Weston Park Saturday 16th August - Hylands Park Sunday 17th August

The View have just been on holiday. A week in Mexico with their girlfriends. They rode quad bikes through the jungle, jet-skied, played golf at dawn. Great stuff. Except that when they tee’d off on the first hole, they were still drunk from the night before. They’d forgotten to buy golf balls so they nicked half-a-dozen from the driving range. Then frontman Kyle Falconer, the tequila still flowing round his bloodstream, reversed their golf buggy into a tree. Scorchio!

But where’s their suntans?

‘Left them there!’ says guitarist Pete Reilly. ‘We’re Scottish, we don’t do suntans. I was wearing factor 30 but I still got burnt really badly. I was walking about like Edward Scissorhands.’
No wonder The View were letting their hair down (if not taking their jeans off): it was their first break in over a year. Then, straight after they got back to Dundee from Mexico they headed out on their biggest tour to date, a headline jaunt round the UK that kicked off with a riotously celebratory show on Easter Monday in their hometown’s city centre venue, the Caird Hall.

‘It was brilliant, a Dundee band playing Dundee’s hall with four Dundee bands supporting. Plus, The Beatles graced that stage!’’ beams Reilly. Since summer ‘06 The View have had a high old time supporting Primal Scream and Babyshambles, appearing on the NME Brats tour, and generally gaining a reputation as the hardest gigging band in Britain (and beyond). ‘But it just feels good that that was our own tour, with our own laminates and our own catering – and our own bus at last, rather than a transit van.’
For that opening show in Dundee The View chose all the support acts from amongst their local mates. It was another small but significant acknowledgment of their pride in their hometown, which is traditionally one of Scotland’s more – shall we say – ‘under-appreciated’ cities.

‘There’s never been a rock ‘n roll band from Dundee, ever,’ says Reilly, pointing out that, whatever their merits, the Average White Band and The Associates weren’t rock’n’roll bands. ‘But that’s what good about Dundee: there’s no pressure. All the bands are mates, they’ll all do anything to get their mates further or themselves further. In a lot of big cities, like probably Manchester or Glasgow but especially London, they band are all jealous of each other it they get something good for themselves. But in Dundee if we got something good, all our mates would be like, oh yeah, that’s brilliant. And we’re like that with other bands – check these lot out. Everybody’s in it together in the music scene there. The important thing is to push Dundee as a music scene rather than hold everybody else back.’

Only a year before that long-overdue holiday in spring this year, The View were just another one of those struggling, unknown local outfits. ‘I remember playing as an unsigned band in Ireland this time last year,’ says Falconer almost wistfully. ‘It’s gone fast since then - but it also feels like four years in one.’

A little over 12 months ago Falconer, Reilly, Kieren Webster (vocals/bass) and Steve Morrison (drums) were four schoolmates from Dryburgh, a housing scheme on the southern outskirts of Scotland’s fourth city. Barely out of their teens, they were enthusiastic players of covers in local pubs, notably Squeeze’s ‘Up The Junction’, now a firm fans’ favourite and regular in the band’s set.
They released their debut EP on a new local label, Two Thumbs. The guy behind the label became their manager. The young band landed the support slot at a Babyshambles show in Dundee. They passed Pete Doherty a demo. He passed it to James Endeacott, the former Rough Trade A&R supremo who’d signed The Libertines and who had, at the time, just launched his own label, 1965 Records. Quicksmart, Endeacott swooped and signed The View. Two minutes later they were in deepest North Yorkshire, recording debut album Hats Off To The Buskers with legendary Oasis and Verve producer Owen Morris.

‘Well, it happened quickly in words but it didn’t happen that quickly in actually getting signed,’ counters Reilly. ‘Then we wanted to put in the miles with gigging, building up a fanbase. We done, like, 83 gigs in a month!’

‘We always just dreamed about what it would be like going on tour, playing night after night,’ says Falconer. ‘Then when we finally done it we were like, this is getting a bit much!’
‘But we’d be complaining if we weren’t busy!’ adds Reilly.

Boy have The View been busy, and not just on the live front. Their first three singles – Wasted Little DJs, Superstar Tradesman, Same Jeans – were all huge hits in the UK, as big on radio as they were – still are – on the dancefloor. NME voted Wasted Little DJs its track of the year. Since its release at the end of January this year, Hats Off To the Buskers has sold well in excess of 300,000 copies, commercial success matching critical acclaim. This summer they’re appearing high on the bill of many of the UK’S major festivals, including two appearances at Glastonbury, and are also performing with The Who.

A year ago, the young lads from Dundee had barely been out of the UK. Now they’re getting a ride on a helicopter – as they’re doing between Scotland’s T in the Park festival and Ireland’s Oxegen.
‘Last year at T in the Park we were on at three in the afternoon on the [new bands’] T-break stage,’ says Reilly. ‘This year we’re headlining the King Tut’s tent.’

For The View, their slot at T In The Park, the festival they grew up on, marks a great leap forward. But at the same time, it’s not.

‘We camped there with our mates last year,’ grins Reilly. ‘We’ll probably do the same again this year.’

And how have these last action-packed 12 months affected them?

‘Well, it is bad for your health,’ concedes Falconer. Although he doesn’t mean the 24hr -party people lifestyle for which The View have become (in)famous. ‘It’s your immune system that’s fucked. If there’s the slightest bug going around they whole bus gets it.’

But The View keep on trucking – even when circumstances conspire to hobble them, such as Falconer’s conviction for drugs possession last summer. It’s prevented The View touring America for the time being, which is a blow given the rapturous reception afforded them after a brace of introductory US shows in January this year.

No matter. They’ve enough commitments pretty much everywhere else in the world. As the fans have been chanting up and down the country, from continental Europe to distant Japan, The View are on fire. And nothing’s gonna dampen their enthusiasm. Or, as they say in Dundee, pish on their chips.

Here’s to The View’s next mad, mental, rock’n’roll 12 months.

Discover more in getcloser.com

Hats Off To The Buskers

Buy from HMV