Music: The View

The prolific Scottish indie-rockers come to town with
a new album and a fresh take on an old sound

Dundee’s finest roared into ‘view’ with their debut album Hats Off To The Buskers, reaching the very top of the album charts in 2007, and which was subsequently nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Despite their reputation as party animals, The View have been very prolific over the years; their fourth album, Cheeky For A Reason, is just about to come out and they are set for another UK tour; “Me and Kieren (Webster) write the songs, we work on them separately and then we bring them to the band and they come together quite quick,” says lead singer and guitarist Kyle Falconer. Kings of Leon unofficial fifth member Angelo Petraglia also co-wrote three songs on the new album.

While the ear for melody and classic pop craft remains intact, there are plenty more harmonies on board now. “It’s Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours done by The Clash,” says Falconer, who is a huge fan of the ‘Mac, as well The Beatles, Squeeze, Oasis and Crowded House. He has previously said that the last thing he thinks of before he goes to sleep at night is getting married to Stevie Nicks in her prime.

“Our producer (Mike Crossley) was up for us doing a lot of harmonies this time – that’s why we have that ‘Mac edge. Also, Darren , our original drum tech was in jail when we first started, so when he got outta of jail I eventually taught him a couple of chords on the piano and now he’s the keyboardist. It’s great having on stage, which means we can do the harmonies. Pete (Reilly) gets carried away on the guitar on stage and doesn’t care much for the singing parts.”

Music is pretty much all The View have known since they did their first gig ten years ago as part of a school talent show. With Kyle the youngest and the most recent to reach the milestone of 25 – as a unit they are very much a Band of Brothers.

Concorde 2, Sunday 24 June, 7.30pm, £14