Going For Gold by British indie outfit Shed Seven is one of the Britpop era’s standout songs - an infectious, guitar-and brass-fuelled anthem that balances an uplifting sound with introspective lyrics. Arguably, it has become the band’s signature song, so much so that their 1999 greatest hits compilation was named after it.
Released as a single in 1996, the track, which was taken from Shed Seven’s second studio album, A Maximum High, became the band’s biggest hit, peaking at number eight in the UK Top 40.
Opening with a gorgeous, twangy, country-flavoured guitar riff that recalls Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley (when Shed Seven play the song live, they often segue into a version of the Elvis classic) it soon builds into a stadium-friendly epic, powered by soulful brass, which is credited to The Phantom Horns, a horn section featuring session musicians including saxophonist Gary Barnacle and trumpeter John Thirkell.
“We were accused so much of ripping off Suspicious Minds that we thought, ‘why not just play it anyway?’” says Shed Seven’s snake-hipped frontman and lyricist, Rick Witter, speaking to MusicRadar on Zoom from his home in York, the city where the band was formed.
Rather fittingly, behind him on the wall is a framed gold disc given to him for 250,000 sales of A Maximum High, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year - the band are touring to support the milestone and playing the album in full.
Reflecting on writing Going For Gold, Witter tells us: “I don’t really remember Paul [Banks, guitarist] giving me the riff, but I’m presuming that at the time we probably thought it was very similar [to Suspicious Minds], but it’s just the opening riff and then it turns into its own lovely beast. Over the years, people have mentioned the Elvis connection, but I can think of a lot worse people to pay homage to.”
The initial writing sessions for the song took place at the band’s rehearsal space in York, as Witter explains: “After the first album [1994’s Change Giver], we lost the place where we used to rehearse and write, and we were struggling to find somewhere to bash things out. As a rule, me and Paul will get together in one of our houses and get the basis of a song going, but, as a full band, you need somewhere to bash things out.
“So, Tom [Gladwin], our bass player, got friendly with this lad whose dad owned Cockerill’s potato plant - it was in this area just outside of York where, after all the potatoes had been picked, they’d be bagged up. There was a disused office block as part of the potato plant, and when this guy heard we were struggling, he said, ‘You can use it for free and be as loud as you want’. So, a lot of the album [A Maximum High] came together in a potato plant. I can remember looking out of the windows and seeing tractors with loads of potatoes in the back.”
He adds: “The great thing about this story is that long after the company moved, the building got knocked down and they built a B&Q [A British DIY store] there, and do you know what? Where the office block was is where they now sell the sheds.”
Going For Gold didn’t come together that easily to begin with. “I think it was one of the first batch of new songs for the album, and I seem to remember that even the record label [Polydor] wasn’t really into it,” reflects Witter.
“We had Bully Boy, and the MD of Polydor really liked that, but he couldn’t see past Going For Gold. I wasn’t convinced at the beginning [either], but then we re-demoed it and put loads of brass on it, and it really lifted the song out of the mire, so to speak. The whole of that album is quite brass-heavy.”
The brass gives Going For Gold a Stax-inspired feel, reminiscent of Elvis Presley's late-1960s Memphis recordings. “That’s exactly what we were after, and a lot of it was a fluke - we probably had discussions while we were recording it: ‘Shall we put a bit of this or that on it?’ We had the time and the money because the record company would throw it at you,” explains Witter.
The lyrics of Going For Gold touch on introspection, love, loss and emotional betrayal, with lines like, ‘Are you here for my pleasure / Or are you going for gold?’, ‘I never said never ever/You took the words right out of my mouth,’ and ‘You took the shine right out of my smile.’
We ask Witter where the inspiration for the lyric came from.
“I used to carry a notebook around with me - I was constantly jotting things down. I do have a memory of being sat on a bus - a long time before we wrote Going For Gold - and hearing two old ladies having a chat. I’m convinced one of them said, ‘Oh, never say never, love,’ or something like that, and I thought, ‘That’s a nice phrase’,” he says.
“When Paul comes up with a new riff or a set of chords, the first thing I do is to think of a melody and usually the first thing that comes into my head is the thing that sticks and wins, and then I’ll start piecing together a storyline around the melody. Going For Gold is self-explanatory.”
So, it wasn’t inspired by the TV game show of the same name? “No, but we got asked that a lot at the time. It was nothing to do with the TV show. However, over the years, we’ve had a lot of songs that could potentially be [named after] TV programmes. We’ve got a song called Stars In Your Eyes,” he says.
Talking of TV shows, the band did their fair share of them promoting Going For Gold, including an appearance on middle-of-the road UK daytime programme This Morning, co-hosted by husband-and-wife duo, Richard and Judy (Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan), but it wasn’t one of Shed Seven’s proudest moments.
