We saw, and subsequently fell in love with Skinny Lister a couple of years back when they played at Chagstock Festival, since then, we managed to catch them live in London and upon hearing that they were venturing down South again in August to appear at Beautiful Days Festival near Exeter, we thought it was time for a chat. We caught up with Lorna from the band and chatted about hangover cures, festival survival tips and exactly WHY you need to be in the Big Top on Sunday to catch their set....
Firstly, for those unfortunate people who aren’t familiar with your band, please tell us a bit about yourselves….
We’re a six piece band with folk instruments singing punk laced party tunes and the occasional shanty. I think that about sums it up. There’s five guys and me and a flagon of rum. Our shows have been described as energetic, and highly participative and we’re known to get a good community spirit amongst the crowd. Basically we have great fun singing & playing and hopefully this spreads to the audience who have great fun singing & dancing back at us.
I last saw you in Camden at KOKO when you were on tour with Beans on Toast, it was great to see Frank Turner jump on stage for a song at the end of your set, have you any surprises in store when you play at Beautiful Days?
Beans on Toast is part of the Skinny family. In fact I should probably say that we’re all part of the Xtra Mile Recordings family, of which the likes of Frank, Will Varley & Sean McGowan are all part of. We’ve all done a hell of a lot of shows together and its great sharing the stage with them all. And on the main point of your question, if I told you we had a surprise then it wouldn’t be a surprise would it?! There’s loads of our mates actually playing the festival so who knows what might happen.
Standing in a field watching bands has become a popular pastime for us Brits, what do you think it is about music festivals that appeals to so many people?
I actually joined the band to get into festivals for free! Ive attended and played my fair share now and all over the world too. Britain just really does music festivals well. There’s loads of great music of course, there’s the chance to stumble across something you’d never come across otherwise (making it a great starting point for new bands) and there’s a sense of freedom and abandonment, which you don’t really get anywhere else. However, last time I was at Glastonbury someone tried to do a selfie with me. No chance! I don’t want to look at myself in the mirror after 3 days of hard partying let alone have the look documented!
It can often be a battle getting through three days at a music festival, please share your top three survival tips
If it’s a battle then don’t go to a festival! I’m not sure you need survival techniques. I just tend to stumble about meeting new people and seeing new stuff. I always (well nearly always) pack wellies, look for music free interactive stuff for the occasional break & make sure I know where my base camp is – though this can evade me sometimes!
What is your preferred tipple at a festival?
Anything I can get my hands on! Rum & coke – is always guaranteed to give you energy.
And what's the best hangover cure?
Baked beans, Ribena and a packet of prawn cocktail crisps. Works every time!
You’re playing at Beautiful Days this year, which of the other acts are you hoping to catch whilst you’re there?
As I said above there’s loads of great people playing this year and we have lots of friends there too. Holy Moly & the Crackers are great, as are label mates Ducking Punches. I also really want to see The Hives. We play Sunday so of course, I’ll be enjoying The Levellers set that evening. That was magical last time we played there a couple of years ago.
We’ve had some stunningly good weather in the UK over the past six weeks, please predict the forecast for Beautiful Days
Glorious sunshine with the occasional cloud cover in the morning so we don’t get rudely awakened in a hot sticky tent. It might rain on Sunday afternoon too which doesn’t matter too much as it happens to coincide with our set in the Big Top!
Where can people keep up to date with you?
We’re all on top of the social media side of things. We have the website skinnylister.com where you can find all our information including our newsletter sign up page, Bandsintown, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook! Search for Skinny Lister and you’ll find it all.
Lastly, please tell me WHY people should come and see you when you perform at Beautiful Days?
Well as I said, its going to be raining at that time so makes sense to find cover in the big top! Plus we have our flagon of rum so if you have ran out of booze – if you get down the front we’ll top you up. Otherwise, I’d like to think that we have some pretty good tunes and a good time to be had!
Keep up to date with the band's whereabouts and general shenanigans at the following places.