Issue 111 / November 2022

“We did something
and meant
something to
the city”
anything else. It made it a lot easier that we were in it together,”
he reflects, as I ask if there were ever any points where their
belief was called on most.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that, when you just
have a night out together or go and play footy or go round to
each other’s houses, it just rejuvenates you. It was like, ‘Are you
enjoying it?’ ‘Yeh, I’m still enjoying it!’ ‘Let’s just carry on then
and see what happens’. There were plenty of those moments.
Sometimes you still get those days.”
However, with the low points come the highs and these
moments make all the hard work worth it. “There’ve been a few
from an internal point of view,” Fran explains. “It was probably
signing the record deal. We were confident in the songs and
we knew that there was someone out there that would listen to
them. If it all comes to nothing at least we can say we were a
band that signed a record deal and put some albums out.”
He continues: “From an external point of view, I think people
started taking us more seriously when we started going on tour
and selling out shows in Liverpool, London and Glasgow, as well
as shows at festivals like Glastonbury.”
The chance to play for the Worthy Farm crowd clearly stands
out. “When people talk about the buzz you get when you come
off stage, I felt exactly like that at Glastonbury. We had so long
to build it up in our own heads. While we were on stage I was
like, ‘This is Glastonbury! This is Glastonbury!’, but then when we
came off stage it was like, ‘We did well there, didn’t we? We’ve
just done Glastonbury!’ It really was a pinch me moment at the
time, but afterwards it was a chin up-chest out moment.” I saw
their Glastonbury performance and can confirm, yes, it was a hell
of a show.
There are still elements of those early rock ’n’ roll days, but
now it’s all about the live performance. If you’re still to sample a
Red Rum Club show, I’d highly recommend making it one of the
first you go to when live music returns. Their festival vibe, highenergy
performances are a true antidote, a shot of escapism.
From start to finish Fran holds the audience in the palm of his
hand, at the beck and call of their songs’ anthemic nature. From
the experimental and more personal tones of Matador to the
mature and self-assured, festival-pleasing tracks on The Hollow
Of Humdrum, the lads have all the attributes worthy of the
biggest stages.
“We didn’t want to restrict ourselves on Matador,” says Fran,
“we were just six lads in a band and we recorded it like that. For
the second, we were very experimental because we didn’t want
to be one thing live and be another thing on the record.” So much
of their recording seems to clutch for the fevered energy of the
live shows. “As our live sound grew and we became a pretty
seasoned touring band playing some big stages, we walked
into the studio for The Hollow Of Humdrum knowing we were
worthy to be on these big stages at Glastonbury or the Isle Of
Wight Festival. We had that idea in our heads and were like,
‘Right, let’s make a big sound, big songs and not be hesitant to
become more than just six lads in a band’.”
With tracks such as The Elevation, a love song for the
blue tick generation longing for a reply on WhatsApp, Vivo,
a discussion about being working class Northern lads, and
Ballerino, a Billy Elliot-esque social commentary of toxic
masculinity, the new tracks owe themselves to a more mature
way of thinking. But they don’t fail to bring the party.
Speaking of parties, there is no doubt their headlining slot at
Liverpool Sound City in May 2021 is going to be just that as they
close the festival on the Sunday night. “I can’t stop looking at the
top of the poster,” Fran exclaims, “naturally I always go to the
small print at the bottom.” It’s clearly a proud moment for a band
that will have spent many years on the other side of the stage
at the festival. “There’s milestones from a musician’s point of
view and I think, by headlining Liverpool Sound City, we can say
we weren’t just a flash in the pan, we did something and meant
something to the city.”
Fran is incredibly humble when we get onto the subject of
the band’s current popularity at home, noting how their fans are
more like a community, or a ‘club’. “Liverpool is such a tight knit
city, when people come up to me and say they love our stuff
it feels like we’re mates then,” he explains. “That person who
listens, buys the album, who stops me in the street, they’ve got
just as much say in what Red Rum Club is and where we go.”
Where they do go from here is the big question. Having achieved
so much over the years, anything seems possible at the moment.
“The blinkers are off,” Fran replies. “We feel like this is a
career now. Rather than think about tomorrow, or the next single,
we can think about the next two years and the next four tours.”
With single Eleanor being picked up by BBC Radio 2, a UK tour
starting in February (we hope), their second album bearing down
on the top 40 and a headlining slot at a hometown festival, Red
Rum Club have proven they are anything but humdrum. !
Words: Sophie Shields
Illustration: Nicholas Daly / @nickdalyart
@RedRumClub
The Hollow Of Humdrum is available now via Modern Sky.
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