Young Guns - Heat, Sleep and Falling Over

Last week saw the return of a band that has been MIA from the UK scene for a while. They were sorely missed but now Buckinghamshire’s Young Guns are back and they haven't done their comeback by half.

They played a show on a bus, kicked off a headline tour and released an album, Ones and Zeros, the day after they went right back to where it all started, The Fighting Cocks in Kingston, where the band played their first ever show and where we managed to catch up with 4/5 of them. 

You can read what we thought of the gig and the new album here. 

ADVANCED WARNING: There’s a reason why this interview is on the brief side and that reason is that it was less of an interview and more of a…hostage situation. Whilst the guys were chatting with fans after the show I all but cornered them and forced them into answering some ridiculous questions for you! Aren’t I kind (to you, not to bands. Clearly.)  

Summer or Winter?

Ben Jolliffe (Drums): I would usually go Summer but because I just played the hottest show of my life and I would do anything for some cold water right now, I’m going to go winter!

If there was an extra hour every day what would you do with it?

Fraser Taylor (Guitar): That is quite easy.

Ben: Sleep!

Fraser: I would sleep yeah.  We last slept about, three years ago maybe?

Ben: I got a solid two hours last night but…

What was the most embarrassing thing to happen to you at school?

Simon Mitchell (Bass): Errr, so many. So many things! You know in the canteen when you use to get trays of food? Well there was a girl I really fancied and I just couldn’t stop staring at her and I just tripped straight over my best friend’s foot. The food went all down me! I fell down, I looked like a twat and I didn’t get the girl in the end so errr, that was a real shame! I spent the rest of the day looking like that, no wonder she didn’t fancy me!

McDonald’s or KFC?

Gustav Woods (Vocals): Neither! I’m a vegetarian! HA! I picked that one by accident, I just pulled it out! 

A huge thank you is owed to Young Guns for allowing me to grab some pics and stick a dictaphone in their faces. We also want to say thank you to all of the fans for not telling us to get lost. 

And, as we're thanking people, both Banquet Records and The Fighting Cocks are performing a vastly important service to the music industry and we are eternally grateful that you both exist. 

Young Guns launch out of this world album Ones and Zeros

Just in case you went into hibernation for the past few weeks and missed it, Young Guns came back!

All sorts have been going on. There was a show on a London bus, a headline UK tour, and a string of signings so that the several million Young Guns fans could get their hands on a signed copy of the new album, Ones and Zeros.

If all of that just doesn’t seem to be enough then we should mention that they also did an epic set at Kingston’s The Fighting Cocks. I know, I know, why there right? Well a) the place is incredible and a rock music landmark and b) Young Guns happened to play their first ever show there. Isn’t that neat?

Don’t panic, we got them to answer some Grab Bag Q’s (following some ever so slight coercion) and you can read their answers here.

The Buckinghamshire rockers burst onto the stage with what has easily become our favourite Young Guns track to date. I Want Out was first played on Radio One in August last year and is a beautifully articulate record that you can also lose your mind too. If you’re going to see Young Guns live make sure you have your jumping shoes on because when that chorus kicks in you’ll be thankful for it.

It’s also a strong indicator that Ones and Zeros was written with a live show in mind, but not the first. That honour goes to opening track Rising Up which was the next treat for the tiny Kingston venue.  

Throughout the album the chugging guitar lines, relentless drum tracks and countless lyrics that are literally screaming out for crowd participation show that this band are a live band and their short set in Kingston proves this to be right. The recordings are sensational but on stage, this band come alive and when you see it you understand why this band were so deeply missed when they left our shores for a while.

When the band launch into The Weight of the World (the first Young Guns song I ever heard) it was as if the whole crowd remembered that they were all old friends. As lead singer, Gustav Wood, points out this was the first track that they listened back to and realised that they could write songs. It was the song that started it all and it proved to be a timeless rock classic that will go down in history.

But we can’t think about the past for long as the band are now moving quickly into Speaking In Tongues and Daylight, both of which are shining examples of eloquent lyricism mixed with the raw rock core we’ve always seen from Young Guns but now with added dance quality. That’s something we wouldn’t have necessarily expected this time last year but it works. It really works.

