Words by Patrick Hollis // @PaddyAstley
- The Pale White talk Reading & Leeds, new releases and plans for the future
Stood in the sweltering early afternoon heat, a concentrated and appreciative crowd reflected on what they’d just experienced. Fresh off the BBC Introducing stage at Reading festival, the guys of The Pale White were full of enthusiasm and energy.
Based in Newcastle, the Indie rock band added Reading & Leeds to their catalogue of festival performances. Consisting of front man Adam Hope, his brother Jack on drums and bassist Tom Booth, The Pale White are an exciting addition to the north east music scene; after a summer which also included a Glastonbury appearance they have also taken steps towards a big break onto the national stage. They spoke with pride about their humble beginnings and the buzz of performing.
“We did a few shows with a band called High Tyde, which was our first touring experience. It was only a few dates, but it was great,” says Adam reminiscently. “Then we got the Twin [Atlantic] tour and that was incredible, we were playing in front of a minimum of 3000 people per night.” Tom had high praise for Twin Atlantic’s treatment of new bands: “…they take a lot of bands out early on their tours, and for a band their size it’s amazing, really.” All three were quick to agree on the importance of gig-goers making the effort to come in early and view the support act.
The band have plenty of music out there already, from their released tracks it proved tricky for them to choose a favourite. “For me personally it’s Turn it Around, I don’t know what it is it’s just something about that song, I love it,” expressed Adam. Tom was sure on his top tracks too, “I love the reaction we get when we play That Dress, everywhere we go we can guarantee that’s going to get a good response. I really like playing Downer too.”
The latter of the songs mentioned by Tom was only released days before the festival kicked off, and he was surprised with the crowd reaction to it at both Reading and Leeds, “these are the first gigs we’ve done where [Downer] has been released, we can see people in the crowd reacting and noticing it.” Adam shared this feeling, especially with the chilled approach many people have towards bands that play in the early afternoon of festivals, “I was playing and thinking ‘do any of these guys know who we are?’ like they just walked up. Then we started playing and half of them were singing. It was great.”
Adam went on to talk about the reason the band delayed the release of ‘Downer’, “we recorded it in April and it was going to be released as a follow up to ‘Turn it Around’ but we put it on hold because of how well festival season was going.” The wait was certainly worth it as ‘Downer’ proved a hit with the Reading crowd.
Adam gave an insight into an up and coming tour in the autumn for the band, ‘we’re on tour with The Amazons in October, we’ve done a few gigs with them in the past and we’ve become good friends so that will be a good laugh.’ Tom and Jack furthered their band mates’ praise of their future touring colleagues, making strong predictions for them to be a Main Stage band in the not so distant future.
Questions relating to an album are always one which every band is subject to. For The Pale White, the answers came easily and confidently, they made it clear they were keeping their feet on the ground. “Eventually it will be something to look at; hopefully we’ll start on that next year. We are piecing together what we want; we just don’t want to rush it,’ Tom added to these words in a similar tone, ‘it’s in the back of our minds but we want to keep going the way we are at the moment.’
The future looks very bright for this trio. They are slick performers on the stage and off it they are the most down to earth guys you could wish to meet. Their singles are out there and are a great listen, if you like what you hear then you can catch them on tour with the Amazons towards the end of this year. The only further thing which can be said in terms of The Pale White is watch this space.