With their new album Rascalize currently hitting iPods, earphones and ear drums everywhere, it was a pleasure to be rascalized by Miles Kane, Joe Edwards and Greg Mighall – aka - The Rascals at Bristol’s Thekla on a sunny summer’s eve.

With pints of fizzy water and packets of cigarettes scattered on the table on the deck, The Rascals seemed to be lapping up the sun before they climbed onstage to give the audience a treat. Having seen them a couple of months ago at The Bierkeller supporting The Courteeners who are now bigger than your nan’s blouse, I wondered how it was touring with them for a bit?
“We only did a couple of gigs as it was a warm up gig for this tour” says Miles.

The Rascals also supported Arctic Monkeys last December and I wondered if they would ever support again or were they ready to do their own thing?
“Nagh, we’re just gunna do our own now” said Miles in his Liverpudlian accent.

With names to drop such as Arctic Monkeys and The Courteeners, I wondered when they had formed and how long it had taken them to reach such a successful pinnacle in their careers?
“Badminton wasn’t it. I met Greg when we used to play squash. He was more of a badminton, I was more of a squash player” said Miles with a cheeky, rascal smile on his face. How did Joe fit in then? “I was the umpire, being a bit boring. I just liked keeping score. I was very fair as well.”

With a mediocre career in badminton ahead of them it seemed they weren’t really fulfilling their skills so they “swapped rackets for guitars” as Miles explains: “We were in bands when we were sixteen. We joined The Little Flames and three years of that. Our growing ambition of being together grew and then we became The Rascals.”

The Rascals’ music is unlike any band around at present, as it lulls one into its dark and mysterious sound, making you transfixed throughout the performance. Their music certainly reflects the versatility of their influences such as, Miles explains; “Scott Walker. The Beatles. Take That. The early stuff mainly. Loads of stuff. It’s a variety really. I’d have to show you me iPod. It would take a while to scroll through that.”

All of The Rascals are clearly at the top of their game musically as they performed for an hour non-stop without even appearing to break a sweat, all having a laugh as they play. I wondered how they collaborated with each other in the recording space and if it was as much fun as they appear to have together?
“Miles writes majority of classic hits,” says Joe, “then we have the lyrics and tunes and we string ‘em in and change the rhythm of it all. It took us from November of last year to January to do the album which is now twelve tracks long.”

With The Rascals album out now and The Last Shadow Puppets becoming very successful very quickly of which Miles is apart of with Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, I wondered whether they found the success of The Last Shadow Puppets over-shadowing or aiding the success of The Rascals?
“Probably a bit of a worry that,” explains Miles, “because it did quite well but as a band our tunes aren’t that commercial, it’s a bit darker. It’s not getting wanked on the radio but then the whole point of album is an album of release and it is all the ideas that have been built up over time. We didn’t want any frustration of not being able to do what we want to do. We didn’t want to do that on this album. The whole point was a bit of a mad dark album to get that out and move on.”

With this in mind I wondered where they wanted to move on to?
“Take That” says all.

Mad and dark indeed, The Rascals have clearly achieved what they wanted with the new album Racsalize, and if they continue to perform as well as they did that very evening then I’m sure their future will be even greater than Take That’s. All aboard The Rascals adventure.

www.therascals.co.uk

Selina Orrell