Blitz Vega‘s Kav Sandu has told NME about their new album made with the late The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, and how he made an emotional promise to continue the band after his friend’s death from cancer.
Rourke suffered from pancreatic cancer for five years before his death in 2023. When he became too ill to continue recording, he urged Sandhu to continue Blitz Vega, and to ensure the duo’s album ‘Northern Gentlemen’ would get released.
“When Andy made me aware he wasn’t going to get through his cancer, he wanted me to promise him two things: to make sure the album would come out, and to take Blitz Vega on the road,” Sandhu told NME. “He told me: ‘You have to promise me that. It’s the only thing I want you to do.’ We shook hands on that promise and I gave him a hug.”
Since Rourke’s death, Blitz Vega have played an emotional show at London Scala in February, when Sandhu said he could feel his old bandmate’s spirt. He revealed: “It was like Andy was there. I felt his energy. Going on stage that night, it was lucky I wear sunglasses all the time, because it was very emotional.”
Before forming Blitz Vega, Sandhu played guitar in Happy Mondays on their 2007 album ‘Uncle Dysfunktional’. He and Rourke became friends when The Smiths star DJed at Coachella after Happy Mondays’ show.
Their album is titled ‘Northern Gentlemen’ because, according to Sandhu: “When Andy was having cancer treatment in New York, the record label we were working with hadn’t met him. They were asking what Andy is like, and I told them: ‘He’s just a northern gentleman.’ And that’s what he was: he had an etiquette and he was just a really lovely bloke.”
Sandhu revealed he is currently working on a Blitz Vega documentary, which will include Rourke talking about his time in The Smiths. The film was due to have been completed in early 2023, but Rourke’s illness prevented him completing it before he died that May.
“We decided to film everything in the band from day one,” he said. “We were very hands on. We had offers for different people to take over, but that wasn’t something Andy was comfortable with. He wanted me to handle it, as I understood what Andy was cool with.
“There are a lot of conversations between us in the car, including quite a few Smiths stories, when we didn’t realise we were being filmed. Andy approved it all. Obviously, some stories have been taken out for being too personal, but he spoke about a lot in those conversations.”
The frontman continued: “I didn’t want to watch the footage for ages after Andy passed, but it’s been nice now I have, because we’re having a laugh. There’s a lot of laughter, right up until Andy is very poorly. You can see Andy is unwell, but he’s still joking and pulling that bass out. People will understand Andy when they see the documentary, and why he didn’t want to talk about certain things. His attitude was: ‘I just want to play bass.’ He’d say that again and again.”
After The Smiths split, Rourke played with Sinead O’Connor, The Pretenders, Badly Drawn Boy and Ian Brown, as well as forming D.A.R.K with The Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan, which ended with her death in 2018.
Originally from Leicester, Sandhu fronted ’00s contenders AKA Weave, who were managed by ex-Oasis bassist Guigsy, before joining Happy Mondays for four years from 2004. He released solo music as Kav before Bltiz Vega formed in 2016.
See below for NME’s full Blitz Vega interview with Sandhu, where he told us about reuniting with Johnny Marr on ‘Northern Gentlemen’, how Rourke would have felt about the Manchester mural funded by The Smiths drummer Mike Joyce and the unlikely role Neil Young played in Blitz Vega’s formation.
NME: Hi, Kav. How emotional has it been to release ‘Northern Gentlemen’ without Andy?
Kav Sandhu: “It’s been tough, but it means a lot that other musicians like the album. It’s strange that it’s finished, because we spent years making it. We were enjoying the process so much, and we might have continued doing that, not finishing things, if Andy hadn’t become so ill.”
When did Andy’s illness bring the album into focus?
“At the start of 2023, his illness began physically taking hold of him. You could see the difference in him. He lived in New York and he could no longer travel to LA, where I lived and our studio was. About six weeks before Andy passed, he was rushed into hospital. I visited him and he listened to the 17 songs we had readied. Andy picked the 10 songs and their running order.”
When did you learn Andy was ill?
“The day he was diagnosed. We were about to sign a touring deal. Andy called and said: ‘Are you sitting down? I’ve been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer’. He stayed positive and he never let it affect him. You’d forget he had it.
“I’d go to the studio in my tracksuit, chilled out, but Andy would be gig-ready all the time, hair perfect. I’m an optimist and I’d say to Andy: ‘You’ll be fine, we can do this and this’. It was only at the end that he told me: ‘I’m not going to make it’.
“Sometimes, his illness would get better and we’d book a 40-date tour in. That was Andy, always optimistic too, always laughing and joking. I last saw Andy three weeks before he passed and he was joking then. We only got to play one full show, at the club House Of Machines in LA. That was so special. Andy was on fire that night.”
