THEY have already played two major festivals this year, but popular Southampton band The Rising still have more to come.

The Sixties influenced six-piece performed storming sets at Common People and Isle of Wight.

Now they are set to play Blissfields in Winchester on Thursday, July 2 and Southampton Tattoo Festival at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday, July 5.

Lead singer Tommy Overington, rhythm guitarist Ryan

Daily Echo:

Griffiths, bassist Barrie Jarman, drummer Matt Stanton and keys player Liam Dixon spoke exclusively to the Southern Daily Echo at Planet Sound Studios about everything that’s going on.

“We’re really excited to be playing at Blissfields for the first time,” said Tommy. “It’s another great festival that gets bigger each year.

“We’d planned to spend more time recording our second album this summer, but we’ve had to put that back a few months as we keep getting more gigs.”

“Isle of Wight was a big deal for us,” added Matt. “It was tremendous to be playing on Jimi Hendrix inspired Hey Joe stage there.”

“We had quite a sparse crowd at the start, but after a couple of songs the tent really filled up,” said Tommy."

Daily Echo:

It’s no surprise that music fans were quickly drawn to the band. Their sound is an infectious fusion of harmonious Sixties rock and roll, some punk and indie, and plenty of attitude and humour.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for Barrie at Isle of Wight when he met one famous face backstage.

“I was having a good chat with Formula One’s Eddie Jordan, who was drumming on stage before us, but when I went back later his security chucked me out of his porta-cabin,” he laughed.

The band’s well-received first self-titled album, available on iTunes, was released in 2013, but a lot has happened since then.

Liam and Barrie joined the band about 18 months ago and, with the entire band involved in writing, new sounds are emerging.

“We’re not abandoning our roots, but our next album is going to surprise a lot of people,” said Tommy.

“Liam can play piano, Hammond organ, sitar, almost anything. Expect to hear more of those things very soon!” he added.

The band, which is signed to Detour records is excited about new tunes called I Want You I Need You, Olympus and the spiritually inspired Carpet Ride.

Their latest single Free My Soul Tonight was launched at The Joiners earlier this year.

They plan to return to Toe Rag studios to record their second album.

The Hackney studios are famous for recording on analogue tape. Some equipment is from the original Abbey Road studios and one mixing desk even pre-dates The Beatles.

The band sees it as a more authentic sound.

“When we’re writing we share ideas, have a laugh, sometimes argue and always try new things. But by the end of it we’ll have a good song,” said Tommy.

“We don’t do multi-track recordings so we don’t lose any energy or the raw excitement of playing live,” explained Matt.

Inspiration also came from two memorable gigs at the Cavern Club this year. The visit to Liverpool also saw Ryan and fellow guitarist Jimmy Hayes become as an impromptu football pundits.

“Sky Sports were interviewing people about Raheem Sterling’s latest exploits and somehow we got involved, despite being southern Saints fans!” joked Ryan.

The Rising will play at London’s famous 100 Club next March and would love to be back at Common People 2016.

Frontman Tommy has one other band to look out for.

“We’ve toured with members of a band now called Alias Kid who are with Alan McGee’s 359 label and they are set to take off. Along with our good friends The Novatones they came to watch us at Isle of Wight, which was brilliant.”

  • Southampton’s The Rising, The Novatones, Sean McGowan and Daisy Chains are at Blissfields Festival at Vicarage Farm near Winchester, July 2-4.

The Rising and The Novatones also play Southampton Tattoo Festival at The Ageas Bowl on Sunday July 5.

By Richard Derbyshire.