Billy Sullivan, solo artist and Spitfires frontman, sits down with Jon Garland from Louder Than War to talk about The Spitfires’ reformation, politics, the perils of playing biker festivals and future plans
It’s a late summer afternoon in rainy Brighton and I’ve agreed to meet Billy Sullivan, solo artist and former leader of Watford three-piece The Spitfires, at Komedia, the venue where Billy’s headlining the first night of the town’s annual mod weekender. After exchanging pleasantries – it’s been a while since we’ve caught up face-to-face – we sit down in the venue’s dressing room to find out just how Sullivan’s been getting on recently. After a relatively quiet period, Billy’s been back in the news, what with tonight’s headlining show following hot on the heels of the announcement that the much-missed Spitfires are to reform for a one-off event at Koko, in London, in May 2025.
LTW: Why did you feel the time was right to reform the Spitfires?
BILLY SULLIVAN: “It’s 10 years since Response (the band’s debut album), so that’s one reason for doing it, but it’s more of a celebration of the band. It’s the sort of set which we would have done if the band stayed together and Covid hadn’t happened. I think it’s going to be a good, proper celebration of the band in the right way”.
It certainly felt that at the time of the band’s farewell gig, in February 2022, that there was unfinished business and that, certainly, they’d bowed out, after five well-received studio albums; that they hadn’t received the recognition the quality of their music and live performances deserved.
How do you feel The Spitfires were perceived?
“People made up their minds on that band and pretty early on”, he suggests, visibly annoyed, “and no matter what we done, we couldn’t budge that, we couldn’t write our own story in a way because people had already decided we were this band”.
He continues: “We never got the credit we deserved, ever, from anyone. We were always belittled by everyone we worked with because we’d done it all ourselves and no‑one likes that idea. No-one liked the idea that we used to sell decent amounts of records and we used to get in the charts. And that was a band with no backing, nothing”.
Sullivan admits to being intensely driven when the band started. “I lived and breathed it. I was just a man on a mission. I believe if you’re in a band and you’re a songwriter, then that’s your job; to write songs. I was so intense as a person, I was probably really shit to be around most of the time. But I feel like you can’t have one without the other and I feel like I’m not like that now. I’m a lot calmer and a lot more grown-up, but at the same time if I really want to turn it on then it normally results in me becoming a bit of a shitbag beforehand”.
The band’s first three albums, Response (2015), A Thousand Times (2016) and Year Zero (2018) all had their standout moments and were consistently good, but Sullivan feels that the band’s fourth, 2020’s brilliant Life Worth Living, was when the band truly fulfilled its potential. “I thought Life Worth Living was where it all slotted together for me. It was like all the pieces of the puzzle come together and it all made sense”.
Prior to its release, and with full record company backing and a superbly packaged, produced and accomplished record, it felt as though the band’s time had at last arrived – and then, just before its release, the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
What was the impact of Covid on the band?
“The world shut down and it was just fucking Spitfires’ luck though. I’m not lying to you, for every good thing that happened, 10 bad things happened, which is just part of being in music, I suppose … COVID come along and fucked everything up, really. And then it became a struggle and it weren’t so nice”.
Around this time, The Spitfires also fell out with their record company regarding what turned out to be their final studio album; 2022’s Play For Today, an ambitious and different record for the band that Sullivan loved but the record company hated. As Billy explains, this led indirectly to the end of the band at the end of 2021: “We come to blows with the label and the momentum was slowed down, members left, mixed in with Covid, mixed in with – financially it’s hard to keep a band going when you can’t go out on tour, especially if your label isn’t supporting you. So it killed the band in a way”.
So how do you look back upon The Spitfires now?
“It’s taken me until now to look back fondly on it. Because I forget, we were 17 when we got together as a band, and I was, what, 28 when we split up. You grow up a lot in that time. You experience a lot of different things and we all done it together … we lived in each other’s pockets throughout all that time. And that means a lot, I think, and it means a lot when it comes to playing music as well and playing off each other and knowing how each other works. And for three little shits from Watford, we actually achieved everything that when I was a kid, I would have thought about doing and associated with being in a band, and I’ve actually done it”.
Sullivan warms to his theme, acknowledging the pivotal role of Stuart Deabill, who managed the band for the first three years and who returned to manage the split too. Billy also recalls times both good and bad with The Spitfires, including playing a biker festival in the mountains of Austria. “We got booked for this festival and as soon as we turned up, we thought, ‘They’re going to fucking hate us’, we were the complete opposite to what these people wanted. But at the same time we got on stage and you’re surrounded by mountains and driving into the festival was like the fucking start of The Italian Job, it was insane … we all laughed because the worst bit about the whole trip was the actual gig. The gig was awful and they hated us, they absolutely detested us. We were girly little mods compared to these massive geezers with their big bikes. But we had such a laugh and such a mad night out”.
So how do you feel your solo career’s been progressing since the Spitfires split?
“It’s a weird one, for some reason people can’t get their head round it” reflects Sullivan, confidence perhaps knocked by what he feels was the confused reception among some fans of his last single, Frozen Town. “I don’t know why. It’s mad really, it’s still me singing, writing songs, dictating how everything sounds, but people can’t get their head round it. I think people just love bands, don’t they?” he muses, wondering why some fans haven’t followed him into his solo career even though his 2023 debut solo album Paper Dreams was well received by critics.
This year has been a quieter one for Sullivan with the release of just two singles, Winter of Discontent and Frozen Town, which saw politics return to his music.
Do you feel you’re a political songwriter?
“Sometimes I’m really passionate about politics and really angry and other times I’m not. The two singles this year have been extremely political” he explains. Warming to his theme, Billy continues “With the election, it was all about getting the Conservatives out. And they weren’t taught enough of a lesson for me, I didn’t even want them to be opposition, I wanted to destroy that party … to see the Tories get a battering was a fantastic thing”.
We then reflect on the near decade from The Spitfires 2015 first album Response to now. How does he feel he’s progressed as a musician in that time? “I take being a musician very, very seriously, which is sort of why people think I’m awkward or anything like that. I just want to be good at it, that’s all it is, and I think I’m getting better, but I think I’ve still got a way to go and what keeps you going is that there’s always a better way of saying something regardless of what I’ve written. There’s always a better way of saying it and that spurs me on”.
Sullivan’s drive and dedication are clear in tonight’s set at Komedia. The gig goes by in a blur of raw energy and passion. Sullivan and his band are in brilliant form, mixing songs like from Paper Dreams with newer material (‘I Just Can’t Keep It Up’ being a real standout) and old Spitfires classics. With the prospect of Sullivan’s solo career running in parallel with a rejuvenated Spitfires, 2025 could be the year that Sullivan finally gets the wider recognition he deserves.
Billy can be seen on tour through to the end of year. You can find out more details about dates and information about Billy here:
Buy Paper Dreams
Buy tickets for the Spitfires Koko gig
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Words by Jon Garland, you can find his author’s archive here
Photos by Dammo
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