Scouting For Girls have vowed to give Aberdeen fans an unforgettable party with greatest hits and 1980s classics.
The chart-topping pop stars were forced to twice cancel their UK tour due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Finally, the trio are out on the road and after 18 months of lockdown aim to celebrate their return with a high tempo, fun night at The Lemon Tree on Wednesday.
Fans can also expect a few cover versions of 80s chart classics to ramp up the energy, and party atmosphere, even further.
Singer/songwriter Roy Stride said: “As lockdown got longer and longer and the tour was pushed back further and further we decided to make the shows a massive greatest hits party with a few eighties hits thrown in to take the tempo even higher.
“It is going to be a really fun night in Aberdeen.
“It feels so good to be playing live again after the lockdown.
“There is a real buzz with everyone watching live music at the moment and crowds have been better than I have ever remembered.
“This tour has been postponed twice. It started out as a two week run of shows which was going to take in out of the way places we had never been to before.
“Originally the tour was planned for four months after our 2019 album The Problem With Boys and now two years later we are finally playing.
“We have gone from two weeks to nine weeks which is our longest ever tour and is pretty full-on.
“However we’re loving it. It’s great to be back.”
Back to the 80s for safer, simpler times
Scouting For Girls have racked up millions of album sales and topped the UK charts with their self-titled debut in 2008.
That album produced hit singles She’s So Lovely, Elvis Ain’t Dead and Heartbeat.
Follow up album Everyone Wants to Be on TV peaked at number two in the UK charts but provided Scouting For Girls with another chart-topper in single This Ain’t A Love Song.
Denied the opportunity to play live during lockdown and with no end in sight to the pandemic last year the trio retreated to a safer time – the 80s.
We're so excited to play live shows for you all again!
Make sure to listen to our new Live & Acoustic EP now! pic.twitter.com/KPrU9BxEnJ
— Scouting For Girls (@Scouting4Girls) August 19, 2021
They found solace in revisiting an era when they were kids and had no worries.
Ultimately the result was album Easy Cover – a pun on Phil Collins’ 80s hit Easy Lover.
Released earlier this year Easy Cover is a joyous, upbeat album of eighties covers with some original tracks.
The trio also released I Wish It Was 1989 – longing for Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Knight Rider and when the Berlin Wall came down.
Scouting For Girls also recorded Xmas In The 80s – pining for a time of “Frankie Says Relax” T-shirts, Care Bears, Sony Walkman, toy Millennium Falcons and Argos catalogues.
Roy said: “I Wish It Was 1989 is about being a kid with no troubles when life was very different from the Covid lockdown world we were living in.
“It is about not having any cares.
“The whole album was, well some would say a cry for help, but it was ‘what could we do during lockdown?’
“We also did a song looking back to Christmas in the eighties when we were kids.
“It basically references all the toys and TV shows that remind us of 80s’ Christmas.
“Our fan base is a community and we tried to do as much as we could during the lockdown such as parties on Zoom, acoustic sessions and pub quizzes. It was our way of doing something.
“We felt a really fun, silly album would be a way of cheering people up. It cheered us up.
“Now it’s great to finally get out on tour and do what we love – which is play live.”
Relishing a chance to explore Aberdeen
Roy, 42, is particularly relishing playing Aberdeen as he aims to explore the Granite City and visit the beach before the concert.
For Scouting For Girls life on the road is not a never-ending dirge of tour buses and hotel rooms – before each show they explore the cities and towns they visit.
Roy said: “What we love about touring is that when the tour bus turns up in a new city we can go to the museums, look around the shops, go for a few pints and then come back and sound-check.
“It’s lovely. I love being a tourist in these places in the UK – you get paid to be on holiday effectively.
What's your favourite track from the new B-Sides and Rarities EP? Check it out, and let us know! https://t.co/F5ugNsSUXJ pic.twitter.com/kzje6eGm7D
— Scouting For Girls (@Scouting4Girls) September 28, 2021
“We have had some great shows in Aberdeen and The Lemon Tree is an iconic venue with such a rich history.
“Aberdeen is a great city to walk in. I love playing wherever possible near a beach because it makes you feel like you are on holiday.”
More than 100 new songs in the pipeline
Scouting For Girls’ current tour may be a greatest hits party but the band also intend to use the nine weeks on the road to finish songs for a new album.
Fans will be delighted to hear the band aim to go into the studio to record the album as soon as the tour finishes.
He said: “We have more than 100 songs all started and one of the jobs I have given myself is to finish them whilst on tour.
“Then as soon as we come off the tour we’ll go straight into the studio to record over December and January to get it out next year.
“Ironically I have the time whilst on tour to finish the songs.
“When I am at home I write and produce for other people, I have a young family and loads of pets. There is so much stuff to do.
“On tour you have the whole day and now I have time to finish this album and make it really good.”
An ambition to be an even bigger band
Scouting For Girls‘ debut album went triple platinum and the band were nominated four times for Brit Awards and were also nominated for an Ivor Novello.
They have also sold out Wembley Arena. However, Roy is confident the new batch of songs he is working on can take them to an even higher level of success.
He said: “Like any band, we have been away for a long time but there is still an ambition here to be a bigger band.
“I think we have the songs to take another step forward so it is exciting.”