The closure of grassroots music venues is threatening to derail the British music industry, warns The K’s frontman Jamie Boyle ahead of a landmark performance at Hillsborough Stadium
Indie band The K’s admit it’s harder for unsigned bands as grassroots venues face further closures. The band from Earlestown, located between Manchester and Liverpool are today playing The Sarah Nulty main stage at Tramlines Festival in Sheffield, enjoying the recent release of their second album, Pretty On The Internet.
“We’re well excited,” said frontman Jamie Boyle. Speaking to the Mirror from Hillsborough Stadium, he went on to add: “As soon as we finished our first album, our minds were set on the second.”
Last year, their debut album reached Number Three, being beaten by Beyoncé and The Libertines. But should their album get to number one, what would it mean for the band?
“It means everything to us. We’d love it. We said yesterday when we did our album release show, there’s still one box I haven’t ticked for my first album campaign, as amazing as it was but to finally tick that box and get that Number One accolade to our name.
“But regardless, as long as we keep doing what we’re doing for a living, making music we love, that’s all that matters but a Number One, would be that cherry on the top.”
Prior to the record being released, four tracks racked up an impressive four million streams, something the band struggled to get their heads around.
“I think when you see it on paper, you don’t even think about it until you have to,” said guitarist Ryan Breslin. He added: “It’s unfathomable the number itself, you see it on paper and then you sit down and think how many people know these songs, it’s crazy. I don’t think you can actually visualise that community, so all that put into context, it’s class.
“As long as people keep listening, as long as everything keeps going down so well, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing, hopefully it stays that way for a while.”
However, they admit that during the creation of the record, they learned to mainly focus on nothing but the album process. “Don’t let anything cloud our vision,” they added.
But having worked their way up the industry for the past decade, bassist Dexter commented: “It’s been a lot of hard work over the past ten, seven years. It’s been quite hard work. Obviously we’re getting to these stages, it’s kind of like the fruits coming out of the trees now. It has been hard work but it’s served us well.”
More recently, the band have launched a pop-up shop in their hometown to celebrate the release of their album, with Ryan admitting it was “cool” to meet the people who have supported them over the years and seen their rise to success.
He went on to add: “The streams on Spotify, it’s hard to kind of comprehended when you’ve got 100 people still in a shop buying your albums. Yeah, it’s a good feeling.”
Living between Manchester and Liverpool has been a huge help for the band. “You get more doors open for you when you live between massive music scenes. There are more venues on your doorstep, which is why it’s such a shame. See so many closing doors on a lot of the venues that we started off playing aren’t there anymore. Theres a lot of focus on keeping them open now which I hope succeeds.”
One of the venues the band have played the most was The Leadmill, Ryan said: “There’s just something in the water.” Speaking about their set at Tramlines, drummer Nathan said: “We can’t wait I think was an extra buzz as well obviously, because we just dropped the album. So I think it’s just going to be a little extra special on stage for us and for the fans as well.”
Jamie added: “I think it’s going to be f**king mint. I think it’s going to rock.”
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads