The Union ready for Wolverhampton Wulfrun return

Former Thunder guitarist Luke Morley is looking forwards to returning to Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall on Saturday (March 10, 2012) with his new band The Union. He tells

why.

The Union are touring as co-headliners with Irish firebrands The Answer in a sort of 'best of British' tour.

And the Civic/Wulfrun complex is a big favourite with Morley.

"I love playing at Wolves, it's always great," he says. "The Civic is a fantastic venue whether you're upstairs or downstairs. It's got an atmosphere to it which is unique. I always enjoy playing there whether it's supporting or headlining. It's England's rock 'n' roll heartland. It's a fantastic place to play."

There's always the chance too of bumping in one Jonathan 'Spike' Gray, lead singer with rabble rousers The Quireboys and, although Geordie born, now a Wolverhampton resident and an honorary Black Country native.

And a hard-drinking one too. Morley laughs as he says: "I've known Spike many years and he's probably caused a great deal of the diminishing of my brain cells!"

Spike's partner's sister also happens to be the girlfriend of The Union's Pete Shoulder, a man blessed with youthful good looks and the most astonishing blues rock voice.

Moreley says: "If you play any instrument, everybody sings to a degree but he has a voice that's genuinely emotive and has the capacity of moving people. I'm fortunate enough to have worked with a few really good people. Pete has that ability to emotionally connect with people with a song. It's a rare ability. It's a pleasure to write songs with someone with a voice like that."

So how did the tour come about?

"We felt that for both bands it's a good thing because they went out last year as did we and those tours were quite successful. We thought if we were to do it together then it works on all sort of levels.

"It gets both bands into larger venues and I thinks it's a celebration of British rock 'n' roll. Both bands have a traditional British blues influence and it's a good match."

Both bands will get a shade over an hour to play (there's also support from Scam), so there will be some careful picking of tracks from Morley and Shoulder's two albums so far, The Union and Siren Song.

It might include the reworked, radio version of 'Make Up Your Mind, which they have released as a 'double A side' with Obsession, both from Siren's Song.

"The original of Make up Your Mind is about five-and-a-half minutes long," says Morley. "We thought that rather than take a razor blade out to make it a more radio-friendly length , we'd record it from a slightly different point of view, because it wasn't intended to be a single originally. So we sat down and did a revised take of the song, just took a little bit out and tried to do a more concise version of it."

The guitarist inists he has no qualms about The Answer closing the show each night.

"They're going to go on last, which is fine by us, " he says. "They're on their third album, they've been around a bit longer, they've played in more places.

"So we're happy for them to be on last . . . and it means we'll be in the bar a bit quicker!"

* The Union and The Answer, with support from Scam, play Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall on Saturday, March 10, 2012. Tickets cost £15 plus booking fees.