Inside the music shop where rising guitar band Westside Cowboy formed: “It helped me find my love for guitar again”
“This is Johnny Roadhouse Music, where Westside Cowboy technically started,” is Jimmy Bradbury’s welcome address at his former workplace, ushering us upstairs with his bandmate Reuben Haycocks. The two live around the corner from the music shop, which is located on Manchester’s Oxford Road: the nucleus of student life in the city. 300m away is the Royal Northern College Of Music, where Haycocks met bassist Aoife Anson O’Connell – who we run into shortly after this conversation – and drummer Paddy Murphy back in 2021.
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Bradbury recalls his ‘interview’ to become the shop’s guitar tech: “‘Can you use a soldering iron? Done. I’ll see you tomorrow at 11 o’clock.’” Founded in 1955 by the late saxophonist John Roadhouse, the family-owned business specialises in second-hand instruments, meaning you get “crazy guys knocking on the back door, like, ‘I’ve got 30 guitars in the back of this van. Do you want to buy them?’” Roadhouse’s son now runs it with his wife, who both sing Westside Cowboy’s praises before Bradbury and Haycocks enter like returning heroes.
“You see so many different types of playing in here,” reflects Bradbury. “Everything from shredders to really old country guys and Flamenco players. Wandering around the shop, I feel like the guitar is a very open, welcoming instrument. There’s so much you can do by just learning a couple of small things on it.” When Murphy started bringing Haycocks and Anson O’Connell here to meet his pal Bradbury, the four began congregating here multiple times per week.
“I had never really come across gear before, [growing up in] Shropshire,” says Haycocks, who is easily distracted by the newly-arrived 1976 Martin D-28 on the wall. “I hadn’t been around people who were bothered about cool old guitars. I’d watch James pick up a guitar and play random shit. You can’t play the songs that you’ve learned in a guitar shop – because you look like a knob – so if I wanted to play this really cool ’70s Gibson SG, I had to pick it up and play some classical things, rather than going through my rolodex of songs that I knew. And then maybe one AC/DC song…”
Image: Clementine Schneidermann
The University Of Life
Having decided on a whim at Johnny Roadhouse to form Westside Cowboy, the quartet have transformed into one of Britain’s most exciting guitar acts. Although the title of 2024 debut single I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You) sounds like it belongs on an early Arctic Monkeys or Fall Out Boy album, their alt-country twang straddles folk, indie and Americana soundscapes. Their live show alone won them a slot at Glastonbury 2025, and they’re now signed to a major label and Fontaines D.C.’s management.
Initially cutting their teeth in local bands DieKaiDai and Katz at venues like Fuel, Manchester’s musical landscape proved pivotal to Westside Cowboy’s eventual path. “Being in a scene is the most rewarding part about being in music, seeing all your friends do really well,” says Haycocks. In a city where Live Nation and Mission Mars continue to swoop in on independent venues, community-driven spaces – be it a café or Johnny Roadhouse – are essential to meet like-minded folk, reckons Bradbury. “So many musicians come in and speak to someone who they [wouldn’t] in the street, because you have common ground.”
Although a primary school Bradbury and an early teenage Haycocks fell out of love with guitar, a friend who played Guns N’ Roses riffs and reduced focus on musical grades respectively re-ignited both guitarists’ love affairs with their instrument. Though Haycocks describes a “musical rebirth” upon coming to Manchester, both bring up the inhibitive nature of their university studies. “People telling you, ‘You have to play these chords and scales,’ it can really beat you into a corner,” says Bradbury. “[Working] at Johnny Roadhouse, it helped me find my love for guitar again, seeing so many different types of instruments and playing.”
Haycocks whips out his 1979 Gibson SG, which “feels like the scale length of a Fender with the sound of a Les Paul on an SG body”, while Bradbury grabs some water. “It has a really thick neck, and you have to really fight it,” Haycocks continues. “When I’m on stage, if something feels too nice, it creeps me out. I need to be slightly uncomfortable.” Bradbury has named his 1987 Jackson Charvel (when the two companies were co-owned) ‘Peggy’, having replaced its “horrible” high-output metal pickup with a simpler ’50-style Esquire. “It’s just got one volume knob,” he shrugs. “I don’t like too many buttons – it gets in the way!”
Image: Clementine Schneidermann
It’s Not Rocket Science
Simplicity is a guiding principle for Westside Cowboy, who’ve made the previous mistake of “songs that have way too many chords in”, Bradbury recalls. Earlier earworms Can’t See and Don’t Throw Rocks tap into punchy riff-work and cosy changes in velocity; both are visibly moulded into shape by their impulsive live show. Three-chord hit Kick Stones (The Boys), the lead single of their debut album It Goes On, is arguably their most precise work to date, recorded to ensure Haycocks’ gritty strumming is audible like it’s an entire instrument itself.
“There are certain bits of ear candy like that which make you feel more connected to the song and make it feel more real than a DI would,” explains Haycocks. “We’re always looking for it to sound like you’re standing in the middle of the room [with us], and I think that adds to the ‘authenticity’ of the sound,” he smiles, reluctant to toot his own horn. “In terms of a rock band versus a rock ‘n’ roll band, Westside Cowboy has more of the ‘roll’ in it,” adds Bradbury, who prefers not to overcook songs with distortion or pedals. “When you hear Reuben strum, you can feel the roundness of the individual strings that brush through it.”
The band’s approach draws parallels with recent comments from Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale, who described her “epiphany” upon realising “you don’t have to be a virtuoso guitarist to enjoy playing music with your friends”. She’s “very right”, Bradbury responds. “By no means is this a new idea,” elaborates Haycocks, “but it’s a personal thing when you actually realise. Everyone is aware that lots of chords don’t make a great song… but it’s taking that step yourself and actually believing what you’re saying. Westside Cowboy was that, for us: the epiphany moment.”
It’s why, as their self-named ‘Britainicana’ tag follows their sound onto whatever heights they will achieve, those core values will serve them well. All four write music, individually, in their spare time, but there is a shared understanding of what defines a Westside Cowboy song. Accordingly, it’s no surprise that It Goes On retains a clear consistency from top to bottom, solidifying the buzz that their first two EPs and talked-about gigs helped generate.
“Your uncle always tells you that a good song will still be a good song on an acoustic guitar, and at the start of the band, we just ran with that,” admits Haycocks. “Without guitars, ‘Britainicana’ wouldn’t have existed.” Bradbury adds the final layer. “The idea of ‘Britainicana’ comes down to the values around that song. If you can’t play it with either a guitar or piano and your voice, where it still resembles that piece of music, then maybe it’s not very Westside Cowboy.”
It Goes On is out now via Island
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