BBC BERKSHIRE AT READING FESTIVAL

Pirates set sail for Reading Festival

Reading band Pete and the Pirates have silently worked their way up from playing the cosy Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading to playing one of the most famous rock festivals in the world. Pete Hefferan remains modest as ever.

In a hop, skip and a mammoth jump Reading band Pete and the Pirates have become one of the hottest collectives on the radar of the British music scene.

It wasn't too long ago that the quartet, in a haze of exclamatory harmonics and intense guitar punk, played a gig in the 3Bs bar in Reading Town Hall, where guitarist/singer Pete Hefferan used to work, and then played the Rising Sun Arts Centre, above which Pete Hefferan used to live.

Now the band are signed to Stolen Recordings, singer Tom Sanders has released a critically acclaimed solo debut under the name of Tap Tap, they've supported The Good, The Bad & The Queen, and they're on the bill of a myriad festivals all summer, from Latitude to the forthcoming End Of The Road festival in Dorset.

But one festival that will serve as a major milestone is Reading Festival.

When asked how excited he is about playing the festival, the amiable though laconic Pete Hefferan says: "Seven-and-a-half out of ten at the moment, which is quite high for me!"

"We'll be more psyched up than at the other festivals but it will be really early on - we're opening on the Carling Stage so that's between 12 and 1pm."

He adds: "It'll also be more comfortable than the other festivals we've done cos it's a place where we've spent a lot of time before."

It'll be a major step up from previously experiencing the Reading Festival in a sleeping bag somewhere in the field, in the rain - one of the memories of the festival Pete holds dear.

"This time we get to go to the back stage bit, which is obviously quite exciting."

And with a new album due out at the end of this year, expect some previously unheard tracks:

"We'll be playing a few new songs - they tend to filter through gradually. They come every month or so, some new ones come in, a few old ones go out."

Listen out for a fresh track called Simian Step, though the Pirates will also be resurrecting a few old ones such as Knife, "which is a good track" Pete says.

What they certainly won't be playing is any Proclaimers-esque songs. An early review from a national newspaper inexplicably described the band as sounding like the Scottish twins. The Pirates would sooner walk 500 miles to escape any such comparison.

"I think it's cos me and Pete both wear glasses and sing," Pete offers, "I don't know whether musically we're anything similar."

Watch Pete and Pirates talk about playing Reading

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• Pete and the Pirates at Plug 'n' Play

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