Light fantastic:

Band’s big show

Fife legends Lights Out By Nine have come up with a novel idea for their first new record in a decade – do it in two halves over the course of a year.

The soul/funk eight-piece, who are on a run of gigs, are launching the first half, in standalone EP form and entitled Here and Now – Part 1, tomorrow night at the Linton Lane Centre, a show which is also doubling up as a fundraiser for cancer research.

The EP will feature six tracks, four original, one of them recorded live at a recent King Tut’s show in Glasgow and two arrangements of songs by Earl King and Paul Carrack.

Lights Out By Nine have a well established reputation on the live circuit, having supported Status Quo and Fish at the Rockhill Festival and opened shows featuring Dr Feelgood, Nazareth, Nine Below Zero and Wishbone Ash, as well as the Average White Band.

Dougie Hunter from the band says there’s a good reason for launching their latest project in a local community centre rather than a major Scottish venue.

“We thought it would be better doing the launch round here rather than anywhere else,” he said.

“It’s our first new recording for the band in 10 years – it’s quite frightening really.

“It’s about four years since Al (Hughes, former lead singer and guitarist) left the band and before that he was doing more and more solo stuff. He was writing material that was more suited to that and we were going round in circles as a band.

“It took the new boys a while to get into the swing of things with the band but it also gave us a chance to move more towards funk and soul rather than the blues side. That’s been really refreshing for us.”

He says a recent Carnegie Hall gig with Al was a great experience.

However, Dougie says: “After about 15 minutes it felt like we were in a time warp from five years ago, just doing all the old stuff.

“The thought of going out and doing that old material again wasn’t great, so it’s really good that we’ve moved on a bit.

“The reason we’re doing the album in two halves is because it would take us forever to do enough tracks for a whole album.

“We’ve now got another six or seven original songs ready so hopefully we’ll get them recorded and released towards the end of the year.”

Support on the night comes from Clark and Boj.

Lights Out By Nine are releasing their new album in two parts, with the first being heard at Kirkcaldy.