Lostprophets: Don't call it a comeback (From This is The West Country)

Lostprophets: Don't call it a comeback

12:57pm Thursday 4th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share

AS Welsh rockers the Lostprophets celebrate the top five success of their latest album and prepare for a world tour, guitarist Mike Lewis tells News reporter KIRSTY MACLAGAN why he is always keen to come back to Somerset.

THE music industry can be a fickle creature – and nobody knows that more than the Lostprophets.

In July 2006, the Pontypridd six-piece seemed to have it all – their third album, Liberation Transmission, had just entered the charts at number one, they scored their biggest hit with Rooftops and they were named Best British Band at the Kerrang Awards.

And then it all went wrong.

Work on the follow-up to Liberation Transmission was plagued by setbacks, with scrapped recordings and fruitless studio sessions leaving the band hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket – and two years behind schedule.

Despite recording an entire album’s worth of material in LA with producer John Feldmann, it was shelved in favour of tracks they later recorded and produced themselves, with recording sessions for what would later be known as The Betrayed.

Wind the clock forward to January 2010 and it looks like the band’s dogged persistence has paid off.

The Betrayed shot to number three in the UK album charts on its release three weeks ago, buoyed by the top 20 success of the first single taken from it, It’s Not the End of the World, But I Can See It From Here.

But guitarist Mike Lewis insists it is not a comeback album.

“Don’t call it a comeback, we’ve been here for years!” he told the Express.

“Even though the record was delayed, we made the decision to produce it ourselves which has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

“We weren’t thinking about our previous albums, just about this one being the best it could be.”

The band are now looking forward to getting back out on the road with their new material.

They will be playing Yeovil as one of 19 UK dates on a tour which will also takes in Japan, Australia and much of Europe.

Mike, an original member of the band which formed in 1997, said: “I can’t wait to get out there and play the new stuff.

“We played the Ski Lodge in Yeovil back around 2001 and really enjoyed the show.

“Somerset audiences are great.”

Lostprophets play the Westland Leisure Centre on February 21 – for ticket details call 0871-2200-260.

• Print
• Email
• Share