WE’LL STOP WH EN IT’S NOT FUN
WHEN live music returns, the fans could be treated to some of the best gigs they have ever been to. That’s the view of The Fratellis’ frontman Jon Lawler who will be ready to hit the road again with the band’s sixth studio album Half Drunk Under A Full Moon which is out tomorrow.
“There is going to be a lot of pent of energy that needs to come out,” said the softly spoken Scot.
“It will take a good year of it coming out. “That may be exciting whether you’re in the audience or up there playing. I am intrigued to see what that feels like.
“I think for the first year when live things start happening again whether it is music, theatre or that entire spectrum.
“That first year for the performers and for the fans and audiences, I get the feeling that they will be some of the best performances and gigs that people have ever been to,” he added.
That no doubt sets the expectation high for The Fratellis – including bassist Barry and drummer Mince – who are set to play a show on home turf at the city’s famed Barrowland Ballroom on March 24 and 25, next year.
The show will bring their pandemic postponed album – it was originally due out last year – to the live stage and more importantly to a venue that is special to many artists as Jon explained.
“We don’t have a language that is designed to talk about why somewhere like the Barrowlands has just got something about it.
“You never quite put your finger on it and nobody ever well.
“Why do I like it? I guess for us it was... I can’t think of many Glasgow or Scottish artists for whom performing in the Barrowland isn’t the place you aspire to.
“It is almost like I don’t know if anybody ever aspires to play in the SECC, Hydro or Hampden. As aspirations they seem just too far-fetched when you are kicking about wherever it is that you have grown up in and you are dreaming about…God wouldn’t it be great if I just got to play guitar and music for a living.
“I think those places are just too far-fetched, they don’t enter into your imagination at all.
“The Barrowland – it is almost too far-fetched, you can just about touch it. It feels like if you were to get there, my God you played there.
“I think that is what it is for me. It is from the very first time we played it – because it was somewhere you aspired to play.
“I have never lost that feeling that we had the first time we got to play it.
“I don’t know how many times we have played it now. I am still left with that memory of that feeling from the first time. I hope I never lose that.”
The one thing that Jon has never lost is his passion for music. The Fratellis stormed onto the music scene in 2005 and 16 years later the band is preparing to release their latest project which Jon has described as their best yet.
The album, named Half Drunk
Under A Full Moon, is a title which
Jon refuses to take credit for but he believes it was written in one of his notepads packed with ideas for songs.
He said: “In my opinion, it is by far the best thing we have done.
“I realise that there is a world of difference between me feeling that way about it and anyone else feeling that way about it.
that record and really dials them up as far as they can go.
In places, it might seem over the top – that is because certain songs you need to go over the top with them rather than underplay them.
“At this point, personally I am just curious to see, to hear what people make of it.”
So what is next for the Glasgow band? They recently impressed with a cover of Baccara’s Yes Sir I Can Boogie on the Chris Evans Breakfast Radio Show and even hinted that they might release the unofficial Scotland anthem ahead of Euro 2020.
They have dates scheduled for a tour in support of the new album.
And most importantly, they will continue to make music as Jon explained.
“Everything for us will just keep rolling on. You only stop when it is just not fun anymore. That is the time when you should stop everything and anything but it is still fun.”
• Half Drunk Under A Full Moon is released tomorrow on Cooking Vinyl.
• For more information on the band, visit www.thefratellis.com
I have never lost that feeling that we had the first time we got to play it