LAWSON singer Andy Brown spoke to the Daily Echo ahead of the band’s performance at Bournemouth’s Night Air concert tonight about how he survived three close scrapes with death.

Despite his traumatic experiences, he revealed new music that they will be showcasing on the beach is as uplifting and positive as the band’s hit records which include When She Was Mine, Taking Over Me, Standing in the Dark, Learn to Love Again, Brokenhearted, Juliet and the new single Roads.

Andy, 28, says he is now fully recovered after suffering liver failure last year after drinking a moderate amount of alcohol.

He was was admitted to hospital after a hangover failed to go after two weeks, he was losing weight, was unable to get out of bed, and his skin turned yellow.

He was diagnosed with liver failure and he registered for a transplant, forcing the band to abandon recording sessions for their second album.

Fortunately he was given steroids and responded so well to treatment he was eventually taken off the transplant waiting list.

No reason could be found for why it happened but the singer believes it was either an allergic reaction or somebody spiked his drink.

He isn’t bitter about it all and simply says: “I just feel extremely lucky, it could have been much worse. It was horrible. It was 18 months ago but it was a horrific time in my life.

"I’m fully recovered now. It was so hard to have to postpone things.

"I took six months off to recover which was a bummer. I just had to do what the doctors ordered. I lost a lot of weight and had to change my diet so I needed to build myself back up.

“It always changes your perspective when you go through something like that. You think: ‘Wow, I’m lucky to be here and you appreciate just being healthy and being able to see friends. So, when I was writing songs there was a lot of positivity going into it.”

Lawson were originally called The Grove but renamed themselves Lawson in honour of the surgeon who saved Andy’s life when, aged 19, he had a brain tumour while studying computer science at university.

It resulted in his loss of hearing in his right ear and the ability to hear music in stereo.

Without the operation he would have lost his sight and there was a 40 per cent chance he would be left with facial paralysis.

Andy says: "Dr Lawson did an amazing job.”

More recently he had yet another close shave whilst travelling on the band's' tour bus.

“I never have a cold but do have these scrapes with death." he laughs.

“We were on the tour bus for the first time and didn’t know how everything worked on it. I was standing against the door and it opened as we were going 80 miles an hour down the M6 and I was nearly flung out. The lads were hanging on to me for dear life.”

All of that is now behind him.

Tonight’s show comes ahead of their two performances at this weekend’s V Festival and Andy says: “We are really excited. We have been to Bournemouth a few times. We’ve played the BIC and been to the beach and always have a good laugh there.”

It is just as well he is now fighting fit as he says the band is touring “24-7”. Days start early and end late. They have just finished a month-long tour of the US and say,s “We had an amazing time.”

“We are looking forward to getting back out there and to the Far East, Bangkok, Thailand, the Philippines. The new single Roads is Number 1 in the Philippines so we will go out there at the end of the year.”

Andy says an EP will be released soon “as a taster” for the long-awaited second album.

“We will be promoting our music in the US in the next few months to give people a taste of what’s to come. We’ve had seven top-six singles now so it’s all great. I’m still living the dream. It’s an incredible band. We will be in the US in November and December as our earlier song Standing in the Dark is going down well there.

"We will have a new tour of the UK after that and we have stuff planned for Europe and Asia too.”

He says the album doesn’t have a release date yet because they will be spending a lot of time in the US but the EP will be released in September.

Andy reveals: “It’s looking at the brighter side of life and is a celebration of it. We are Kings, for example, is about being the best you can be in life.

“It’s still emotive, uplifting feel-good music. It’s pop-rock but just a little more mature. It was recorded in Nashville so we got to experiment with a few instruments but the band is still basically bass, drums, guitar and vocals.”

So why record it in Nashville?“There’s a great industry in Nashville, lots of great music writers live there and everyone loves music and it has some of the best recording studios.”

Nashville is obviously famous for a lot of successful country artists, and Andy says that the band took "a little bit" of inspiration from there.

, “A little bit "You can hear that in Roads – there’s a bit of banjo so it’s a little bit country-inspired but it still maintains a pop hook.”

As for the future he says: "There are a lot of great bands out there but our next plan is to have a hit in America and another top-five5 album.

"We hope to get that with the next album and keep playing the arenas.”