We’re backstage at a rain-soaked Oxegen and Jon Fratelli, frontman with much-touted three-piece of the moment, The Fratellis, isn’t really enjoying the festival experience so much.
“It’s wet and windy, man. I think I’m gonna use my umbrella to fly over to Australia,” he muses wryly in a musical Glasgow accent. “We did Wireless in Hyde Park but that didn’t feel like a festival, ‘cos it was in the middle of the city and it was full of English football supporters, which isn’t really what you want. So this feels like our first proper festival, and we’re really excited.”
He admits that the band’s meteoric rise to fame has meant that they’ve had to get used to playing festivals extremely quickly, and their first foray wasn’t exactly seamless: “It took us three songs to work out what to do with all that space. We’re not used to not bumping into each other all the time.”
Jon and The Fratellis have had an amazing last few months. Their live shows and singles (particularly ‘Henrietta’) have been extremely well received by the music press, who never tire of championing yet another next big thing. In The Fratellis’ case, however, the hype may well be justified. A five-track sampler for their debut album, Costello Music, is packed with hummable melodies, toe-tappingly good rhythms and choruses that will make even Arctic Monkeys turn a shade of green. So have they been enjoying the brouhaha of becoming famous, then?
“It beats nobody knowing who you are,” he drawls.
What’s it like being the next big thing?
“Are we? There’s loads of next big things, man. We’re just having a good time now and we’re getting excited week by week, when different stuff starts happening. Like we just got photos taken by Mick Rock and he’s a total legend. We played with Pete Townshend at T In The Park. They asked us to pick a song for him to jam on. I keep waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and say ‘Sorry, we got it wrong. It’s the other band we want, not youze’.”
While he’s incredibly polite and free from rock star airs and graces, when Jon Fratelli starts talking about their debut album (due for release on September 1) he can’t help but get animated.
“It’s gonna show up these bands who pile an album full of the same song,” he asserts. “We aren’t that cool, so we’ve got to make up for it by being a bit cleverer than everybody else. I dunno if we pull it off, though, ‘cos we don’t look clever.”
One song in particular, ‘Got My Nuts From A Hippy’ is a definite highlight, all taut guitars, shouty choruses and hilarious lyrics. One thing it’s not, however, is autobiographical, according to Jon.
“Of course not,” he deadpans. “‘Cos you never know when your mum might read these things. Anyway, I’ve never met a hippy, not a female one anyway: they’re always big hairy guys. It’s a good song though.”
The next single, ‘Chelsea Dagger’ is released two weeks before the album and then it’s the usual bout of touring, interviews and television appearances. So are they enjoying the rock star lifestyle?
“We’re the least rock star band around, honest to God,” he says. “We just sleep a lot. We’re all very well behaved and polite.”
I’m obviously not as good at poker as I thought, as my incredulous look tips Mr Fratelli off that I’m not conviced by his choirboy act.
“We are, man,” he insists. “Our mothers sent us out on the road with instructions on how to be nice to people and not shame the family name in any way, the Fratelli family.”
So is there a big history of Fratellis in Glasgow?
“Oh, yeah, there’s a whole clan of them,” he laughs, “with ice cream vans, parlours, fair-grounds: it’s a huge empire. We broke away ‘cos we didn’t want to join the family business. We could have had an ice cream van each but this seemed like much more fun.”