something was going to happen. We weren’t rattled by it ‘cause he was just being a bit of a baby, but I’m sure the Fun Lovin’ fans hate Rizzle Kicks, so let’s get them going! [Laughs]”
Harley: “That episode of Buzzcocks did so much for us. It was a transition between certain people thinking we’re just fun…”
Jordan: [Interjecting] “…Lovin’ Criminals…sorry!”
Harley: “[Continuing]… and silly, but people saw us and realised oh, these boys are quite smart. They’re not just the typical pop stars that we see all the time.”
Jordan: “Buzzcocks is one of my favourite ever shows. I was with [former Buzzcocks host] Simon Amstell the other day, and it’s difficult not to flick through all the classic moments he provided, so to know that we’d be in a montage of best moments; it just feels good.”
Pun intended!
Jordan, you played soldier Stordan Tonc in the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Your character joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic after an uprising on which planet?
Jordan: “Are you joking?!”
Harley: “Jordan’s Googling it! [Laughs]”
Jordan: “[Typing into his phone] I’m not! I’m….texting my mum! It’s something like… Taurus?”
WRONG. Qemia 7.
Jordan: “I’ll take the loss on that one! Being on an intergalactic spaceship fighting stormtroopers was surreal. I’m a Lego figure mate, I’m in the books, my character’s first name is a weird amalgamation of my first and last name – it’s all going on!”
Olly Murs featuring Rizzle Kicks’ ‘Heart Skips a Beat’ was nominated for British Single of the Year at the 2012 BRIT Awards. Who beat you?
Harley: “Probably One Direction.”
CORRECT. For ‘What Makes You Beautiful’.
Jordan: “Well done!”
Harley: “They beat us all the time, so that was just a guess! We performed at the BRITs that year with Olly. Vibes!”
Any good stories from the BRITs?
Harley: “I remember having a fight with the head of our record label. We were wrestling each other in the middle of a BRITs afterparty at the Tate, and we got pulled apart by Frank Ocean, which was bizarre!”
According to his girlfriend JADE, Jordan once confronted which Manchester musician at Glastonbury over disparaging remarks he made about Little Mix?
Jordan: “Oh for fuck’s sake! Noel Gallagher!”
CORRECT.
Jordan: “It sounds worse than it was. JADE said that I went over to Noel at Glastonbury and told him to stop dissing Little Mix and that I needed him to apologise to my girlfriend, and Noel responded, ‘Will I fuck!’.
Harley: “Is that actually what happened?”
Jordan: “Yeah, that did happen, but it sounds more aggy than it was, ‘cause I know and love Noel – he used to call me Young Lion Cub. I spotted Noel backstage, we’re just chatting and then I said, ‘You’ve been talking shit about my girlfriend, are you going to go and apologise?’. And he went, ‘Will I fuck!’. Which me and JADE found hilarious – which is the point. But obviously I can’t have someone talking shit about my missus. Especially not Noel – the flannel!”
Oasis’ kids were Rizzle Kicks fans…
Jordan: “Both Noel and Liam’s, yeah! Noel had an era where he put on gigs for the Teenage Cancer Trust and was booking artists that his daughter [Anaïs] loved, but he clearly despised! [Laughs] I remember him introducing us onstage and being like [Imitates Noel] ‘So yeah, basically, me daughter likes these lot so I’m going to bring them onstage basically, it’s Rizzle Kicks!’”
“I have another vivid memory of Liam Gallagher saying to me [Adopts a Liam Gallagher voice] ‘Listen mate, me daughter likes you so I like you, all right?’. Then he went [in a hushed, conspiratorial tone]: ‘One piece of advice for the music industry yeah?. I leaned in and asked: ‘What?’. And he went: ‘FUCK EVERYONE!’”
On the other side of the Britpop coin, Rizzle Kicks also joined Damon Albarn‘s Africa Express in 2012
Harley: “I lost at ping-pong to Damon which was a big thing for me ‘cause I never lose at ping-pong. That crushed me! Carl Barât was doing Africa Express as well, so I went up to him and told him I was a huge Libertines fan, and he fetched a big crate of beer and said, ‘We’re drinking these’. I finally plucked up the courage to show him my Libertines tattoo and he was amazed, which was cool. We performed a version of The Libertines’ ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun’ together on the final show, with loads of African musicians. That was like a dream.”
In a further ‘90s-indie connection, Jordan is related to Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills…
Jordan: “OH MY GOD! I just call Crispian my cousin, even though it’s more complicated. My granddad on my mum’s side is [filmmaker] John Boulting, who was married to [actor] Hayley Mills – her son is Crispian.”
“Kula Shaker’s ‘Hush’ was released in 1997 when I was five. I was obsessed with it and the idea that Crispian was in a cool band. I couldn’t process that he was a relation. Afterwards, he had another band called The Jeevas, and they had a T-shirt with a half-naked woman on it that he gave to me when I was seven. I had no concept of what it was, but I used to wear it all the time, walking round with this topless woman on me! [Laughs] Thanks Crispian!”
Also, David McAlmont is your godfather…
Jordan: “Yeah, from McAlmont & Butler. My mum is a massive reason why I like the music I like. She’d play Nirvana, Beck and Portishead, and in among it was Crispian and David McAlmont. David had his own solo album, [2005’s] ‘A Little Communication’, that I heard around 200 times.”
