Light the blue touchpaper - There Will Be Fireworks

GLASGOW group There Will Be Fireworks don't intend to make a career from the band - and reckon that their music benefits from it.

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There Will Be Fireworks will play a rare live gig at Oran Mor this Saturday

The group will play a rare gig at Oran Mor this Saturday, following on from last year's acclaimed second album The Dark Dark Bright.

But the fivesome live across Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, as the band takes a back seat to their day jobs.

"There's absolutely no prospect of us doing this on a full-time basis," says singer Nicky McManus, who lives in Shawlands.

"I think that's how we like it - if we did this full time we'd drive each other crazy and without it being the opposite of work then the songs would be compromised.

"If we were doing it as a job I'd struggle to churn out enough songs for it. It would be great to experience, but I don't think it would suit our personalities at all."

That was a decision the band made some time ago, which is why they rarely gig or tour. Yet last year's record was a terrific mix of big guitar tunes and melancholic piano-driven songs that won praise from plenty of critics.

And while they all live miles apart, the quintet - Nicky, guitarist Gibran Farrah, bassist David Madden, pianist Stuart Dobbie and drummer Adam Ketterer - are already talking about a third record.

"I've got stuff in mind and so has Gibran - we've got things we're working on," adds the frontman.

"There's no real concrete arrangements yet so we're at the stage of needing to flesh them out, but that's the most exciting part.

"What we're looking at now is doing more as a live band in the practice studio, the way we used to operate.

"With everyone being all over the place now it's made that harder, but we're going to try and get something more immediate."

Nicky admits that the band often throw ideas around for where to go next, but it's more a case of evolution over revolution.

"You'll go to a gig, hear a certain song and think let's try a song that's like that, but after all these grand ideas about revolutionising our sound what happens is a natural progression instead.

"I don't think there will be a complete change of tack, but it will change a bit.

"What's up in the air is whether we make things more mellow or more heavy.

"I'd quite like to do something a bit more raw - last time we thought we'd do something a bit more folky and it didn't really turn out like that."

Saturday won't see any new songs debuted though. Instead they'll run through material from both their albums, at their first Scottish gig since the show when they launched The Dark Dark Bright last November.

It's also a chance for the whole group to catch up with each other, before they step onstage.

"As we don't see each other that much the gigs are like a big night out as well," Nicky says.

"We usually tend to get pretty decent crowds in Glasgow, and I don't think we'd get those numbers if we were gigging consistently.

"For us, it feels like more of an event, and hopefully there'll be people who've heard the second album but haven't seen us live yet."

The band are in talks for a tour next year, but not in Scotland or the rest of the UK.

Instead they're looking at a trip to Germany, after the Dark Dark Bright got some great reviews there.

"We've always done quite well in Germany, and we got some really good press off the German equivalent of Pitchfork," adds Nicky.

"We'll try and do four or five dates in major cities next year. We'll probably end up playing Munich to about 20 people but that would still be pretty cool."

l There Will Be Fireworks, Oran Mor, Saturday, £7, 7pm

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