FATHERSON are set to play their first headline Glasgow show in almost three years this weekend.
The Kilmarnock band will perform at the Barrowland Ballroom on Saturday as part of their tour which coincides with the release of their fourth studio album Normal Fears.
The three-piece, who are Ross Leighton, Marc Strain and Greg Walkinshaw, started the tour in Newcastle on May 18 but are looking forward to headlining the iconic venue for the third time.
Lead singer Ross said: "It feels like we’re really playing shows together better than we ever have done and it’s just been such a pleasure to get back out into rooms and see other human beings and just sing along with them and have a good time.
"It’s really refreshing to be back out doing it."
He continued: "The Barrowlands is like the best place ever, so I think everyone is super excited about Saturday and is super excited to put on a great show in a venue that we love and that we’ve had an opportunity to play a couple of times now.
"It’s second to none, it’s going to be an amazing show on Saturday and we’re all dead excited and I think the Barrowlands as a venue has a fanbase, it’s almost like everyone that is going to shows in the Barras is so excited because it’s in the Barras.
"It just has this sort of energy, there have been so many amazing things that happened in that room over the years and it’s got such an incredible history that I think everybody goes in with that mindset that there’s gonna be a great show because it’s at the Barras.
"It’s special, it’s just one of those places that you grow up going to see bands, bands from all over the world, and they say ‘this is my favourite place to play in Scotland’, and it’s just amazing."
Fatherson released Normal Fears on April 1 with a rooftop listening show, but the indie rockers are excited to get back in front of a Glasgow audience for their first headline show in the city since October 2019.
Ross said: "It’s just a different beast to everywhere else.
"I think we’ve been very lucky.
"We’re from Kilmarnock and we just started playing shows in Glasgow a while ago, so we’ve managed to make such a great family of fans and a great fanbase that comes to the shows and they sing along with every word and get really up for it.
"And everybody that goes to the show in Glasgow wants to have a good time which makes everybody in the room have a good time, and there are some places where that doesn’t happen quite as much.
"The people are amazing, the place is amazing and they’re in a league of their own – it’s the best crowd in the world."
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Fatherson released their third album, Sum Of All Your Parts, in 2018 and immediately started work on Normal Fears, though it was largely written remotely during the first three months of the pandemic with Ross in his native Kilmarnock while bassist Marc and drummer Greg were in Glasgow.
"It’s kind of a further exploration into Fatherson really," Ross says.
"It’s got rock, a Scotch rock element in it, and it’s got more pop sensibility and it’s all been blended together with this great use of electronics.
"It just a really, honest heartfelt album that sounds really cool and we managed to put quite a lot of time into making it the best album we could at the time.
"I think it’s our most interesting record to date and it did really well, we got number one in the indie charts, in the vinyl chart and the sales chart for that week and had this great amount of rallying support from all the fans after quite a turbulent time for everyone."
Despite the album coming out less than two months ago, the band have been pleased with the reception from audiences to their new music on tour so far.
Ross says: "It’s super exciting and it’s actually gone down so well on tour, it’s fitting in with all the old songs which is a great thing for a record that’s been out for five or six weeks
"Once a record comes out, we’ll do a tour and pepper in like five or six of those songs throughout to try and introduce them into the show and then maybe when we are back out touring again at the end of the year/ beginning of next year we’ll go a bit heavier on Normal Fears because they’ll have been out for some time.
"It’s going really well and because we’re playing some album tracks as well as the singles from it everything seems to be falling into place which is really a wonderful thing to find - that your fans love your tunes."
You can buy tickets for Fatherson’s Barrowlands gig HERE.
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