“It’s similar to Harley, because his dad worked for publishers and record labels, so he had an eclectic taste. He wasn’t related to anyone though – soz!”
A poster of which boxer appears in the video to Rizzle Kicks’ 2011 hit ‘Mama Do the Hump’?
Jordan: “That was filmed at [his aunt] Sandra’s house so…”
Harley: “Muhammad Ali?”
CORRECT.
Harley: “I’ve got one in my house, so I just went with that! [Laughs] I didn’t know the answer!”
You namechecked Beyoncé in the song’s lyrics. Ever receive any feedback from her?
Jordan: “No, but we did mosh pit with Beyoncé at a festival one time!”
What is track ten on Rizzle Kicks’ latest album ‘Competition is for Losers‘?
Jordan: “Working backwards, it’s ‘Undefeated’, then ‘Love & Delight’…
Harley: “Then it’s ‘Afternoon Tea’, so… ‘Gumdrops’?”
CORRECT.
Jordan: “With ‘Competition is For Losers’, we’ve been influenced by the new wave of funk-rap, in and around Anderson .Paak and the late Mac Miller, which was something me and Harley loved and didn’t feel was being done in the UK. We felt it was a continuation of the hip-hop we were doing when we were young. We kept our old vibe and brought our new influences in.”
Harley: “Anderson .Paak was a big influence.”
Jordan: “I DM-d him – and he ignored me [Laughs] There was a time when I asked Harley whether we should be doing a guitar-driven rock album – and I’m still going to do it. I love the alt-Black era that we’re in, including the band Alt Blk Era”
How far did you get with the rock album?
Jordan: “Hey, look, we’re always cookin’. There’s bits on the side. We did one song with Tom [McFarland] from Jungle called ‘Chili Flakes’, which I think is fire, but HARLEY’S A HATER.”
Harley: “It wasn’t my cup of tea.”
Jordan: “HARLEY’S A HATER!”
Since you’ve returned in 2024 after an eight-year hiatus, have you had any younger acts telling you Rizzle Kicks influenced them?
Jordan: Loads, like PinkPantheress, Niko B – he’s talked about us a lot, Jorja Smith, AntsLive said we were one of the first albums he owned. Olivia Dean is a superfan – she got bought a vinyl of us for her birthday recently.”
Name the character Harley portrayed in the ITV crime drama Unforgotten in 2015.
Harley: “Er, dunno. Can’t remember.”
Jordan: “Come on, that’s easy. It’s Stephen!”
Harley: “IS IT?!”
Jordan: “[Laughs] No, I just made it up. He’s a Scouser with a big afro.”
Harley: “Was it James or something?”
CORRECT-ISH. Jimmy Sullivan. Ever audition for a big role you didn’t get?
Harley: I auditioned for John Boyega’s character [Finn] in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and had a couple of callbacks. Alas! Imagine the scenes!”
Jordan: “I auditioned to play myself in an ITV comedy – and was told I wasn’t good-looking enough! I’m not even joking. The one that triggers me is I was almost in Steve McQueen’s [2020 film] Lovers Rock. The fact I didn’t get that part broke my heart into 100 million pieces and I’ve never recovered since, so anyway, next question!”
What are the first four tracks – in order! – on Rizzle Kicks’ 2009 debut ‘Minor Breaches of Discipline’?
Jordan: “You’re taking the piss! That’s not even available anymore, is it? What do you know about bootlegs bro? I know what songs are on there, but I couldn’t even start to think of the order! I can picture the back cover, ‘cause I shot it outside Harley’s house.”
WRONG. ‘I Said Who Says’, ‘When I’m Bigger’, ‘Ain’t Not Other Kicks’, ‘I’m 17’.
Harley: “That was pre-Rizzle Kicks, when Jordan was doing his own thing and I was doing backing vocals as a favour.”
Jordan: “I’d trawl the internet for acts that weren’t conventionally rap and find things like producer’s remixes of The White Stripes and Radiohead, to sample. I did a song called ‘Fuck Loadsa Dubstep’ which sampled a Jakwob remix of Lily Allen’s ‘The Fear’ where she repeats ‘fuck’ and put it on a dubstep beat. I bootlegged it and it gained around 40,000 views. People in school were asking, ‘Yo, who is this guy?’. That was my first taste of what happens when you hit something at the right time.”
Which town did Rizzle Kicks carry the Olympics torch through in 2012?
Harley: “Eastbourne.”
CORRECT.
Which Cliff Richard song did Jordan perform on Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule alongside Sherlock actor Una Stubbs, comedian Alex Brooker and Loose Woman Janet Street-Porter in 2018?
Jordan: “Awww, Una Stubbs! Listen, can we have a moment of silence for Una please? True G!”
There’s a momentary pause to commemorate Stubbs, who passed away in 2021.
Jordan: “I don’t even know one Cliff Richard song. Whenever I think of him, I just think of Wimbledon.”
Harley: “Er… ’We Don’t Talk Anymore’?
WRONG. ‘Wired for Sound’.
Jordan: “I don’t think I even know that song! We once brought Harry Hill onstage at one of our gigs.”
The verdict: 6/10
Harley: “I feel like it’s cooler to get them wrong, so this isn’t an achievement.”
Jordan: “Although two minds are better than one!”
Rizzle Kicks’ new album ‘Competition is for Losers’ is out now. The band play Castlefield Bowl in Manchester on July 11. Limited tickets are available here.