Young Guns capped off this mini show with 2012 belter Bones as if to prove that they might have been away but everything we loved about them three years ago is as alive as ever. In fact, it’s got a whole lot stronger. Ones and Zeros is a stellar effort and the live shows are out of this world.

Young Guns are rock heroes already, they just have to do their time now.  

The only problem is with shows in June, at 2 in the afternoon, in a basement, is that they tend to get a bit on the warm side. But not to worry. Young Guns could have played all day long if they wanted. We would have happily evaporated for them.

Young Guns Facebook
Young Guns Website
Young Guns Twitter

Walk The Moon - Raps, Nuns and Sheep

Ohio’s Walk The Moon have taken over our lives. Since the first time we saw them we knew that they were something magical and with spots on the UK’s own Paul O’Grady Show, a sold out headline tour and a new hypnotising album, Talking Is Hard, out here on June 15^th it looks as if they are on track to take over the world.

They are so good in fact that we decided another road trip to Glasgow was in order so that we could catch them on aforementioned sold out UK tour. Let me tell you, we danced our little tartan socks off.

Also, my Mum and Nan watched them on The Paul O’Grady Show and they both said that they were very good, so...

What is the worst place you have ever woken up in?:

Nick: I’ve just thought of some highly inappropriate places that I could say.

Kev: I have one not about me, but about someone else. They woke up in a bathroom, in a fraternity, with a guy standing over them with a sledge hammer in his hand threatening them. He had gone out for a crazy night after a gig and I went to go to the apartment that he thought he was in. He wasn’t there and I didn’t know where to go so I just started walking around the streets. Finally he just came running out of a house. It’s not about me but that is the craziest story.

Nick: That’s better than anything I’ve got. Well, before Kevin and a couple of the other guys were in the band we travelled around and played in London in 2009. I use to study at Goldsmith’s in London so we stayed at a buddy’s house but he didn’t tell us that he didn’t have any couches, he didn’t have any towels and he only had cold water. So I remember we were groggy and got in after playing a show that night and anyway, I woke up on the hard wood floor in my clothes just shivering.

Do you have any phobias?:

Nick: Fear of heights. I am terrified of heights. It’s not about how high it is but more about if you’re secure. I love rollercoasters and high buildings and mountains and stuff but if I’m on the edge of something and there’s no barrier…

Kev: You’re just gonna jump???

Nick: Well I just feel like someone could come and push me off at any time and that I would fall and die.

Kev: I love heights, I get excited by them. We went to the grand canyon and there was a railing that people could stand nicely behind but I’m the one who was 50 feet out on the precipice with my leg out over the big drop. People were like “you’re an idiot!”

Nick: I get weird just thinking about it .

Kev: I use to be really, deathly, afraid of dark water. Water I can’t see into like the deep end of the pool. I was the one who was always like “there’s probably an alligator that has got through the pipes.”

You’re bored, what do you do?:

Nick: Recently I’ve taken to writing raps on the drive to and from various cities. I secretly, not-so-secretly, really want to be a rapper actually. It’s all just about sex, big dicks, ya know, rock ‘n’ roll.

Kev: Slamming chicks…

Nick: Yeah! Sex , Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Kev: We need to make that new track that you’re going to rap on…

Kev: Lately I’ve been listening to albums that I assume I’ll hate or that I have never listened to in the past because I thought they were dumb or whatever. So diving deep into and analysing music that I never thought I would like lie the new Miley Cyrus album which I assumed I wouldn’t dig that much. I love pop music, but for some reason I thought I had seen it all as far as Miley Cyrus was concerned. Usually it’s pretty random, Spotify, Browse, go down to the 40^th song on the list.

Tell us the best joke you have ever heard:

Nick: Oh man, I never remember jokes.

Kev: Donkey dick?

Nick: Ha yeah! Donkey dick! No, I can tell you a terrible one that I love but that only 1 in 10 people think is funny. So, these two guys stumble out of a bar. They’re wasted, drunk, they’re seeing shit, far gone. This nun walks by and one of the drunk guys goes “wait a minute, check this out.” He runs over to the nun, BAM,  he punches her in the face. He roughs her up a little bit and picks her up, she’s in full nun habit. He looks her in the face and goes, “not so tough now are you Batman?”

