The Return of The Loft

A band breaking up onstage in the middle of a concert might sound like fodder for a trashy 90s flick.

But the very thing happened to Creation Records alumni The Loft, who split mid-song during a concert at London’s Hammersmith Palais nearly 40 years ago as they danced on the bleeding edge of a commercial breakthrough. And while the band has since performed and recorded in the decades following their split (including a sold-out show at MOTH last year), the goal of a proper album had eluded them until now.

But in 2025, the group’s original lineup — Pete Astor (guitar /vocals) Andy Strickland (guitar), Bill Prince (bass) and Dave Morgan (drums) — has followed up that handful of treasured Creation singles with their debut LP, Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same. And in listening to these 10 new songs, recorded in Hackney with Sean Read of Dexys’ producing, it’s clear that these old lads picked up right where they left off in 1985 when they were opening shows for Terry Hall and The Colourfield without missing a single beat.

“Time has been kind to us I think; where once the world felt impossible and threatening, we seem to have learned to be more careful of each other and focus on playing together,” says Astor, who was kind enough to answer some email questions Rock & Roll Globe sent their way following the release of the new album on Tapete Records.

Fans of Luna, The Housemartins and Globe of Frogs-era Robyn Hitchcock, listen up.

Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same is available now on all streaming services and better record shops worldwide.

 

Did The Loft always want to record an LP, going back to the beginning of the band? I’m curious to know if an album was always in the cards for the band until you broke up.

Absolutely there was an album in our heads. Sadly, we never got to make one at the time, but we’ve done one now which we are very proud of.

 

How far back do some of the songs on the new album go in terms of the Loft’s history?

All the songs on the album are relatively recent. As a songwriter I always have songs knocking around so some of the ideas and versions of them might go back a few years but none of them were from the time when The Loft were originally together.

Did you write these songs specifically with The Loft in mind?

When Andy and I originally got together to work on the songs I had a whole bunch more songs the idea of being as I always do is to start with more songs and then whittle them down to the ones that worked best.  But what happened when I spoke to people about the fact we were doing a loft album? So many people asked exactly the question you’re asking and the truth is I didn’t write anything specifically for the loft but through the process I ended up leaving some songs aside that I thought might work better on a solo album. These were usually songs that were very much about dressing addressing an individual person And more often about affairs of the heart although loft songs can still be about that too and in the future, probably will.

 

I’d love to know the significance of the road photographed on the cover of Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same?

The road is near Dungeness and it was photographed by our friend Ken Copsey. I love the way it has a slightly American vibe, but when you look at it more, it’s very clearly England.

 

Was it the goal of The Loft to essentially pick up where the band left off during the Creation era in terms of creating new music?

Yes or no. I think the album title might explain it. There’s a certain sound that happens when we start to play together and for this album it felt right to make something that was very much just the four of us playing guitars, bass drums and singing, but not it any kind of attempt to re-create an imaginary past. These were the right tools for the job, for this album. Hopefully it’s the quality of the music not the tools that make it that are most important.

 

Why did the group wait 20 years since your initial reformation to record the album?

I don’t really know why. I do know that it was never in any of our heads for some reason until after we did a Radio session about a year and a half ago and somehow it just seemed right to make an album. When you understand people very well and on a deep level there is never a whole load of conversation — you know.

 

How did you guys connect with Sean Read of Dexys to produce the album and do The Loft and Dexys have any history together?

Sean is someone who I’ve known since he was in the fantastic Rockingbirds, a group that also contained Dave from The Loft on drums. Sean has also produced several of my solo albums so I know how good he is.

 

The sound that The Loft helped create continues to inspire young bands all over the world. I’d love to learn about some of the newer acts you guys follow and now serve as your contemporaries of sorts as you venture into this new era for the group.

My current favourite record is the most recent album by This is Lorelei, Box for Buddy, Box for Star. I also love the new Bright Eyes record — very underrated. The new Jeffery Lewis. The Would-Be-Goods, The Night Life and Christopher Owens’ I Wanna Run Barefoot Trough Your Hair.

 

How do you discover new music these days?

Like everyone in many many different ways. But probably the strongest push forward is from friends because they’re the people you know and the people you trust.

 

Who were some of the other groups on Creation Records back in the day that you enjoyed touring with? Are there any fun stories to share?

We didn’t really talk with any other Creation bands these days, but many of them were our friends. One of our first gigs outside London was at Jeff Barrett’s club in Plymouth. It was brilliant to play there but it was a very long drive the week after we played Jeff told us that the creation group 5 go down to the sea turned up to play a show but he told them they weren’t booked that they were in fact booked for the week after in their inimitable way they were not phased at all and said oh sorry and drove back to London, they were home in about eight hours.

We toured with Primal Scream around Holland. That was very entertaining. I remember one incident which happened in Amsterdam. We were waiting to leave and hanging around in the van after the show and waiting for the tour manager to return. We waited about 10 minutes and he came back with a bruised and slightly bloody head. We asked him what had happened and he said he had seen a hippie who he decided he didn’t like and so chased him down the street. However he wasn’t a very good runner and the hippie ran away and at some point he told us that the hippie even stopped and gave him the finger which point the taunted tour manager carried on running even faster to try and catch up with the hippie but he ran even faster and eventually the road manager gave up and decided to walk back; as he was walking away he was hit on the head by a can lobbed by the hippie — a direct hit! Us and Primal Scream all thought this was very very funny and extremely just.

 

VIDEO: The Loft “Dr. Clarke”

For those of us who are still exploring the depths of the Creation Records era, do you have any recommendations?

Pacific – Inferance (1990)

 

I’ll be on the look out for this one, for sure. Creation was a fantastic label and it’s been fun discovering bands like The Loft, Pacific and Five Go Down To The Sea and other artists beyond Primal Scream and the Boo Radleys, who were like gateways for Americans like me to dig deeper into the label. You mentioned you were friends with many of the bands on the label earlier. What are your thoughts of being among your peers as part of the rich history of this label?

I just feel very privileged that people can remember what we did and we are part of something that people value.

 

Now The Loft are on Tapete, which is your longtime label. What do you love about recording for this label that keeps you on their roster?

Tapete are a fantastic label. I’ve been very lucky with the record labels throughout my life (or perhaps I’ve just had a good instinct). I often wonder why Tapete are so good. I think it might have something to do with the fact that they were started by musicians and they love music. And are of course very decent individuals as people.

 

What are The Loft’s touring plans for this year?

We are playing a couple of festivals over the summer — The Isle of Wight and Down by the Sea. We will also be playing some dates in France and supporting with The Wedding Present later in the year as well as our own shows.

 

Do you have any interest in coming here to the States for shows?

Of course I’d love to come to the States. However, as you can probably imagine it’s a bit tricky.

 

What was touring the UK like in these modern times? 

Without wanting to hammer the album title yet again I would have to say that everything changes, everything stays the same. One change was the fact that we sold out most of the shows and the result was that there was always a problem with the guest list because before health and safety when the capacity for venues weren’t quite so tight and there were so-called rubber walls if you sold out a gig it was all fine. You could invite everyone and they would find a place in the venue. Now all the venues have a very strict capacity and if you’ve already reached capacity with ticket sales no one else can come in, which can be a bit frustrating. Er, not as smokey. Less fighting.

Other than that, it was fantastic to play songs to people who seemed to really enjoy it.