The Football Blog

We catch up with our favourite Scots...

Way back in September, we spoke to Glasvegas just before the canny Scots duked it out in the album charts with giants Metallica. They lost that battle, but since then it's fair to say to say they've done alright. They're currently headlining the NME Awards tour, and we caught up with Rangers fan Paul from the band to see how they were getting on...

The last time we spoke you were in the middle of a chart battle with Metallica for the number one album. How’ve you been since then?

Things have gone better than we could’ve imagined, it's been really exciting, though unfortunately Metallica beat us! So unfortunately we’ve still not met them, but we’ll be more prepared next time!

You also mentioned that you were going to Transylvania to record your Christmas album. How was that?

James's always wanted to see Transylvania and because it was so low a budget we said wherever we go we’ll take our studio with us, with a laptop and recording equipment set up. So they let us go anywhere we wanted and James is a little bit nosy so he wanted to no if Transylvania actually looked like Town Dracula.

And did it?

Yeah it did, a little bit! Except it had McDonald's and the Nike shop. But then I don't think we could have picked anywhere better because there weren’t many distractions, because we only had two weeks to do it.

How is the NME Tour going? What’s been your favourite venue so far?

Well, Glasgow was really good, it was really special because I don't think we will be doing a lot of gigs in Glasgow again this year. We did two, in front of 2,500 people each night. But outside that, there has been a few good venues, it’s actually been an amazing tour, and every one of the bands gets on, because when you put four bands together sometimes egos can come out, but that’s not happened at all, everybody gets on with everybody else.

Do the bands go out on the pop post-gig?

Yeah. Though all the bands live in London so the odd time they have off they all head home, and we’re stuck in Lincoln in a Holiday Inn with the choice of a McDonalds or Pizza Hut! But usually we all out together after

Any off stage shenanigans to report?

There's been quite a few, but I don't know if people would like me saying. It's been mad some nights! Me and James have been so drunk James couldn't walk the five yards from the toilet to his chair, and I couldn't physically get out of my chair.

Do you have a special hangover cure?

No, you just get used to it. From when we did the first album, we have been on tour since last January, and you do build up a bit of resistance, but every now and again there will be a day it just hits everyone and it's not a pretty sight. Usually on days off you just lock yourself in a hotel room and go to sleep all day and recover. We’ve got catering on this tour too so it’s not as if we’re just eating kebabs, or pizza, it’s actual food we’re getting.

Did you catch the old firm last weekend?

Yeah, we were in Bristol, so I found a pub with the bus drivers, but it was rotten.

Last time you mentioned that, with two Celtic and two Rangers fans in the band, you don’t watch the matches together in case it kicks off. Was that the case this time?

Yeah, well there was that, and no one else woke up, I was the only one, one of the drivers came over and woke me up. Though I didn’t deliberately get up for the game, I just heard pub and I got up to go!

How do you see the title going this season then?

I think Rangers can be thankful that Celtic have had a little wobble, but I think that’s to come for both of them. It's one of those things you don't actually know until like two months left, it'll still be really close or you'll be able to tell who is going to win it. It's so tight just now.

Then there’s the League Cup final in March. Confident of a Rangers win?

I don't know, every old firm game you cannot predict, I remember going a few years ago when Celtic won 6-2, and I thought we were going to do well that day and it was 3-0 after 15 minutes, and you were just tearing your hair out, but then Rangers did beat them 5-1 later that year! It's a hard thing, I personally hope Rangers win! I'm trying to say that quietly because James is in the next room!

Who have been Rangers' best players this year?

Pedro Mendes, he was a real bargain from Portsmouth, but I don't think a lot of people in Scotland knew who he was. He started with such a bang, in his first Old Firm game, he scored. The fans have been impressed with him. And we have just had the young boy Fleck come through.

John Fleck. Is he as good as they’re making him out to be? The Scottish Rooney?

Well I remember hearing about him a couple of years ago when he was coming through, and everyone was saying he was quite a special talent, but I've seen some guys come through at that age and sometimes it just doesn't happen. I remember that Javier Portillo in Spain had broken Raul’s scoring record in the Madrid youth ranks, and I don’t know where he is now, but there’s another who didn’t really fulfill his potential.

How do you see the Scottish national side doing, with the Dutch coming up soon?

That’s another one I am not sure of, last time they were at Hamden they beat us 6-0, but we went away and beat them 1-0. But to be honest I've not seen a lot of Scotland for a while, we rarely have time being on tour and that, I don't really know where we are at just now. But last time I saw them they were terrible, I don't even remember who they were playing. In fact it was the Georgia game where we almost qualified, we got beat 2-0 and that was the game that killed it off. Then we had to beat Italy in the last game to qualify.

Do you guys get much stick for being Scottish when you are traveling down through England?

No, not at all, the entire time I've been in England I can remember only once and it was a guy in Sheffield, and it was nothing to do with me being Scottish, the guy just had a chat with me because I hit his shoulder. Sometimes when you’re out it can be like some guy's with a girl, and she sees the band, and she can be like “I fancy the singer”, and suddenly you become the guy's number one enemy. But we’re laid back guys, we wouldn't let something like that affect us and we just get on with the night.

What plans for the future then?

Yeah, we have recently sorted out the festivals we are doing in Britain, then right after this tour we’re going to Europe. We’re playing with Oasis and then doing our own tour. And we’ll be in America a lot of this year too.

What festivals are you doing?

I don’t think it’s been confirmed to the point I can say! We got a lot of offers so we had to pick the ones we wanted to do, so we’re just getting to final negotiations. It’s just I’m really, really scared of one of our managers that’s all!

So you can’t even tell us if you’re doing Glastonbury?

Yeah well I think we’re doing that, it was other ones that we had to pick between two. Glastonbury’s totally different, that’s a kind of separate event from everything else.

The single Flowers & Football Tops is available on February 23rd. The album is out now.