What is one thing you would like to become better at?

Nick: Diplomacy.

Kev: My surface, quick answer would be golfing. Blake (Tour Manager) is really good at it.

Nick: Blake is good at pretty much every sport.

Blake: That’s not true.

Nick: Well in comparison to us.

Kev: Golfing is something that my grandfather was passionate about. I wasn’t as a kid before he passed away. My dad really liked golfing. I guess my father and my grandfather had that classic, old school, father and son-in law relationship where it took my grandfather a really long time to trust my dad y’know? It was a father of the bride type situation. It wasn't until they played golf together that they finally connected and then it was EVERYTHING. They were both good at it.

Nick: How appropriate for Scotland.

Kev: I would love to become good at golfing but it’s a very time consuming sport. 

Nick: Diplomacy is way better than golf.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Kev: That is a good question.

Nick: That is a great question. I learnt that Sheep…uhm…they have a life expectation of 10 or 11 years but after...maybe 5 – 8 years their teeth deteriorate and they aren’t able to eat well and make good wool.

Kev: We were driving through the country and looking at the cute little sheep and we were like “let’s look up the BEST possible fact right now, when we’re in love with the sheep.”

Nick: I was just wondering, oh how long do sheep live? And then they were like well they live this long...but they actually only live THIS long because who wants a ratty sheep?

Kev: And then we were yelling at all the sheep WE WILL FREE YOU!

Nick: Save the sheepies!

Kev: This week I learnt how in love with the new music the fans are here. This is the first time we have had a headline tour in the UK since the last album. Our new album, Talking is Hard, is not even out yet here but everyone in the room is singing along to every song. We would love to find out how they all learnt the words.

Talking Is Hard will be released here on June 15^th.

http://www.walkthemoonband.com/

P.S: We really, really love Scotland and are over the moon that we

have had the opportunity to visit the country twice in the past two weeks. It’s a beautiful drive, a fantastic breakfast and boy do they know how to do gigs. If all of that wasn’t enough, we decided to stay on another night so that we could get ourselves to Edinburgh Zoo, so here’s a picture of a panda. I know how much the internet loves a panda.  

We Took an Epic Journey for Twin Atlantic and Lonely The Brave

Last Thursday another Louder Now reporter and I grabbed some dinner and put the world to rights over cocktails (she read the sign outside said “bitch, its happy hour, get in the restaurant” and ran inside in all her Irish glory.)

We analysed every section of crappiness we could and moaned about how nothing we had planned was happening quite the way we wanted it to.

As most people do when suffering from any kind of life-crisis (we’ve dubbed ours a pre-life crisis) we decided that something drastic would have to happen to get rid of the general crappiness.

36 hours later we were in a Volkswagen Up! driving from South West London to Glasgow. Yeah. My grandmother tells me that I’m brave.

I know that this all sounds slightly senseless or, failing that, like the beginning of some sort of Thelma and Louise re-hash but it all becomes a lot more reasonable when I point out that we were off to see Twin Atlantic rip up their home town alongside Lonely the Brave.

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.1: Twin Atlantic and Lonely The Brave have made the best possible road trip music.

It was a 400 mile trip to Glasgow which took us about 8 hours (we stopped a billion times, all of which were my fault) so we listened to their albums, in each one’s entirety more than once. If you’re ever looking to learn the words to a song, play it on loop on a road trip. But the problem with epic albums is that you can’t help but think to yourself: “It just can’t be this good live.”

Red light. I promise I will get to the show, just bear with me.

Green light. Have you ever sat in a car and stared out the window, with the perfect song playing on the radio, and imagined yourself as the lead in some movie which involves an epic journey of discovery or the like? Lonely The Brave’s The Day’s War, which will be re-released on June 8^th, was 14 spectacular variations of that perfect song. It’s just the right amount of beautiful and moody. Hands-up time, I thought the term “Doom-Pop” was ridiculous when I saw it on Lonely The Brave’s Facebook, but that is accurately  and specifically what it is.

