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Young Guns: ‘Playing shows in front of 20,000 people was a crazy feeling…’

Five-piece rock band Young Guns hit the music scene back in 2009 with their debut single In the Night. Fast forward six years and they are halfway through a headline tour, which is taking them across both the UK and America, whilst releasing a brand new single and their third album. Ellie Roddy caught up with the bands drummer Ben Jolliffe to see how the tour’s going so far and what we can expect from their new music

Your tour has already started with the first leg of the UK and now America, how is it going?
It’s going really, really well thank you. It was particularly nice to tour the UK again, it’s been so long since we headlined over there so it felt great being back on home turf. We’re a couple of weeks into our U.S run and it’s going great. The shows with Breaking Benjamin have been awesome, and after about five festivals in the blazing heat, our pale English skins are suffering.

Where has been the best place so far and where are you looking forward to going the most? I’m guessing Peterborough during the second half of UK tour?
That’s a tough one! I genuinely cannot wait to play London again as its where we’re from and there are not many better places to play in the world. On this run we head to New Orleans in a couple of days which is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. And of course, Peterborough! It’s great to go to places in the UK we haven’t been to before or have barely been. It’s quite often the places bands don’t go as often is where you have the better shows, I can’t wait.

What can fans expect on the evening? 
A lot of energy! We are absolutely loving getting out and playing shows again. We’re playing a good mix of new and old songs and getting as much crowd participation as possible. It will be a sweaty one!

I saw you tweet that there will be surprises, any clues for Peterborough?
Well we’ll be playing a song or two that wouldn’t have been heard before. We’re always trying to do something different and exciting so I hope we fulfil that in Peterborough!

You have released you new song Daylight during your tour and have a new album out towards the end of it. How would you describe your new music and what has the reaction been like to it on tour?
We are absolutely dying to get this album out. Unlike our first two records we had some decent time to write this one. We wrote different songs in different parts of the world spaced out over the last couple of years, so each song has its own identity, time and place. We have really grown as songwriters and I think this album shows that off well. We didn’t want to write a ‘Bones part 2’ as we wanted to challenge ourselves and we really think and hope we did that.

This is your first UK headline tour in two years, how does it feel to be back?
It feels amazing. We couldn’t believe it had been so long. Seeing familiar faces and new faces at these shows has felt great. We’ll make sure we don’t disappear for so long this time!

It has been an exciting couple of years for you, how have things changed during this time?
Yeah, we’ve been really lucky to have had such a crazy couple of years. It’s easy when you’re travelling so much to not take in or appreciate what you’re doing or where you are. I definitely feel over the last couple of years I’ve managed to take in and appreciate everything we’ve managed to do.

Having shared the stage with some incredible bands, who has been your favourite so far?
It’s hard to pick because we have been lucky enough to play with some great bands. We’ve just been on a bunch of festivals sharing the stage with the likes of Slash and Slipknot, that’s been pretty rad. I think the biggest moment for me though was when we supported Bon Jovi at the O2 Arena, we were playing shows to no more than 500 at the time and going from that to 20,000 was a crazy feeling.

You have been a support act and now you have bands supporting you, how was it touring with Blitz Kids and how are you feeling about spending the second half of your UK tour with Nothing But Thieves?
Blitz Kids are great friends of ours, they’re one of those bands that always get the crowd going. It was a pleasure having those boys on the first leg with us. Nothing But Thieves have been a band I’ve been listening to for awhile, I was stoked when we managed to get them on the bill. They’re blowing up and we’re really lucky to have got them on the bill.

You were on the mainstage at Reading Festival last year and have already been on a Kerrang tour this year, do you have more festivals lined up for the summer? Do you prefer playing these or performing headline tours?
We have a super busy summer ahead of us. I can’t wait to play ‘T in the Park’ for the first time. It will be cool to share the stage with Snoop Dog at ‘Y Not’, too. We have a couple more festivals that we haven’t announced yet. I absolutely love playing festivals, it’s a chance to get out to people that might not have heard your band. I like having the mix of festivals and our own shows, I get a different enjoyment from both situations.

What has the rest of 2015 got in store for Young Guns?
We’ll be releasing our third record ‘Ones and Zeros’ on 8 June. Then our plan is to tour pretty solidly to promote the album. Festivals in the summer and more touring after. I can’t wait to get out to new countries and tour the UK again.

Young Guns will be performing at The Cresset, supported by Nothing But Thieves, on Monday, 1 June. Their new album Ones and Zeros will be released on 8 June.

Doors open at 7pm. For 14+ (ages 14-16 must be accompanied by an adult.) Tickets are £14.00.  

For tickets visit www.cresset.co.uk or call 01733 265705 

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