An idea 'thought of on the toilet' led to selling out festivals for one music group.
The Lancashire Hotpots, based in St Helens, were formed in 2006, and the comedy folk group quickly captivated audiences with their funny, relatable lyrics about modern life in a north west town. Founding member and accordion player Dickie Ticker spoke to the ECHO about the origins of the band.
Dickie explained how the idea for the group actually came to him while he was sat on the toilet. He told the ECHO: "Myself, the bassist Bob, and lead singer Bernard were in a live EDM band of all things, and we dabbled in musical comedy- with varying levels of success.
READ MORE: Liverpool University student 'spat at' for being ginger has the last laugh
"In March 2006, I had the idea- whilst sat on the toilet- of a folk band. The thing about folk music is that a lot of the time it is oral history, in centuries gone by, the working class people couldn't read or write so the stories of the people and times were recorded in song."
From this thought, the idea for a 'modern day folk band' singing about social networks and chippy teas grew and the Lancashire Hotpots were born. The band's first gig together took place in St Helens almost 15 years ago to the day, and their popularity in the area has soared since.
The band has now established a cult following, amassing almost 65,000 Facebook likes and regularly touring the UK, including major festivals. Dickie added: "My favourite performance was probably one of the afternoon performances we have done at Kendal Calling, we've had occasions where that has been 10,000-12,000 people in the crowd there.
"When you're performing daft little songs about fish and chips, and eating egg, sausage, chips and beans and you see people going absolutely crazy, or a couple thousand people in a conga really letting themselves go and enjoying themselves- that's amazing. I have to pinch myself sometimes."
When asked what makes St Helens so special, Dickie offered a rather unique answer, he said: "If you think about it, St Helens, despite being such a small place, has two of the most widely appreciated pubs in the country. You've got the Cricketer's Arms and the Turk's Head, and both of those have taken regional if not national awards. So considering we are just a small hamlet between Manchester and Liverpool, we do have some of the best boozers around."
A common source of debate is whether or not St Helens belongs in Merseyside, or its historic county- Lancashire. Dickie weighed in with his thoughts on the matter, and explained the origin of the band's name, he said: "With a name like the Lancashire Hotpots, all the clues are there. It’s a constant source of banter as comments on our Facebook prove.
"We were sort of intentionally trying to parody long standing Lancashire folk acts and were thinking of the best thing to go with it- it's good because hotpot can have a couple of meanings. The name just stuck."
The next year looks to be an exciting one for the band. Dickie added: "All being well, we might be featured in television for Sky television which will be recorded over the summer, and we hope to release a children's picture book, that's an exclusive. We are just cracking on with our new album too."