At this junction I should probably mention that I’m pretty infamous for suffering from chronic travel sickness. Ask my mother and she will tell you, in graphic detail, about the time we boarded a plane and was told on more than one occasion that we were SUPER lucky because the plane was brand spanking new. Yeah. I christened the hell out of that plane.

I know, I’m pretty much the idiot with hayfever who becomes a florist, but nevertheless there I was on an 800 mile round trip in a car that should probably never have been forced to do it, and I was freaking loving life. It’s incredibly difficult to even remember that you feel significantly poorly when you’re listening to Twin Atlantic’s Hold On from their 2014 album Great Divide.

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.2: The song The Ghost of Eddie from Twin Atlantic’s first album, Free, makes you feel all sorts of bad-ass.

You remember the crappiness I mentioned? I’m pretty sure we had all but forgotten it by the time we spotted the mountains in Cumbria. (I’ve looked them up and I know that their technically hills but from where I was sitting those were mountains dammit.)   

Anyway, half a bag-for-life of snacks, a thousand re-plays of Heart and Soul, and 8 phone calls from my mother later (no exaggeration), and we arrived in Glasgow.

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.3: There’s a reason people rave about Scottish meat.  

We checked into our hotel, did our hair and make-up (we were owed the girly time), sent a dozen e-mails and headed into Glasgow to explore. We popped into a Bar & Kitchen called Neighbourhood where I had the best burger I have ever had and then laughed because I forgot where I was. Of course the burgers were amazing.

Only marginally recovered from the journey we took the short walk to The SSE Hydro Arena which, by the way, is stunning and an incredible venue which gives Wembley and The O2 a run for their money. 

Amber light: we’ve now arrived at the show, see, I told you we would get there eventually.

First up were the Cambridge doom-pop-rockers. Lonely The Brave took all of my worries about not being as fantastic live and obliterated them in style. Their set was magically moody and really intriguing. These guys have had a pretty eventful year themselves clocking up over 10,000 miles over seven and a half weeks for their UK and Euro tour, being nominated for Best Video at the Kerrang! Awards and preparing to re-release their album, The Day’s War, as I mentioned before.

Track number two on that album, Trick of the Light, is particularly gorgeous and this will not be the last time an arena hosts it.

We were lucky enough to pose a few stupid questions to Lonely The Brave and you can see what ridiculousness ensued here. 

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.4: Chatting to one band during the show means missing another band’s set we’re really sorry Eliza and The Bear!

Twin Atlantic pulled off something remarkable without even stepping foot on the stage. Before their grand entrance the crowd was treated to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, in its full glory, and the arena was more than happy to play along blaring out the words as if there were a band up there.

Then the main attraction burst on to the stage in an explosion of streamers.

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.5: Twin Atlantic are HUGE fans of streamers and confetti and balloons and basically anything it is okay to throw at an audience.

THINGS I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW NO.6: Twin Atlantic fans are HUGE supporters of having stuff thrown at them.  

As they launched into 2011’s Make A Beast of Myself (which may well be the best opener of all time) it was obvious how much this show, and the whole tour, meant to Twin Atlantic. Even people in the very top tier of this 13,000 capacity arena could feel it (like us).

“We might have taken the long way round” admits front man Sam McTrusty, and yeah, he’s probably right (but then so did we). In any event they ended up right where they were supposed to be, headlining the best venues at home and across the country.

What makes this band so special is the broad spectrum they range across. They can fire out trashy rock songs like Make A Beast of Myself and Free but stretch out towards power-pop-anthems like Hold On and Heart & Soul. They can even deliver spotlessly beautiful heart warmers like Oceans and Crash Land. They do all of it quite brilliantly. 

Take a look at the extensive list of bands that Twin Atlantic have supported (sometimes being handpicked by the headliners themselves) and it becomes pretty clear how they do it. My Chemical Romance, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit. Twin Atlantic are influenced by an array of legendary artists stretching from one end of the rock world to the other and that’s really paid off for them. 

It was one of those gigs where you would have been more than happy for the headliners to carry on into the morning. I would have listened to Twin Atlantic play every song they have ever written and I was a little bit gutted when they exited the stage.

