“I had never heard of Cats In Space because I no longer listen to music”: Cats In Space and Willie Dowling are on tour and cannot get enough of each other

Known for a distinctive amalgam of classic rock, power-pop, pomp and glam, Cats In Space are touring their latest album Time Machine, the band’s first for Cherry Red. With Willie Dowling, the instrumentalist and singer known for his exploits with The Grip, The Wildhearts, Honeycrack, Jackdaw 4 and many more, as special guest, we thought a chinwag between Cats leader Greg Hart and Dowling might be fun. We were right

You two had scarcely met before this tour, now here you are fans of one another’s music.

Greg Hart: I had the idea when Willie started posting his brilliant new songs. They’re like Cats In Space, only with several hundred extra chords added. There’s definitely a Jellyfish connection between us.

Willie Dowling: For me it’s especially nice because I’ve never been invited onto a tour. It always involved paying an enormous amount of money for the privilege.

Willie, what specifically do you like about Cats In Space?

Dowling: I’ll be completely honest, I had never heard of Cats In Space, because I no longer listen to music. But I got them right away. They’re somewhere in the universe of Pilot, ELO and 10cc. Watching them live, those are some of the best vocal harmonies I’ve ever heard.

Are the Cats fans embracing a bit of Willie?

Hart: Oh yeah, they’re really loving it.

Willie’s record The Simpleton is rather wordy.

Dowling: (dismissively) I can’t stop to think about that. It could be argued that my lack of success over the years is why I’m still free to experiment. I’ve no obligation to keep on doing the same thing over and over again.

Long Drop Down confronts many issues, including racism, nationalism and self-serving politicians, but without sounding like a rant.

Dowling: It can stretch the patience, and of course there’s an argument that politics should not be reflected in music. But to those people I say this: [blows a raspberry].

Greg, each of the previous Cats albums has nodded to various rock classics. On the latest album there’s one to The Who’s Baby O’Riley in the title track.

Hart: You should’ve heard the demo, which was even more like Baba O’Riley. But look… I wear my love of The Who on my sleeve, just like I do of Sweet and so many other great bands.

A bonus track on Cats’ Time Machine is cover of a song that some consider to be uncoverable – Music by John Myles.

Dowling: [sounding incredulous] Have they?!

Hart: [laughing] That’s most people’s response. Music is my favourite song of all time, and I always wanted to cover it because we are often compared to John. I think we’ve done a good version. And we might do it live on the December dates.

Dowling: There’s so much to unpack there. I can’t wait to hear it.

With Cats’ previous album Kickstart The Sun, the band took a step up to playing theatres. What must have been something of a gamble at the time now seems vindicated.

Hart: It’s something we had to do in order to survive, and we pulled in so many favours to put on what I call a champagne show for lemonade money. Our tickets cost twenty-eight quid. You can’t even park at the O2 Arena for that.

You both must feel there’s a huge untapped army of potential fans out there. The challenge is reaching them.

Hart: Via the webstore we pick up new converts every day, from Canada, America… Huddersfield. All people who didn’t have a clue who we are.

Dowling: New fans are out there, but connecting with them is like wading through a playing field of mud. The cliché is that it’s too late to give it all up and get a proper job. And I’ll tell you what: there’s more than a grain of truth to it.

The next leg of the Time Machine tour kicks off in Milton Keynes tomorrow (December 11) before heading to Wolverhampton, Newbridge and London. Dates and tickets.