“It was in Liverpool and it was pre-recorded - my memory is of us arriving the night before because they wanted to film us before the show went live, so we had to mime at nine in the morning, which meant getting into the studio for eight. We stayed overnight in a hotel in Liverpool and got too drunk. I remember just being thankful that we were miming,” he remembers.
Going For Gold, along with the rest of A Maximum High, was recorded at the legendary RAK Studios in London, with producer and mixer Chris Sheldon at the helm, who was known for making rock records.
“We wanted to make our sound more gritty and hard - it was great working with Chris, and, funnily enough, years later, he’s still mixing our albums and coming up with the goods for us,” says Witter.
The promotional video for Going For Gold has the band performing the song against a red studio backdrop with imagery of women painted in gold, dancing in flames, inspired by the opening credits of the classic ‘60s James Bond film Goldfinger.
“It’s one of our better videos to be honest with you,” says Witter. “It was quite simple. I believe the cover star for the single was Jo Guest, who used to be a model. It’s her body [painted gold] on the sleeve of the single.”
We ask Witter if he sees a substantial increase in his royalty payments during an Olympic year. Surely Going For Gold is a surefire song to be played as part of the TV coverage…
“I had a bit of a moan about that one summer,” he admits. “We were playing a festival, and I think the Olympics must’ve been on… I had a moan on stage about why it’s always Spandau Ballet. We’re always the bridesmaid to Gary Kemp!”
On the enduring appeal of Going For Gold, Witter says: “It’s a standard, really - there are certain songs that we couldn’t not play as part of a setlist, and that’s one of them. Other songs come and go, depending on how we feel at the time, but Going For Gold has to be in the set every time, and it always goes down well. Everyone looks like they’re absolutely loving hearing it. We’re a very lucky band in the respect that we could be in Blackburn on a Monday night, or London on a Saturday night, and, inside that venue, for two hours, the atmosphere is always incredible.”
More than 30 years into the band’s career, that’s something to be proud of, isn’t it?
“As long as I’ve still got the hips and my health… Look at Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger - they’ve got 30 years on us and they’re still at it. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating 60 years of Going For Gold,” he says.
In January 2027, Shed Seven are releasing their seventh studio album, which, appropriately, is called Shed Seven. The band have enjoyed a remarkable resurgence in recent years, achieving their first ever number one album in 2024 with A Matter of Time, followed just 10 months later by a second number one with Liquid Gold, placing them alongside such artists as The Beatles, Elton John and David Bowie, who also achieved two UK number one albums in a single calendar year.
So, do they feel any pressure to repeat that success with the new album? “No - it’ll do what it’s going to do,” says Witter. “Obviously everyone wants it… It took us long enough to get there in the first place. What I want is for people in 40 years’ time to still be listening to it and loving it - I don’t care where it goes [in the charts.]”
So how does he feel about revisiting A Maximum High 30 years on and playing it in full?
“I suppose it’s nice to reflect… There are five Top 40 singles off the album, so a lot of the songs are played at nearly all our gigs,” he says. “It’s nice to revisit the album tracks that we might not have played for years, but then, saying that we’re just a good live band, and we’ve got an awful lot of hits.
“It’s slightly frustrating when you have to lower the mood sometimes when you’re playing a song you’ve not played for 18 years, and only half the crowd knows what it is… That’s why I’m looking forward to Shedcember [a run of UK shows this November and December] because that will be a hits-heavy tour and you’re more assured that you’re going to keep people up there all the way through it - I don’t like the dips and troughs; it’s got to be hammered out.”
Going For Gold is now an indie staple, but Witter doesn’t think it’s Shed Seven’s definitive song. “I think Chasing Rainbows beats Going For Gold as our most well-known song - it didn’t chart as high, but Chasing Rainbows is the quintessential Shed Seven song, and we always play it last at gigs,” he tells us.
“We always drop out at the end and let the crowd sing it, and it’s such a moment. With Going For Gold, I always like to mime shaking the maracas to that one because that’s what I was doing in 1996. Our fans who come to see us know that potentially they’re going to get a maraca because I give them away every night.”
Does it feel like three decades since A Maximum High and Going For Gold came out?
“These big anniversaries seem to come around quite quickly, but I don’t really give them much thought until I’m told,” he says. “Our comeback album, Instant Pleasures, was released in 2017 - that was the first new music we’d written in 16 years and now that’s nearly 10 years old… It’s like, ‘where has that 10 years gone?’ Incredible.”
We suggest to Witter that in a lot of cases, it’s record companies, rather than artists, who are concerned about celebrating album anniversaries. Most artists are concentrating on their latest records rather than dwelling on the past, but the music industry is capitalising on reissues and nostalgia.
“Of course - it’s all about the pound signs,” he says.
Going for gold, anyone?
For more info on Shed Seven's UK tour and upcoming seventh album, check out the band's website.