We sort of crawled back to the hotel and then collapsed there in a pile of exhaustion. Most people would probably tell you that it’s a little bit stupid to drive 400 miles for a gig. Anything could have happened to us. The car could have broken down (and to all extents and purposes it probably should have done), we could have ended up in a horror hotel and wish that we were back in London, we could have got lost in Glasgow never to return with only a life of kilt wearing ahead of us.

THE ULTIMATE THING I LEARNT FROM OUR ROADTRIP TO GLASGOW: It’s a risk worth taking, to have a life worth living (Twin Atlantic, Hold On, ‘Free’ 2011).   

 

  

Lonely The Brave - Drum kit crashes, being ginger and Thomas the Tank Engine

Last weekend we hauled ourselves to Glasgow, Scotland, to see Lonely the Brave support Twin Atlantic at The SSE Hydro Arena. The gig was spectacular as was our epic journey to get there but you can read about that here.

We got Lonely The Brave to answer some stupid questions for us though! Here’s the ridiculousness that ensued.

Tell us the best joke you have ever heard:

Mark: I can’t, it’s offensive!

Ross: Just do it!

Mark: No I really can’t.

Andrew: Do a child friendly one.

Mark: I can’t that’s the problem.

Andrew: Okay well I’ve got one. Why did the baker have smelly hands?

Mark & Ross: Because he kneaded a poo!

Andrew: Yep. Pretty bad but still the best joke I know.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?:

Mark: That our countries fucked. Well I knew it was fucked before that but it’s even more fucked now. We’re not fans of the Tories.

Andrew: And everyone voted for them for some reason.

Mark: Apart from in the happy country we’re in, which is great!

Andrew: Oops, we got a bit political for a second there.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how weird are you? Explain:  

Mark: Well, Wheat Crunchies have to remain well hidden.

Andrew: Wheat Crunchies are fucking amazing.

Ross: I’d say we were at a level eight.

Andrew: Yeah, well I do have a bit of an OCD thing. This will sound really strange. I have to have my TV on certain volumes. Not necessarily even or odd numbers or anything but only a small selection of volumes are acceptable.

Mark: I have a similar one with letters where the angles in letters have to add up to a certain number. So the letter T is like number two so it has to have two strokes in it. 

Andrew: I probably shouldn’t admit this but I actually have a lifelong fear of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Mark: He really does.

Andrew: It’s actually the music. As soon as I hear that music I shit myself. It’s probably because of some deep rooted suppressed memory. Please don’t mention it again.

When you look in the mirror just after waking up, what thought goes through your head?:

Mark: FUCK I’M GINGER AGAIN! OH GOD!

Andrew: Usually it’s why am I so fat? Followed by, oh that’s right, I’ve eaten kebabs for the last 25 nights on tour.

What is one thing you would like to become better at?: 

Ross: There’s a couple of things. Being a better family member and spending more time with them. It’s hard when you’re on tour though. But I do want to get better at keeping in touch because I feel like I’ve really let that go.

Mark: Start enjoying things more. Worry is a killer.

Andrew: Writing things down I think. Because I always think things, and think “oh that sounds really good.” It’s probably not really good but at least if I wrote it down I could look back and think “you’re a dick that’s actually rubbish” and censor myself.

Which musical instrument do you wish you could play?:

Andrew: Well bass would be a good start. No I use to play Cello until I was about 9 I suppose and then I stopped. Now I’m really gutted because one of the guys from Twin Atlantic plays the Cello on stage and it sounds amazing.

Mark: I wish I could play Cello as well actually. I’m gonna learn it! Fuck it! I’ll show you up!

Andrew: I’ve actually had to learn a few bits on the keyboard for some new music we’re writing so hopefully I can do that on stage.

Ross: I want to learn how to play the piano.

Mark: He can actually play the piano, he’s being very modest but he can actually play.

Andrew: I actually found a bass with a keyboard on it and I think I have to get it.0

What’s your favourite method of apologising?:

Ross: Carrier pigeon.

Mark: I never apologise…because I am never wrong.

Ross: If we go back to the earlier question, the thing Mark would like to be better at is being more modest.

Mark: No, seriously I think the best way to apologise is sincerely.

