From students to the stage: The Notts Tab meets indie success Midnight Rodeo

On the back of a busy weekend of playing festivals, I sat down with three members of psychedelic art-pop band Midnight Rodeo. Two members first met the band’s keyboardist at an NTU society.

The Nottingham Tab met with bassist Harry Taylor, and guitarists and vocalists Jim McBride and Will Rabjohns, outside the Bodega to chat all things music.

The six-piece group played in this year’s Hockley Hustle festival, with Under the Radar magazine describing them as “Arguably the most established name at this year’s Hustle”.

“It was a nice way of saying that we’ve been doing it for a long time” says Jim

Left to right: Will, Maddy, and Jim

Midnight Rodeo formed in Nottingham in 2021; five years on and they’ve released an album, toured the US, and done the rounds at festivals. They were back in their home town in late October to perform in Hockley Hustle.

“It’s our last show with our keyboard player Sam, so it was nice to give him a good send off” says Jim

The band’s keyboardist Sam Potts is leaving for New Zealand, making this show his last, perhaps the end of an era for the group.

“It’s definitely the end of an era, yeah, it’s possibly the end of a chaos era” jokes Jim, making reference to their now year-old album, Chaos Era.

“Beyond him being our bandmate he’s our friend of nearly ten years. It’s very hard to imagine him not being around. So it’s a very emotional one, but he played beautifully” Harry says

Exciting things are in the works, however, as Midnight Rodeo have started working on a new album. They performed two new songs for the first time at Jarred Up Festival in Sheffield, and at their Bodega set for the first time in Notts.

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“It’s the end of an era but the beginning of a new one” says Harry “If anyone plays keyboard and wants to reach out that would be great”

“And you’re cool and have got a moustache” Jim adds

Although they don’t yet have a name for the new record, Harry speaks enthusiastically about it.

“We’re in the very early creative stages of formulating the next album and it’s going very, very well. I think it’s the best stuff we’ve ever done and we’re really excited”

Left to right: Jim, Harry, and Sam

Jim and Harry met Sam at Nottingham Trent University’s Band Soc, which they weren’t members of, but they say they “met a lot of cool people”, as well as the current owner of The Grove.

“Harry and I decided we wanted to start a band and then we spent most days writing songs and the nights going out and finding like-minded people” says Jim

Harry’s message to aspiring musicians is to “Find your scene, get out there”

Jim also encourages students to find their people: “Nottingham’s got a very welcoming scene, and someone will walk up to you and be like, “Hey I like your trousers. We should be friends””

He adds “Definitely go out and find the people that are into what you’re into, and please, for God’s sake, keep playing guitar. Keep guitar music alive, please!”

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