Mattie Lacey-Davidson speaks to members of Ocean Colour Scene, Embrace and Dodgy - all of whom are playing at the inaugural British music festival this weekend, taking place at Knebworth House - the stately home of rock...

Q&A with Steve Cradock of Ocean Colour Scene who headline on Sunday...

What or which other band are you most looking forward to at the Cool Britannia Festival?

Happy Mondays – I love Shaun Ryder.

What is your favourite Britpop song from another artist and why?

Verve - Sonnet

Tell us your favourite festival story.

Watching Tame Impala at Glastonbury and meeting Kevin Parker. My son Cass and I are massive fans. Kevin said ‘hey Cass, we both look like mouldy bananas’. They both had very muddy yellow trousers on. Cass was made up.

What are your festival dos and don’ts?

Do bring loo roll and don’t camp on a hill.

Best festival advice ever?

Bring wellies.

What is your favourite song to play live?

Hundred Mile High City

What is your song writing process? What inspires you to write songs?

No format as such, life inspires me to write songs.

In 1996 you supported Oasis at Knebworth. How does it feel to return to this iconic location and to headline this time around?

Déjà vu – but better.

Q&A with Mickey Dale of Embrace, who play Cool Britannia Festival on Sunday...

What are your thoughts on playing at such an iconic location?

We’re all excited to return to Knebworth. It was the location of our first ever secret festival and so we know the location intimately. The site has a certain magical vibe about it. You sense it when you enter and you notice it’s gone as soon as you leave the place.

What or which other band are you most looking forward to?

Happy Mondays are one of the first bands I ever saw, so I’m excited to see them again. When I was a teen, I saw them play at Queens Hall in Bradford. There was sweat dripping off the ceiling and running down the walls. It was around the time of their first album, Bummed. Incredible.

What is your favourite Britpop song from another artist and why?

Probably something from Supergrass. The entire In It For The Money album is amazing. I can’t pick one song.

Tell us your favourite festival story.

Ian Brown, backstage at T In The Park in the dressing room compound (many years ago). A few members of other bands were on the roofs of their Portacabin dressing rooms. Ian Brown shouted ‘Get down off of there before you bloody hurt yourselves’. It was a lovely moment of almost parental concern that was made more brilliant and even hilarious by Ian’s garments – he was rocking a bright pink shell suit and some huge 80s white trainers. Very, very cool indeed (as always).

What are your festival dos and don’ts?

Pretty straight forward really – look out for people, see as much great music as possible and remember, everyone’s there to have a great time. Leave your stresses at home.

Drink lots of water between beers, take a water proof jacket and decent footwear and try not to be too offended by the state of the loos on days two and three.

Tell us more about the new album Love Is a Basic Need.

The album felt like a return to form and to our musical origins. We had that same feeling in the studio as when we made our first album The Good Will Out 21 years ago. The album is very much about the songs and the arrangements are simple while still having that anthemic Embrace character. Plenty strings and trumpets and big choruses.

You have loyal fans, how did they receive the new album and what was it like to tour with?

It was beautiful, seeing their reactions and interactions with the new songs. You could feel the joy and love. All bands probably say it but I reckon we have the greatest fans.

Q&A with Nigel Clark of Dodgy who will perform on Saturday...

What are your thoughts on playing at such an iconic location?

Well, we were asked to play with Oasis in ’96 but we had to decline as we had already booked a tour of war torn Bosnia. Good Enough was riding high in the pop charts and we wanted to include Sarajevo in our tour schedule. I don’t regret it one bit but it’s a real pleasure to be invited to play once again.

What or which other band are you most looking forward to at the Cool Britannia Festival?

Well, it’s always great to see Space play. We have toured a lot with those guys and you could not meet a nicer, friendly funnier and creative bunch of guys.

It would be also great to catch up with Ian Broudie from the Lightning Seeds. Ian produced our first album and I personally have always had a soft spot for his psychedelic pop songs.

What is your favourite Britpop song from another artist and why?

Wow that’s a tough one. You know what? The bands that are playing, soundtracked a generation, between them – a generation, that is still really into music but the climate we grew up in has changed immeasurably.

I suppose some would call it nostalgia and I suppose it is, but a lot of the bands playing are still making albums relevant to their own generation and beyond. Life doesn’t stop at 40.

Tell us your favourite festival story.

I can’t tell you my favourite story because it involves craziness only reached via psychedelics.

But I can tell you and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Damon Albarn for custard pieing you backstage at Glastonbury ’92. Sorry, so glad to get that off my chest…

What are your festival dos and don’ts?

Don’t expect anything apart from good music, good people, respect and small beer and toilet queues.

Do go out to have a good time – and remember try not to get to drunk (we’re not in our 20s anymore), it doesn’t look good.

What is your favourite song to play live?

At a festival Staying Out For the Summer hits the nail on the head

At a gig, I love playing new songs.

What is your song writing process? What inspires you to write songs?

I’ve been writing songs for 30 years now. I take the writing of songs seriously, I’m disciplined, I turn up every day, I write, I sing , I play. When I’m not doing that I listen and I live.

More details at coolbritanniafest.com