Andrew: I’m a big fan of the ancient technique of grovelling. On the knees grovelling. The more you humiliate yourself the more you mean it.

What is the stupidest thing you have ever done?

Andrew: Oh my god.

Mark: How long have you got? We did a couple of shows last year, we were playing a club, and we had done the first line of the first song and I fell backwards into the drum kit. We carried on and everything was fine and then the next night about three songs into the set I did the same thing again. Everybody thinks I either did it on purpose or I can’t stand up. The band should probably all wear hard hats and hi-vis.

Andrew: I have thought of one, it’s not very funny but it’s definitely stupid. I once poured a whole bowl of boiling water over myself. I was inhaling smelling salts because I had a cold and I whipped my head up and the whole bowl went over on me. It REALLY hurt.

Ross: Probably admitting that I had a fear of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Mark: *starts to sing Thomas the Tank Engine theme tune*

If you could try any job for a week what would you try?

Ross: Probably something to do with sharks, is that a job?

Mark: What like a loan shark?

Ross: No! Like a Marine Biologist, I’d give that a go.

Mark: I think I would like to be Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Fly F 14’s circa 1986, just for a laugh. Mostly just to wear the glasses. Even if I couldn’t fly the planes, just wear the glasses. Danger zone!

Andrew: I would probably try to be a bin man or something. But I would have to do it in a musical style like swing around lampposts singing happy songs. Mate, you have got to have so much strength to do that job.

Lonely The Brave will re-release their debut album The Day's War on June 8^th and can be pre-ordered now.

Catch them live on these dates .

All Time Low, Kingston Hippodrome 22.03.2015

Less than four months into 2015 and All Time Low have already had a co-headline arena tour of the UK, shot what is set to be a spectacular live DVD at London’s Wembley Arena and are now drip feeding us songs from their upcoming album Future Hearts. But the pop-punk legends didn’t fail to deliver a classic acoustic performance at Kingston’s Hippodrome which took over-joyed fans back to a simpler time. 

All Time Low are no strangers to first-rate acoustic shows. In 2009 their MTV Unplugged special CD entered the Top 25 Alternative Chart in the US not to mention an abundance of well-watched stripped down You Tube videos.

But since everything the Baltimore rockers do is doused in an exceptional level of success, with only more to come, it would be easy to assume that these days are long behind them.

Thankfully that’s not the case and there was nowhere more apt to prove that then at Kingston’s Hippodrome, where they played a similar set back in 2013.

Kicking off with 2009’s Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t) the nostalgic scene was well and truly set but the crowd was soon reminded what year it was with the much more recent belters, Backseat Serenade and Somewhere in Neverland, all performed to the bands trademark flawless standard and decorated with dick jokes.

Of course it wasn’t all yearning and reminiscence. It was technically a launch show after all and it was only fitting to present their new offering Kids In The Dark, the video for which recently popped up on the internet delighting fans across the world.

One highlight of the night for any die-hard fan came when frontman Alex Gaskarth was left alone to perform Remembering Sunday, from So Wrong It’s Right, the 2007 album that catapulted them into the pop-punk hall of fame. To make it that much more special Gaskarth wasn’t alone for long as he was eventually joined by The Voice US 2012 winner, and Hey Monday vocalist, Cassadee Pope.

With so much exceptional work coming from this band since 2007 some may have forgotten that their stellar song writing goes way back, but playing Remembering Sunday and Therapy back to back once again soon helped to remind us that these guys have all been honing these skills for years and they were pretty good to start with.

Real crowd pleasers followed in the form of Weightless and Dear Maria, Count Me In but at this point the mass were just pleased to be in their company. Never has a band had such a rapport with their fans, wearing masks given to them by the audience and discussing their various travel arrangements: “You travelled for 13 hours to be here? Why? You didn’t have to do that.”

But closing the show with another new song, Something’s Gotta Give, it was all of a sudden really obvious why this night was special. This is a band who are so good at writing songs that they can still play them and get the exact same reaction they did 6 years ago. Not one of the new songs they have released has disappointed their extensive fan base yet and it’s clear that in another 6 years these guys will still be going strong and still be playing, and writing, what can only be considered as anthems.

