Frome’s so lovely! Scouting Girls give their stamp of approval on the town and its festival

CHART-TOPPING band Scouting For Girls are returning to ‘so lovely’ Frome later this year with a new tour and a new album.

The band, which previously performed to a sell-out crowd at the Frome Festival in 2019, will perform at the Cheese & Grain  again on Saturday 23rd October. And they can’t wait to come back!

As the band prepare to get back on the road, lead singer Roy Stride took the time to talk to Frome Times about his memories of Frome and the Frome Festival – and why it was so special to them, touring in a post-lockdown world, and the inspiration for their new album of 80s covers, ‘East Cover’.

What do your remember about your visit to Frome in 2019?

“We had such a great gig there! The Cheese and Grain was such an amazing venue – the Foos had played there before – there was a real buzz around the town and in the venue when we played – we had an awesome, awesome gig.

“And we also had a really nice day in Frome, just mooching around the town and the shops – I had amazing fish and chips from somewhere. I remember eating it in a churchyard and having a really lovely afternoon. It’s just such a pretty, lovely town. 

“The next day there was a farmers’ market in the car park, which we had a good look through. Jamie, our guitarist, picked up an antique bit of furniture, which took up most of the bloody bus when we came back! And some really smelly cheese!

“We’ll hopefully be doing all of that again when we come back! And I’ll definitely be going back to the fish and chip shop. 

“The great thing about being in this band is that it’s pretty much like going on holiday – you do a show and then you just hang out and take in the sights.”

The Frome Festival was recently rated by The Guardian newspaper as one of Britain’s best arts festivals for summer 2021. How would you rate it and your experience?

“I loved it, and I love those sort of smaller festivals, because it really galvanises a community and brings something to the town which is just unique. It can never be transferred – it’s not about money, it’s about generally bringing people together – it’s a much more special thing than playing a bigger, corporate festival.

“We loved the Frome Festival, and we were looked after so well – not only by the organisers, but also the locals. We stayed in a pub and they looked after us so well in there. We had a really lovely experience in Frome. 

“And I would heartedly recommend watching Aswad [Now rescheduled for Saturday 20th November]  at this year’s festival!”

What can people expect from this year’s tour?

“This tour is about having the biggest party we can possibly have – it’s a greatest hits show, combined with some 80s covers from our new album. We are trying to bring as much fun to as many people as possible. There will be nothing clever about it, this is about delivering maximum fun and happiness during our 90 minutes on stage.”

And how does the band feel about touring in a post-lockdown world?

“We are so excited, because generally we do 50 to 100 shows a year, and in 2020 we had 98 shows booked, of which we did four – and two of them were on Zoom, and the other two were in a car park!

“So we are desperate to get back out there, it’s what we do, it’s what we live for. 

“We’ve already planned our itinerary of the places that we are going to visit during the day, booking restaurants for lunch, we are going to have an absolutely amazing time!”

What was it like recording the new album, ‘Easy Cover’, during lockdown?

“It was alright – we did it separately, so it was quite a lonely experience. I’ve got a studio next to my house, so there wasn’t much difference in terms of the commute – and it gave me an excuse to get away from doing some homeschooling to be honest!

“But yeah, it was a little bit lonely to begin with, but we came together at the end to finish it off, which was really good.

“It was a fun project – it’s an album of 80s covers, basically because it gave me something to focus on and make me smile. We weren’t going to release it, it was just a fun project – I was meant to be producing some other bands, who obviously couldn’t come because of Covid. So I had the studio to myself, but I hadn’t written any songs, and I just wanted to get cracking on a project.

“No band can really get away with this, unless you are Scouting for Girls – it’s about as ridiculous as it comes!”

Why an album of 80s covers? -What do you love about the 80s?

“What’s not to love about the 80s! It had it all – the hair, the music! 

“In the 80s I was very young, and I am a very nostalgic person – so remembering my childhood through rose-tinted glasses just gave me a bit of solace through what was such a crappy year.”

Were there any songs that you wanted to cover that didn’t make the album?

“There are thousands! There were almost fist-fights over what songs we were going to feature. 

“The songs I love from the 80s are more the indie-guitar stuff – The Smiths, REM, The Cure – but because we’re kind of a ‘indie-guitary’ sounding band, when we did that it just sounded really crap. 

“So we ended up choosing generally really big pop songs that we could put our own spin on.”

“Track one on the album is a cover of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears – that’s one of the first songs I ever remember hearing, like conciously hearing. And it still, whenever it starts, gives me a funny feeling.

“And it takes me back to my childhood bedroom and going to the sweet shop with my dad on a Saturday. It’s really weird how music works – it’s one of the first songs that ever made me realise the power of music.

“And just before lockdown – it’s probably subconsciously how the 80s album started – the last band I went to see was Tears for Fears – and I took my dad. They were brilliant, and that happened just before lockdown happened, so maybe that was the reason we started the whole thing!”

• For ticket details, 

visit www.cheeseand

grain.com/ events/

scouting-for-girls/