Prides: "We didn't think we'd be playing Hampden Park so early in our careers" • News • DIY Magazine

It’s safe to say that Prides have had an eventful week. After all, not only did they have Zane Lowe play their brand new single, before they confirmed plans for their first ever headline tour, they also managed to squeeze in a support slot with some musical heroes, and a show watched by 6.8 million people.

“Surreal is right, yeah!” admits the band’s Stewart Brock, en route to play at this weekend’s Wilderness Festival. It’s not even been a week since the trio performed live at the Commonwealth Closing Ceremony in Glasgow, but they’ve still not quite got their heads around what happened. “It was amazing actually. It was really, really good. Obviously, we had known about it for a little while and they was quite a long build up to it, with going down to see the rehearsals and watch what all the performers had been working on, but it was amazing. Very, very surreal!

“We were so fortunate and very flattered to be asked,” he continues, “but we didn’t think we’d be playing Hampden Park so early in our careers. It was amazing, yeah. We got a taste for it, especially the pyro. We’d like to get that involved in the future…”

Performing ‘Messiah’ in their hometown whilst dealing with pyrotechnics wasn’t their only hurdle (geddit? - Ed0 in the past seven days: the three-piece had also been invited along to open Blink 182’s recent show at the O2 Academy Brixton.

“It was amazing,” Stewart offers, “but again, it was a bill that we never imagined that we would get to be apart of. Blink have been a massive inspiration to all of us in terms of starting to play music, and getting into bands when we were younger, so it was great. And Brixton is obviously an incredibly iconic venue, so it was daunting. I think we were more nervous about Blink than we were the Closing Ceremony… It was a scary one! No, it was great and the reaction from both [shows] has been incredible online, people have been really nice when getting in touch. It’s been amazing.”

Best of all, the fact that the band aren’t really part of the same genre as the show’s headliners didn’t even come into the equation. “That was one of the things we were cautious about going into the Blink show: we didn’t know how we’d be received because we are quite different musically, I would say! We were really, really amazed actually and lots of people there were singing back to us and all the rest. The Commonwealth was one of those things that is so beyond rational acceptance that we just went for it! How can you imagine a million people are watching you?! That’s just crazy!”

As for their forthcoming tour dates, they’re the next priority: “We’re massively excited to get out and do it. We’ve got lots of stuff planned!”

Let’s hope they’ll be sneaking in a firework or two.

Tags: Prides, News