EofE - Beards, Jager with Sprite and Fifa

EofE has a remarkable 2014, touring with the likes of McBusted and The Vamps as well as playing a sold out hometown shown in Birmingham. 

Now they are attacking 2015 with a new single, Stars in Hollywood, to be released on March 9^th and a debut album to follow.

We caught up with the guys just before their pretty impressive set at Nottingham’s acclaimed Rock City (06/03) and made them face Louder Now’s Six Stupid Questions:

Who’s the last person on earth you would want to be stuck in a lift with?

Reece: Tom

Dan: Yeah, if you spent a week on a bus with him you would know why.

Nicky: Hitler!

Dan: If you met Hitler, you would be dead now.

Nicky: Yeah but I would want to ask him some questions, like, what are you playing at?

You’re offered half a million dollars to change all the lyrics to one of your songs for an irritating commercial. Do you consider it?

Luke: No. Half a million isn’t that much really is it?

Reece: Half a million isn’t that much? I wouldn’t mind that!

Luke: Yeah but it’s not half a million just for me is it? I’d have to split it with all of you.

Reece: Even if they offered us £50. I could do with a tenner.

Luke: I would do it for a million probably but it would depend on what the company was. I wouldn’t do it for Coca Cola. I would definitely do it for Durex. I would take £400,000 for Durex.

Is there anything you know this week that you didn’t know last week?

Dan: What I smell like if I haven’t showered for a week.

Tom: We already knew that.

Dan: Well there’s also no Nando’s in Nuneaton. I had to have Subway and then a pizza after, which to be fair was quite nice.

Reece: This week I found out that Jagermeister tastes really nice with Sprite. Those were the only two options on the bus. It was nice!

Nicky: I learnt that if you down a pitcher of Zombie…it will make you sick in your bunk.

Reece: He was laughing about the fact that he was sick in his sleep as well. You could have died. 

Have you ever had nightmares because of a film you saw?

All: Yes.

Nicky: The last scary thing I saw was Halloween and my sister had the mask in her room and I think I dreamt that I walked upstairs to her room and Michael Myers was there.

Tom: When was that?

Nicky: Last week.

Tom: I did not like the film It.  Luke had a meme on his phone of the clown in It and it was exactly the nightmare I had.

When was the last time you screamed at the TV?

Reece: Probably something football related, maybe the World Cup?

Nicky: Game of Thrones. Have you seen it? *THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN OMITTED FOR SPOILER ALERT REASONS* I absolutely screamed at the TV when that happened.

Tom: Fifa! We have this place where we all go to write songs (aka Dan’s house) and when it gets to midnight and we’re all really frustrated we tend to play Fifa. We were India, the worst team we could think of , but we were doing so well and then we just got knocked out.

Nicky: We lost 14 – 0 to Brazil.

Tom: The heart just wasn’t in it to be honest.

Dan: We all let the side down.

If you could chose, what decade would you most like to have been born in?

Reece: The 60’s, so I could be in my twenties in the 80’s. As long as I could get away with having long permed hair and wearing leather trousers and a leather jacket. I should be allowed to grow my hair.

Tom: You ARE allowed to grow your hair. You decided to cut it off and grow it on your face!

Reece: It’s an ongoing argument because I’m the only one who can grow a beard.

Luke: Well that’s just not true.

Reece: Yes it is.

Luke: No, because I can grow a beard.

Reece: No you can’t.

Luke: Yeah. I can. I just choose not to.

Tom: I would want to be born in the 60’s too so I can write all the best tunes that came out in the 70s and 80s. Reece copied me to make me look like an idiot. My answer was better.

Dan: I would want to be born in the early 40s so I could be in my prime in the 50s and 60s and then get old in the 80s.

Nicky: I would probably want to be born back when caveman was around.

Dan: What like 10,000 BC.

Nicky: Yeah. That was a good year. Back when they started tribal drumming and it wasn’t spoilt by silly guitars and stuff.

Luke: I would go for Victorian times. It seems like it was a better time back then.

Reece: I can so see you being a chimney sweep.

Luke: I wouldn’t be a chimney sweep, I would invent something like the telephone, you know what I mean? Make loads of money!