Golden Touch Festival is back at The Wedgewood Rooms with headliners The K's | Interview

Frontman Jamie Boyle, lead guitarist Ryan Breslin, bassist Dexter Baker and new drummer Nathan Peers will lead a line-up of 20 up-and-coming artists at The Wedgewood Rooms, and it is their only date on the south coast this summer.

They join Bloxx, Corella, Spinn, Dutch Criminal Record, The Covasettes and Jerry Williams among many others on the bill.

Ryan told us last year’s August bank holiday weekend was ‘a pinnacle for the band in terms of festival runs in one weekend’, for as well as Victorious, they also crammed in sets on the main stages at Reading and Leeds and Camper Calling.

‘The crowds are getting bigger and bigger, it’s mad to hear thousands of people singing back to you and see a sea of flares going off, it’s ace,’ he says.

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The band sold out the 3,000 capacity Albert Hall in Manchester last year, but it was only a few years earlier that they played their first gig at The Sunbeam Hotel in their hometown of Earlestown, near St Helens.

Ryan says that his time playing pubs and clubs before and with The K’s are experiences he still values now.

‘I’ve played to only my dad and his mate in a pub, and his mate was looking the other way,’ he laughs, ‘But you have to do that to learn your craft and earn your stripes. I think coming up as a musician that way, you understand how hard it is and you learn things that stick with you forever.’

But after seven killer singles, including Hometown and Got a Feeling, Ryan says the question the band cannot escape is: when will their debut album be released?

He says: ‘In terms of songs, we have more than one album ready to go, but there will be new music out soon and more tours to announce, so stay posted. We won’t release an album until everything is right.’

The three musicians attended the same school in Earlestown, with Jamie and Dexter knowing each other since nursery.

‘Jamie and Dexter were best mates from the start, but we all grew up around the same time,’ says Ryan.

The lads moved in and out of other bands, with Ryan even sharing stages with acts like The Who and The Killers as a session guitarist in his brother’s band Slydigs, until a chance meeting with Jamie saw the idea for the K’s take shape.

Ryan explains: ‘We had been on separate nights out and ended up meeting at a house party afterwards and we drunkenly suggested getting together to record some music, and out came Sarajevo, which became our debut single in 2017, and, from that moment, we realised we had something special.’

Previously, the band has played headline gigs at The Joiners and Heartbreakers in Southampton and supported Australian stars DMA’s at Southampton Guildhall in October 2021.

This year, they have released singles Hoping Maybe and Chancer and performed on Soccer AM and at The Teenage Cancer Trust at The Royal Albert Hall. They also completed a 12-date tour in March.

Tickets £15. Doors at midday. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.