Never Hill - Netflix, Brownies and Paul Rudd

Never Hill backstage at Nuneaton's Queens Hall

Never Hill played Nuneaton's Queens Hall last week and it was something pretty special. As is their new EP, Epilogue, which they released on June 20th. You can read about what we thought of the record and their show here. But here's some unnecessarily ridiculous questions that we put to the boys before they took to the stage! 

Tell us the best joke you have ever heard:

Jacob: Honestly, I’m blank!

Jake: Google it!

Adam: It’s like you’ve had the worst truth or dare like “Ah, I can’t do this…”

Jake: Okay we can move on and come back…

When was the last time you screamed at the TV?

Daniel: Definitely this week when, SPOILER ALERT, Jon Snow got stabbed to death.

Adam: See I didn’t scream I just cried a little bit.

Daniel: I was devastated, I was actually screaming at Olly the little kid who did it.

Perfect night in?

Jake: That’s easy. Netflix. Daredevil Series, class. With a Chinese takeaway.

Adam: I literally have the opposite of that question…which does not suit me…

Perfect night out?

Jake: We should actually swap. You don’t go out!

Adam: The thing is I really like just going to bars with my mates. If I go to a club I end up getting really embarrassed because I get way to into the dancing. I dunno, I would say going to another gig. It gets me pumped and I’m all “yes! I want to do that.” It’s like when we went to Slam Dunk, I was off on one.  

Jake: With a cheeky nandos!

All collectively: CHEEKY NANDOS!

Tell us the best joke you’ve ever heard.

Dan: Are you ready yet?

Jacob: Hell no!

Dan: Okay we’ll go again.

Have you ever given someone a hickey?

Jacob: Yes! And she’s my wife so. I’ve been with one girl my whole life so…

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

Jake: There was something, I can’t remember what it was. Maybe I should think about it and pass it on.

You’re feeling sick and you can only have one home comfort. What do you choose?

Adam: I would say Game of Thrones, but if it was food.

Jake: What? If Game of Thrones was food?

Adam: No! But that’s my TV show! But, really specifically, if it were food, then it would be Birds Eye Chicken Chargrills, because they’re really nice.

Jake: Ah yeah they are nice.

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

Jake: I’ve remembered my thing now! We are all born with blue eyes. We’re like kittens.

Adam: I looked at you then and thought... “dude, you’ve got brown eyes…”

Jake: No but we start off with blue eyes and then they change.

Weirdly enough, when we put this question to EofE their answer was that there is no Nando's in Never Hill's host town, Nuneaton! Read that interview here.

Tell us the best joke you’ve ever heard.

Jacob: Okay I’ve googled it but this one I actually heard! I went to a really emotional wedding the other day…even the cake was in tiers.  

Jake: Hahaha it’s so good but it’s so bad!

Jacob: Yeah, it wasn’t funny.

Adam: I don’t get it.

Jake: It took me a while but then…tiered…like cake tiers.

Adam: Oh is that what it’s called??

Piercings or tattoos?

Dan: Tattoos, all the way. If I could have more, I would! If I could afford more.

What decade would you most like to have been born in and why?

Jake: Oh god, I don’t know!

Adam: We seem like the most boring people! None of us live a life!  

Jake: All we want is Netflix and jammies. We have made that clear, straight off. Erm, I would probably say the 80s because it looked fun.

Adam: It looked fun? That’s it?

Jake: I would want to be born in the 80s so that Calvin Harris would put me in his song.

Dan: I was born in the 80s.

Jake: Yeah but that’s because you’re old man.

Have you ever broken a bone?

Adam: Yes. I think the funniest one was my nose. I’ve broken quite a few, they’re all from skating really. There was one where one of those pendulum swings. I don’t know why, no one was even on it, but I just stood there and it swung back and hit me in the face, and I just went home. It was the most casual breaking, my nose was on one side. Then there was one where I went over a skate ramp and then just cracked my head off the floor and then went home and didn’t even say bye to any of my friends. So yeah. They’re not really that funny, they’re quite devastating.

You’re bored. What do you do?

Louder Now: You’re not allowed to say Netflix. I’m banning Netflix as an answer.

Jacob: Oh. That’s exactly what I was going to say.

Dan: Well you like to do a particular thing that you made for us last night…

Jacob: When I’m bored, it’s a bit lame, but, I like to bake.

Jake: To be fair, the brownies you brought in yesterday were so good. They were perfect.

Who’s the first person you would choose to be stuck in a lift with?

Jake: You have a wife.

Dan: Yeah but is it like, famous person included? Nah, I won’t go with the wife.

All: Oooooooh.

Dan: Because if you’re going to be stuck in a lift, you’re only going to be in there for a couple of hours so you want to be in there with someone funny.

Jake: Yeah but you could…have fun.

Dan: I love my wife but if I was going to be in there with someone funny it would be someone like Kevin Hart or I really like Paul Rudd. That really dry, sarcastic humour. I would really want to relive that moment in Friends where him and Ross just have nothing to talk about.

Adam: Why would you ever want that?! We are SUCH boring people!

What excites you the most about the future?

Jake: I think you wanted to answer this one, do you want it or shall I answer it.

Adam: No, you picked it up.

Jake: Okay well it’s definitely the prospect of this band picking up. Even the close future coming, with the EP that we’ve just dropped. I think it will push us to where we need to go, leading to bigger stages and supporting and touring with bigger bands. That excites me. I wouldn’t want to do it without this lot.

Adam: Oh. Mine was just going to be grey hair. I’m really excited to have grey hair.  

How long does it take you to get ready?

All: *scoff*

Adam: What? I was going to say really quickly! No? In the morning I’m like 10 minutes.

