Ahead of the Mucky Weekender Festival which takes place over the weekend of 9/10th September, we caught up with a band called THE SHAKES and chatted about strange festival stories, supporting Miles Kane recently and their top three tips to surviving a ‘mucky weekend’! For all of this and more, read on….

You’re playing at Mucky Weekender in September, I’m guessing that Barry Ashworth may have been involved in booking you?

Yeah, we met him at Shiiine On Festival last year, ended up having the craic for the next couple of hours together and stayed in touch after that. He's got some brilliant stories.

Do you know yet which stage, time and day you’re playing?

I know that we’re playing on Saturday……keep an eye out for updates as the festival gets closer!

What is the STRANGEST/FUNNIEST/WEIRDEST thing you have ever seen at a music festival?

I once played at this tiny festival called ‘Brownstock’ somewhere in Essex years ago. We'd all had a heavy night and I woke up at like 6am needed a pee. Anyway, as I was walking to the toilets I spotted my mates van in the ditch. I wasn't quite sure what was real at that moment and in my confusion I turned to these two security guards and went "the wind didn't do that did it?!?". They both started cracking up. Then one of them went "look at this" to the other one, opened his hands and he was holding a tint robin-like bird. The bird was completely calm about it though, just chilling in his hands. all very surreal.

It’s great to see so many festivals and live events back up and running again after the pandemic, have you noticed any differences when playing live?

It seemed like the whole scene was on overdrive when the restrictions first ended and everything was selling out coz people couldn't get enough after 2 years of isolation. That seems to have edged off a bit now which is natural but the basics of it are the same as they ever were - go out and play well and people will appreciate it. Its a simple enough brief really haha.

Which festivals have you already played this year? Any interesting stories that you can share with us?

The festival circuit has been a bit tricky for new bands to get booked onto this year because for most of them, the line up was booked for 2020. I did DJ at Glastonbury though. I took it fairly easy for most of the weekend coz I had my nearly 2 year old son with me bit I did have one big blow out on the Thursday night after my set. I would just like to take this opportunity to put on record that The Shakes' tour manager is a lightweight.

Apart from Mucky Weekender, which other festivals or shows do you have planned for 2022? 

We're really excited to be playing on the main stages at Lakefest in August and then Shiiine On Weekender in November. We've also got some city-wide festival dates starting to come through for October so we're starting to get some good vibes about the Autumn. Watch this space as they say. We will also do a few shows around the single launch in September hopefully, 

I see on the socials that you signed up with the Wasserman agency for live bookings, are you hoping to tour with any of the acts on their books?

Well obviously we'd love to be touring the world with the likes of Super Furry Animals or Liam Gallagher but to be honest, they're a huge agency and they're absolutely packed top class acts so we're just keen to get on the road as soon as possible and start turning heads. The Snuts, The Reytons and Royston Club would be a decent fit if we can get it together.

Talking about supporting bands, you shared a stage with Miles Kane in Norwich recently, how did that come about and how did the show go?

It was fairly out of the blue TBH but the guys at SJM got in touch through a contact and we obviously jumped at the chance. Great fit, great crowd and the show went really well. Liverpool were playing in the European Cup Final that night so we were careful to get Zak as far away from the venue as possible after our set haha.. I'm glad to report that he survived.

Finally, music festivals can be ‘mucky’ affairs, please tell me your top 3 festival survival tips

1. Remember it's a marathon, not a sprint - never pull an all-nighter on the first day!

2. Budgie smugglers for the journey in.

3. If there's a weird bit of the festival then go and do something you wouldn't do in the real world - the green fields in Glastonbury are good for that sort of thing. Go and get your Tarot read or go on a helter-skelter or drop shrooms and watch a circus act or some shit. Get weird.

You can buy tickets to see The Shakes at Mucky Weekender Festival HERE

The Shakes new single “Sorry Officer” is out in September, https://www.wearetheshakes.com - you can also catch The Shakes at Shiiine On along with the Dub Pistols in November.