The Magic Gang are set to begin a run of live dates this week as support for indie rock/pop group Blossoms, and the band recently spoke to NME about the tour and a new EP they have planned. The four-piece from Brighton will be performing at Hull’s Bonus Arena tonight (August 30) to kick off the first of rescheduled dates on Blossoms’ UK tour which was postponed after their Bournemouth date in March last year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Frontman Jack Kaye spoke to NME at this month’s Boardmasters Festival, explaining what fans should expect from the forthcoming gigs. “We’re more keen than ever to connect with people, we’ve always been about including the audience, but now more than ever the idea of getting a sing-a-long going and stuff like that feels way more important.”
The band also want to connect with gig-goers through meet and greets providing fans feel comfortable enough to step forward after the recent rise in UK COVID rates. “Whoever’s comfortable and feels safe coming forward to say hello, we’ll be there; that’s just the way we are,” Kaye said. “I don’t think we can shy away from that because when you’re there and it’s happening it feels unnatural to hide away and not say hello to the people that have come to see you. We’re being responsible. We’re testing every morning so we’re doing what we can to be safe.”
Magic Gang drummer Paeris Giles also told NME.“I think there’s a bit more appreciation for where we’re actually playing because they’re such big venues, It’s like, wow, we’re playing three nights at Kentish Town Forum and then the big show at Manchester Arena. We feel very grateful to be able to do that. The idea of playing venues to that many people feels like a dream.”
After the run of Blossoms dates, The Magic Gang will head out on their own UK and Ireland tour in October to support their second album, ‘Death Of The Party’, which was released in August last year. Speaking on the difficulty of not being able to tour the album until now, Kaye said the whole process was tough but that he found joy in other things.
“I find being a musician when you’re not touring is a little tough anyway because you have to maintain a bit of discipline and structure in your day-to-day. Whether you’re writing music consistently or whatever it is, you have to implement your own structure,” he said. “So being in that period for a year and a half was pretty stressful and you do a lot of navel-gazing and thinking about yourself. You’ve got to find purpose in other things really. I definitely started to find joy in other day-to-day things.”
Having already played a few pre-tour gigs at Tramlines Festival and Boardmasters Festival, as well as a run of National Lottery funded shows, Kaye said the band’s new material is going down better than he thought it would with the fans. “When we were rehearsing for these early shows I was a little bit nervous about playing the newer stuff, I was like, ‘Maybe we should put a few more old ones in there.’ But as soon as we started playing the shows the response was really warm for the new ones. Weirdly they’ve been going off more than the first album, which is really cool.”
To follow on from the album, The Magic Gang have revealed that they’re about to start work on another new project. “We’re writing,” Kaye revealed. “I think the next thing’s gonna be an EP.
“We’ve written loads but what we’re trying to figure out – because pretty much all of us write – is what the sound is going to be moving forward and what we wanna do. So it’s not that we need more time to write, we need more time to figure out what we like about what we’ve already written. So rather than just coming out and doing another album straight away we wanna find our feet a little bit within the band.”
The forthcoming EP will be the band’s fourth and the follow-up to 2017’s EP Three, which they put out to whet the appetites of fans ahead of their self-titled debut LP. “That was sort of our strategy in order to build a following for the first album – and it worked,” explained Giles.
Asked when they hope to start recording the new EP, Kaye replied: “We’re gonna start in September.”
The UK tour dates with Blossoms can be seen below. The Magic Gang are supporting on August 30-31, September 9-15 and 18. You can buy your tickets here.
‘Kin hell, @allpointseastuk was special yesterday. Can’t wait to be back with our loves @yalarecords this Friday, handful of tickets reserved for you lot https://t.co/1YlPiOzYS0 pic.twitter.com/B44dhQh5rm
— The Magic Gang (@_TheMagicGang) August 31, 2021
Blossoms support Tour Dates:
30/08/2021 Bonus Arena – Hull
31/08 O2 Academy – Glasgow
02/09 Engine Shed – Lincoln
03/09 Victoria Hall – Stoke-On-Trent
04/09 O2 Academy – Birmingham
07/09 Junction – Cambridge
09/09 O2 Academy – Leeds
11/09 O2 Academy – Newcastle
13/09 O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
14/09 O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
15/09 O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
17/09 O2 Academy – Leicester
18/09 AO Arena – Manchester
The Magic Gang Tour Dates:
06/10 Academy 2 – Dublin
07/10 Old Fire Station – Carlisle
08/10 Arts Club – Liverpool
10/10 Tramshed – Cardiff
11/10 O2 Academy – Oxford
12/10 The 1865 – Southampton
13/10 Chalk – Brighton
14/10 Rock City – Nottingham
15/10 Gloucester Guildhall – Gloucester
17/10 O2 Institute2 – Birmingham
18/10 Riverside – Newcastle Upon Tyne
19/10 Beat Generator – Dundee
20/10 The Lemon Tree – Aberdeen
21/10 SWG3 – Glasgow
22/10 Waterfront – Norwich
24/10 Leadmill – Sheffield
25/10 O2 Ritz Manchester – Manchester
26/10 London EartH – London
