Interview: Scouting For Girls

IN the great rock and pop pantheon there are some iconic venues which, if they're lucky enough to play there, will be the pinnacle of any band's career.

The Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Stadium and Madison Square Gardens spring readily to mind, but it's unlikely that Doncaster Racecourse would appear in many people's top 10.

But Scouting For Girls, who play at Town Moor tomorrow afternoon, are more than happy doing a gig at the racecourse which played host to the X-Factor finalists earlier this year.

Bassist Greg Churchouse says they're looking forward to the show.

"We did a couple of racecourse gigs last year and it was good fun because I'd never been to a racecourse before. There's horse racing for the adults and a show for the kids, so it's very family-orientated."

This may seem an incongruous setting for a pop concert but it's not the most unusual venue the band has played.

"We did a festival in Leipzig recently which was on the site of a converted coal mine that still had these giant cranes and diggers. So we were playing to a crowd of Germans looking out on to these 10-storey high cranes. It was like something from a James Bond set; it was very bizarre."

It's certainly been a rollercoaster ride for the band since they burst on to the music scene with their eponymous chart-topping album in 2008. A string of hits followed, including She's So Lovely, Heartbeat and It's Not About You and, in April this year, they released their second album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV.

The band, which consists of Greg, singer Roy Stride and drummer Pete Ellard, have become known for their radio-friendly brand of effervescent pop, along with the likes of The Feeling, Mika and The Hoosiers.

But Greg doesn't believe they're part of any pop renaissance.

"I don't think it's ever gone away, to be honest. It may take a slightly different form and have touches of R & B and dance, but a great pop song doesn't really change; it has to connect with people and give you that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hear it," he says.

When it comes to their own songs, they follow a similar process.

"Roy comes to us with a melody and we sit down in the studio and add our individual parts and then he goes and writes the lyrics – it's good old-fashioned pop music," says Greg.

And while pop is sometimes dismissed as lightweight fluff by certain critics (but not this one, I hasten to add) Greg insists they enjoy what they do.

"It's always been about the music for us; there's no point doing it if you don't love the music.

"If you're in a band, you're playing the same songs over and over again, so if you didn't love them, that would just be insane."

Such is their popularity now it's hard to believe that they spent more than a decade trolling about as a struggling unsigned band looking for a break.

Roy and Pete have been friends since their days in the Cubs, while Greg and Roy met at school.

"When you're 13 or 14 and you first start a band, it's the coolest thing in the world. But when you're in your 20s and your friends are getting married and buying houses and you're still working part-time in a local shop, it becomes less so," explains Greg.

"But even before we got signed, the highlight of our week was going to rehearsals on a Friday night. So even if we had never had the opportunities we have, then that still would have been the case."

But having hit the big time, they plan to keep on going for a long time to come.

"It's what we love and it's the only thing I'm any good at," he adds.

SCOUTING FOR FACTS

The trio hail from west London where they first played together as teenagers.

The band's name is a pun on Robert Baden-Powell's book, Scouting for Boys.

The Scouting for Girls fan club is known as the "Wolfcubs" and is based on the Dennis the Menace fan club.

Their self-titled album went to number one in the UK in January 2008, where it remained for two weeks.

The band performed in the Woolpack Pub on the set of Emmerdale for a radio session.

Scouting For Girls play Doncaster Racecourse tomorrow with tickets still available. For further information visit doncaster-race.co.uk or call 01302 304217.