Dan: It’s the time that you decide to get ready I guess. So you get ready quickly but you decide to get ready at the time you’re supposed to be at the place. So if you’re supposed to be somewhere at 6 you’ll start getting ready at 6.  

Adam: That’s true. I was late today. I actually went home before I came here.

Dan: I knew you would.

US or UK?

Jacob: Oh it’s got to be UK. All day long. I meant the US is a nice place but…

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

Dan: Yeah, I actually had nightmares after The Grudge because of that creepy noise they make. I had a dream that there were kids making that noise and it was horrible.

Adam: I didn’t like changing rooms after I saw that film. You know how the clothes are hung up, and the guys just looking at them, and then they turn into her!

Who was the last person to make you laugh?

Jake: Sitting on my left. Literally, Adam is the funniest person ever. It’s just his face, his expressions.

Jacob: It’s something pretty spectacular.

Jake: You’re something special mate.  

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

Adam: Erm. Paul Rudd. Because it sounds SO boring. Honestly, Jennifer Lawrence. She’s so whiny! I can’t watch The Hunger Games anymore. Yeah. Sorry. 

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Buy Epilogue here. 

Never Hill might be our new favourite band

Never Hill Vocalist Adam Ross

I lived in Leicester for three years and I am absolutely devastated that this was the first time I had been to Nuneaton’s Queens Hall. It’s less than an hour’s drive from where I used to live and I’m almost positive I would have spent every weekend there, had I known it existed. The place is insanely cool, from the downstairs bar covered in posters and merch (some priceless, some not so priceless at all) to the top floor backstage area painted in an intense orange. It is a wonderfully typical local rock venue.

And on June 19^th it played host to a sterling selection of local acts, all of which were pretty impressive. But our interests were quite singular. We were there to see Never Hill.

You might have seen these guys before, performing under the name The Oceans Above, but around March 2015 they rebranded. Thus, Never Hill was born and it is glorious.

We sat down with the boys before the show and they answered some ridiculous questions from the Louder Now Grab Bag for us. You can read that mayhem here. But if there’s one thing that our time with Never Hill taught us, it’s that these guys pay particular attention to detail, all the way down to their stage clothing. “It’s not that we all HAVE to wear black…” explains guitarist Dan Thomson, “we wouldn’t say he couldn’t play with us or anything…” We think you might consider it though Dan. Be honest.

Never Hill Guitarist Dan Thomson

After we were done torturing them with pointless questions, we got to witness an incredibly energetic and impressive performance. Propped up against the stage to get some snaps, I could feel the whole construction shaking. This band have stage presence in abundance.

Opening track, Forgive Me, is taken from their EP, Epilogue, which was released on June 20^th and is also a clear sign that this band are going places. It’s loudly melodic, the vocals are on point and it has a ‘woah oh’ that NEEDS to be played in a huge venue with adoring fans screaming it back. We love a ‘woah oh’ here at Louder Now. You can see the video for this track here, and we strongly suggest you do give it a listen.

The Nuneaton crowd was then treated to Starting Line, which is also from Epilogue, and has an astounding production value rarely seen in a band at this level. The flawless vocals throughout the EP are paired on this track with that of Eleni Drake which is genius because it allows for some killer harmonies and a whole new dimension smacked into the middle of the record.

Never Hill Bassist Jake Mendham

As the guys launch into Afraid of The Dark you would think that they have been on that stage together a thousand times before. The reality is that they have just welcomed a new guitarist into the fold in the form of Jacob Morris and their drummer, Peter Cornell, is out with a knee injury. Despite all of that they nailed this set and it was remarkable to see a band who can record fantastically also bring it on stage.

And whilst we’re on the subject of drumming (well we sort of were, shut up) we are in love with the opening to Stay Away. In fact this whole track has been swiftly added to our summer soundtrack. Road trips, festivals, barbecues, we’re gonna be wacking this song out all over the place and screaming along the chorus as if we were still in Nuneaton.

Closing up the set with Fire we are stoked we managed to catch these guys just before the world exploded with Never Hill Fever. If you’re one of those people who takes pleasure in saying the sentence “you know I saw them before they were massive”, and I am 100% that person (one day I’ll tell you about Give It A Name in 2006 when Paramore and You Me At Six were itty bitty) then you MUST get yourself to a Never Hill show. Soon. If not immediately (you can throw one together instantaneously right guys?)  

If there was one criticism to be made it’s that we didn’t get to hear Colours, the token slow song of the record. It would have been incredible to see this but I suppose there’s only so much you can ask of a band that later admitted to me that they only had a 3 hour rehearsal before the show! That is mighty impressive lads.  

I suppose there is a lot to be said for the method of always leaving them wanting more.

Never Hill Facebook. 

Never Hill Twitter. 

Buy Epilogue here. 

YOUNG GUNS GIVEAWAY

IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME!

Last week we asked Young Guns a handful of ridiculous questions from our Grab Bag!

But now we want to know what YOUR answers would be.

For your chance to win a SIGNED copy of the sensational new Young Guns album, Ones and Zeroes, click here, scroll to the bottom, and answer the question we put to Si Mitchell: "What was the most embarrassing thing to happen to you at school?"

The comment which makes us laugh the hardest wins the prize!

All entries must be made as comments on our recent interview with Young Guns (Young Guns – Heat, Sleep and Falling Over)

Comments made on any other post will not be considered.

All entries must be made by Sunday 28^th June, 5PM BST.

We are happy to post the album worldwide but you must be willing to e-mail us your address (obviously!)

Leave your Twitter, Instagram or Facebook Usernames in your comment so we know who you are!

Good luck everyone! 

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.

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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).