Glasvegas - Are We The New Oasis?

It's 1.01pm in the afternoon and Rab Allan, lead guitarist in band-of-the- moment Glasvegas, is in bed at home.

But far from it being an act of rock star behaviour after some crippling party session the night before, the affable axeman is cwtched up watching Loose Women and catching-up on some well-earned rest after a blitzkrieg of popularity that will likely climax with a number one album on Sunday.

“It’s been so busy lately that this is the first chance I have had to (relax) in months because if we aren’t on the road it’s constant promotion,” sighs the Glaswegian happily.

“But we are playing in Glasgow tonight so I don’t have to be there until 4pm.”

The Scottish four-piece have come from nowhere to enjoy massive critical praise with a sound that was expertly summed up by former Libertines man and self-confessed fan Carl Barat: “They’re like a ‘50s, happy-go-lucky doo-wop band whose mum died. It’s dark but brilliant.”

The story goes that Alan McGee, the man who discovered Oasis playing third on the bill at Glasgow venue King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in May 1993, succumbed to requests and went to watch Glasvegas, playing third on the bill at the same venue, last year.

He loved them and eventually blogged them into the public consciousness.

“It was surreal,” says Rab.

“I got into music because of Oasis and they are still one of my favourite bands. We knew all about Alan McGee so when he came to our gig and loved it... the biggest thing we took from that was a lot of confidence.”

Soon after the band won the 2008 NME Philip Hall Radar Award for most promising new band and that publication has championed them fiercely ever since. But the NME is far from alone.

The band, fronted by cousins James and Rab Allan, are making vulnerable rock music that is fairly unique on the current electro-obsessed scene, just as Oasis’ arrival broke lad rock into a mainstream overfed on dance music.

“People keep making comparisons between us and Oasis and I read a piece the other day asking are we the new Oasis. I don’t know about that,” he says hesitantly.

“We are making the only kind of music we know how and if that means we fit into that description then yes.”

In November of last year they were the subject of a record company bidding war that was won by Columbia but Rab says the band feels no pressure despite the hype surrounding them.

“We had been working really hard making the album for the last two years and not really had any money for alcohol or to eat,” says the guitarist whose last job was working in a cold storage warehouse, loading frozen meat into vans.

“So to go from that to people offering you crazy amounts of money was very strange.

“The pressure was when I didn’t know if I would have the bus fare to get to rehearsals.”

The band make just their second-ever visit to Wales a week on Monday and are looking forward to showing Cardiff what they have to offer after a less-than-perfect debut at The Admiral Big Weekend back in August.

Read the full article here.

Source: www.walesonline.co.uk

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