Light a candle. Shed a tear. The Maccabees are set to play their final show tonight (1st July).
The crown-princes of UK indie call it a day with the last of their three huge shows at London’s Alexandra Palace this evening. In the run up, Felix White has been speaking to Beats 1 presenter Matt Wilkinson, talking about their decision to call it a day.
“We’re all slightly confused with different emotions,” Felix explains, “but the shows so far have been ridiculous, like really amazing things, and they’ve kind of alleviated any of the previous tension that used to be around us and around gigs, because we always used to be trying to move somewhere or get better, and these have just been… let’s just celebrate how great we are, letting us think that. It’s been an amazing thing, it’s very emotional.”
“When we did sell the tickets it was a bit like, hang on! But I think the honest answer to that is, as you know, we’ve been together since we were in our teens, so 14 years, and unfortunately, at that time when we started, we were all doing the band for exactly the same reasons, and people change over time.”
“The Maccabees was always the only thing in our lives and we did it with all of our hearts, and when it just felt like it might become a thing that we’re just going to do out of habit, or felt like we had to, we felt like maybe the most difficult but bravest decision was to be like, let’s just leave our band here and feel like we did everything in a proper dignified way, and respected the music, and respected our friendship more than anything, because that’s always been the most important thing about us as a group.”