Del Amitri are headlining the Dandelion Festival in Inverness this Friday, marking a decades-long relationship with the north and north-east.

Since their first gig at Inverness Ice Rink in February 1990, the band has forged a firm place in the hearts of Highlanders, and anticipation for the Friday gig is running high.

Festival goers will be hoping to hear old favourites Always the Last to Know, Nothing Ever Happens and Not Where It’s At.

Less likely is a re-run of the band’s 1998 Scotland World Cup song, Don’t Come Home Too Soon. 

Fond memories of the Granite City

Justin has fond memories of playing Aberdeen over the band’s 40-year career – including a support slot to The Smiths at the Capitol in June 1984.

He said: “In the early days we played Aberdeen a lot. We supported The Smiths at the Capitol when their single Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now was going into the charts.

“That show was full of 13 to 14-year-olds who had just got into The Smiths and had never been to a gig before.

“A lot of them didn’t know there was an opening band so they got really excited when we came on as they thought we were The Smiths.

“Then they would calm down but they were very nice. They were great gigs.

“When we played Dundee all the fans threw their flowers at us because they thought we were The Smiths – and we had to give them back.”

Glasgow school roots

The Glasgow band has come a long way since its 1980 beginnings as frontman Justin Currie’s Jordanhill School Band.

Del Amitri became one of Scotland’s most successful bands — world tours and everything that goes with that, the rock n’ roll lifestyle with all its excesses.

The band Invernessians will see at the Dandelion Festival is more mature, ready for early bed and cocoa after the gig, as Justin said recently.

“When we toured America earlier this year, I was in bed an hour after we came off-stage, straight into my bunk on the bus.

‘Grandpas’ of tour

“Our guitarist Chris was the same. We were the grandpas of the tour, but it has its benefits. I lost my voice on tour in the 90s, because I sat up drinking beer and smoking.

“It happened again when I went to see Scotland play Morocco in the World Cup in 1998, drank too much beer and shouted the whole match. So I’ve nipped all that in the bud.”

The band’s first album in two decades, Fatal Mistakes, released last year, landed them a top-five place in the UK album charts.

Del Amitri has racked up five UK Top 10 albums and 15 Top 40 singles with Roll To Me even charting in the US Top 10.

Ending their hiatus

In 2002 the band entered a hiatus which extended more than a decade until reforming in 2014.

Justin admits he became bored of purely performing old material and wanted to freshen it up.

Recent release Fatal Mistakes is Del Amitri’s first studio album since Can You Do Me Good? in 2002.

He said: “It’s great having the new album as it makes the shows a lot more interesting for us.

“We did the reunion tour in 2014 where we didn’t do any new material and did one new song in 2018. After that, we got a bit bored just doing old stuff. It’s a bit of a relief having new songs.

“To start with we thought we would do three of the new songs live but now we are alternating between five and six.”

The album title Fatal Mistakes is a nod to bands who have returned after long periods of inactivity with new material and tarnished their reputation.

Justin was determined that would not happen with Del Amitri.

He said: “With the title Fatal Mistakes I wanted to suggest that might be the subject matter of the songs or that it might just be a really stupid idea doing this. Time will tell.”

It seems they got it right.

Elder statesmen

The band now revels in its status as an elder statesman of rock in the single You Can’t Go Back, with its video featuring the band done up as pensioners gone rogue.

Justin admits that age has forced him to adapt.

“I find playing bass and singing takes much more effort than it used to. Iain (Harvie, the band’s co-founder and guitarist) still throws himself around, trying to make up for my lack of animation.

“But for the last 10 years, I’ve really felt a big difference. I’ve done solo acoustic gigs in the interim and they’re less of a challenge. I’m reasonably strict about not drinking on tour now, until the last night.”

The band toured the States last spring, finding to their amazement that their following is still there, having matured with them.

Justin said: “They were there in larger numbers than expected. The American audience has mellowed a bit, they used to be crazy, but they’re terribly polite now.

“Maybe just less drunk, or maybe it’s just age. We haven’t toured America since 1997.

“In your late 50s you age really quickly but the crowd all looked younger than us. They actually weren’t as old as I thought they might be.”

Pandemic trial

The band made its touring revival during the pandemic, with their Perth concert last October used successfully to trial the vaccine passport scheme in the county.

The only thing Justin needs to worry about as he heads to Dandelion is going up the dreaded A9.

In 2006 he got a six-month ban after being caught speeding at the Ballinluig junction in Perthshire on his way north for a family holiday.

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