Festival Q&A:
Levellers

Who else are you excited to see?
Excited to see The Waterboys. Fisherman’s Blues is in my top five albums of all time.

What’s your best festival memory?
Best fest memory probably playing Glastonbury on the travellers’ site in 1990 at 4am – as the sun rose. The field was packed and we did a great show. Was a couple more years till we got on the Pyramid Stage but that was crazy too.

What are your festival essentials?
Most folk say toilet roll but I always bring alcohol.

How does playing a festival differ from playing your own gig?
Well, I suppose the pressure is off to a certain extent because hopefully the bill is good, but then it’s just as stressful really ‘cos there’s usually more people at a festival than an indoor gig and you wanna do your best for them, plus impress the other bands! Obviously there’s no sound checks or anything so you gotta just jump on and be good – and hope all your gear works (which in our case it doesn’t always, being as most of it is even older than us).

What’s your favourite part of playing a festival?
Fave part is all the above really. Getting to see other bands, hang out with old mates, make some new ones. Get wasted in a (hopefully nice dry) field, after the show of course! Pretty much the same reasons why anyone goes to a festival – except we get to play!

Win tickets to the Levellers at Sounds of the City in Big Issue North, out on 8 May