What did you learn from Andy?
“Even though we were quite childish, I matured a lot in his company. Andy allowed me to express myself lyrically, without caring what other people thought. I’d been in a trap as a lyricist, where I cared if people would think I was being cheesy. Andy would show me that I needn’t feel embarrassed. That meant I could go into my darkest places.”
How did Blitz Vega start?
“We’d both say we should do something together a lot, but time passed so quickly. Then, in 2015, I wanted to quit the music business. Everything around recording and playing gigs seemed to take too long. I told my partner, Kate, that I was done, that I wanted to become a truck driver – I love driving. She thought I was nuts, but I told her: ‘Unless I get some weird sign to reconsider, I’m done with all this bollocks’.
“It was stormy that day and we drove to Zuma Beach in Malibu to see the storm coming in. It was so blowy, there was noone else there. On the drive, we were listening to ‘A Letter Home’, the album Neil Young did with Jack White. A white Lincoln pulled up behind us, blasting out The Grateful Dead.
“I was annoyed, thinking it was ruining the atmosphere, when this bloke in a hat, massive sideburns, gets out: Neil Young. He got out to take pictures of the storm, then he leans into our car. I had an LA Dodgers cap on and, when I went: ‘Alright, Neil?’ he burst out laughing: he didn’t expect my Leicester accent.
“We got talking about the weather and the rest is a blur, but we spent ages talking about music. Kate told him I was thinking about quitting the industry. He checked me out on his device – ‘Is your name spelt K-A-V?’ – and said: ‘Oh man, you can’t quit!’ Honestly, he talked me out of it.
“On the drive back, Kate said: ‘Did you get your sign not to quit, then?’ Me and Andy got to talking seriously about doing the band soon after.”
Andy hanging with Johnny today at Crazy Fave Factory.Andy Rourke Johnny Marr
Posted by Blitz Vega on Sunday, February 20, 2022
How big a moment was it to record ‘Strong Forever’ on the album with Johnny Marr?
“I had no idea it was going to happen. Andy called me out of the blue to say: ‘Johnny says he’ll play guitar on ‘Strong Forever.’ Can you send him the parts?’ ‘OK, cool’.
“When I got Johnny’s parts back, I muted everything in the studio apart from Johnny’s guitar and Andy’s bass. That was the first time I’d felt imposter syndrome: here was Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke again, with some idiot singing over the top of them.”
Did it seem a big deal to Andy that he and Johnny were making music together again?
“It was special to Andy, yes. I know how much it meant to him. He’d never asked Johnny to play on anything in all those years. That made it special for me too, because Andy must have really liked what we were doing to have asked Johnny.”
Speaking of great Manchester musicians, didn’t you first meet Andy with The Stone Roses‘ Mani?
“That’s true. When I was 17, Mani took Andy to a gig by my first band, AKA Weave. Andy loved Mani. Blitz Vega’s music is more driving than Andy’s usual playing. Occasionally, he’d say he was channelling his inner Mani on some songs.
“The final song on the album, ‘Pass The Gun’, dates back to AKA Weave. It has a weird history. I’ve known Kasabian for years, and Tom Meighan would always sing ‘Pass The Gun’ when I saw him. Just before Blitz Vega started, [former Oasis guitarist] Bonehead played a gig in LA with me and he said we should record it. Even Happy Mondays considered doing it on ‘Uncle Dysfunktional’, with Shaun Ryder singing it.
“So when Andy said: ‘We should do ‘Pass The Gun’’ one day, its time had finally come.”
What would Andy have made of the mural that Mike Joyce has funded of him in Manchester?
“It would mean the world that his greatest friend has done that. He was warmed by the fact that people respected him, but he was also always surprised. Andy knew how good he was, but he was very humble. It would surprise him whenever anyone came up to him in a bar. If anyone was: ‘Oh my God, it’s Andy Rourke!’, he was shocked, every time. He was always great with people.
|Andy was very proud of The Smiths, rightly so. It was a big deal when Johnny and Mike were seen together at the end of last season, celebrating Manchester City’s title win. Andy would have been proud to see two Smiths together again.”
What will happen to Blitz Vega’s other songs that Andy recorded with you? Will you continue the band?
“I’ve delivered on the promise I made to Andy and I’ll continue making music, one way or the other. But I don’t want to overthink it. Maybe I should ask Neil Young.”
Blitz Vega’s album ‘Northern Gentlemen’ is out now on FutureSonic Records. Visit here for details on and to donate to the Andy Rourke memorial mural.