Canterbury prepare for their final show

All good things must come to an end. For some bands, it takes years for the disintegration to kick in, for others, it all finishes with an explosion of arguments, or a final clash of personalities. For some, though, they’re blessed with that moment of clarity, and decide that maybe, even though it’s not the happiest decision they’ll make, it’s time to call it a day.

“I think the one main thing is,” begins Canterbury frontman Mike Sparks, ahead of their final show as a band, “that I don’t think many people were that surprised by it. It kinda makes sense and no one has to be a complete rocket scientist to know that we didn’t exactly have the smoothest run as a band. I think this was just the logical point to bring it to a close, at least for now, and see what else we can conjure up.”

The obstacles that Canterbury have faced over their last seven years as a band have totted up to become quite the list: from having to sit on their debut album for much longer than they’d have hoped, to losing members and all of the other toils of the industry, Sparks is right when he says they’ve not the most straightforward of paths set out for them. They’ve never let that get to them though.

“This was just decided with the four of us down at a pub,” he explains, “having a drink and talking about stuff. Yeah, okay, it was born out of a bit of frustration: it’s not like we were like, ‘I know what would be really awesome, to not be in a band anymore!’” he laughs, before admitting the group’s realisationg. “It’s been almost a year since we released ‘Dark Days’ and unless we keep touring it, it was like, ‘Oh, shit, do we do another album?’ No one was really that, ‘Fuck yeah!’ about it. ‘Dark Days’ did better than any of our albums before it, and ‘Heavy In The Day’ did better than the album before that. Nothing’s gone down, by any means, but it was just the right time. For whatever reason, it seemed logical and smart, and just the best thing.

Tonight the band, who have already played sold out shows in Birmingham and Manchester, will be ending their run with one final show in the capital and it’s exactly how they want to celebrate their band. “We’d all much rather end on a nice occasion, on a nice feeling, with pride rather than fizzle out with something which is a shame. This way, we’re going to play a sold out 900 capacity venue and that’s something we’ve never done. It’ll just be really awesome as the last thing that we do. You can’t really say anything bad about that.

“People can just expect us doing what we do,” he concludes. “It’s just gonna be Canterbury having some fun, and playing all the songs we want to do. Not to worry anyone!” he laughs. “We’re still gonna play all the songs that people like hearing! It is, however, gonna be by far the most songs we’ve ever played live, and the most diverse set. It’s just gonna be really fun.”

Canterbury play at London’s O2 Academy Islington tonight, 19th December.

Tags: News, Canterbury