Scouting For Girls get ready for Towneley Live

Multi-million selling albums, sell-out tours across the globe and legions of fans who hang on the words from each of their songs.

In just five years, Scouting For Girls have become a pop force to be reckoned with and show no sign of letting up.

With a third album on the horizon, the London three-piece have a string of gigs lined up this summer including an appearance at Burnley’s very own Towneley Live Festival, where they will be appearing alongside other pop heavyweights including McFly, N-Dubz, The Saturdays and Diversity on Saturday, August 13th.

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Bassist Greg Churchouse took time out of the band’s seemingly always busy schedule to answer a few of the Burnley Express’ questions starting with what he, Roy Stride (vocals/guitar) and Pete Ellard (drums) are currently up to.

“We’ve got six or seven tracks done for the new album and it’s sounding good,” he revealed. “We have our own studio in London and basically from Monday to Friday we’re in there writing and recording. It’s like having a nine to five job really. Then at the weekend we go out and play gigs and have a few drinks. It’s a really good mix and works well.

“Our first two albums were very clean and polished and I think with this one it will be a bit different, that’s what we’re going for. It will still have the radio-friendly tunes that everyone knows but it will definitely show that we have evolved as a band.”

Scouting For Girls’ biggest hit to date is “This Ain’t a Love Song” which hit number one in the UK last year. The band will be hoping for similar success with recently released brand new single “Love How It Hurts”, which was written on Roy’s iPod Touch and features the band’s trademark infectious chorus and touching lyrics.

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For a group whose catchy tunes have seen them dubbed one of Britain’s cleanest cut pop-infused acts, it’s interesting to hear Greg talk about the variety of different influences brought to the table by each of the band’s members.

“We all had similar taste when we were growing up and that was mainly the Brit Pop sound. Roy is now very much into Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys and The Beatles, I like my rock like Zeppelin and Hendrix while Pete is a real child of the ‘80s. We’ve been lucky to meet Tony Hadley a few times and when we do Pete goes weak at the knees.”

Asked whether these influences are brought together and used as foundation for the band’s writing process, Greg said: “There’s always been an aspect of that. Roy is a very prolific songwriter and he’ll write all these hooks and melodies and then we’ll all sit down and play around with some ideas. It’s something that has always worked for us.”

With Towneley Live on August 13th and V Festival the weekend after, as well as a host of other shows in the coming months, it’s definitely a great time to be on the Scouting For Girls bandwagon.

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“The V Festival will be the fourth time we have been there and we love doing,” said Greg. “We love our one-off festivals as well, the ones in places like forests. Towneley Live will be like that and it should be a great experience.

“We have a lot of young fans, aged between 10 and 16, and it’s nice to see them out in the crowd with their families all enjoying the experience.

“We actually saw N-Dubz at the T4 on the Beach show and they were wicked. Dappy popped his head into our dressing room to say hi and they’ll definitely put on a great show.

“We actually now do a lot of shows in Germany and Holland as well and they’re always great places to go. They are about a year behind us in terms of what they have heard but they still go crazy for it. It’s really bizarre hearing them sing back our songs but with a foreign accent.”

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Scouting For Girls look set to pen quite a few more chapters in the British pop music opus and Greg sees no reason why anybody lucky enough to be in their position would ever contemplate calling it a day.

“Why would we ever want to stop doing what we’re doing? It’s the best job in the world and we’re so blessed to be doing it.

“It’s been mental and we never thought we would make it to where we are now. Roy and Pete knew each other from the age of six, which makes me the newest member because I only met them when I was 11. Then ever since we were 14 we’ve been in bands.

“To have played gigs at Wembley Arena and the MEN is just amazing and we just want to carry on doing it. It’s just the most euphoric feeling when you step out on stage and see all these people there to see you. I still just stand there sometimes and wait for someone to pinch me and wake me up because it honestly feels like a dream sometimes.

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“We just want to carry on doing this for as long as possible before people start to realise that we shouldn’t actually be where we are.”

Tickets for Towneley Live can be purchased from www.hmvtickets.com and at local HMV stores while a limited run of tickets will also be available from Burnley Mechanics Box Office on 01282 664400.