Scottish rockers Twin Atlantic to play fan show in Borders

Twin Atlantic will be performing at the Victoria Halls in Selkirk on Thursday, July 14.

Their Borders show, their first in the region, is one of only three Scottish dates they are playing this summer and one of only nine in the UK, including the Isle of Wight Festival and Leicestershire’s Download Festival earlier this month.

The 1895-built venue’s capacity of 430 is a far cry from the crowds of scores of thousands they had watching them at those two festivals, but it’s in keeping with the Glaswegian band’s custom of alternating between intimate venues and enormous arenas.

Their last show in their home city, for example, at the 300-capacity King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on Friday, June 3, came just over a year after they sold out the 10,000-capacity SSE Hydro there, their biggest headlining show in their homeland so far.

Tickets for their Selkirk show cost £18, plus booking fee. For details, go to twinatlantic.com

Though well used for events related to the annual Selkirk Common Riding, by amateur dramatic groups and as a polling station, the Victoria Halls have hosted only a handful of pop and rock acts over the years, including the Bee Gees and Jeff Beck Group in 1967 and Idlewild and Franz Ferdinand in 2009.

Twin Atlantic, formed in 2007, consist of frontman Sam McTrusty, guitarist Barry McKenna, bassist Ross McNae and drummer Craig Kneale.

They’re on tour to promote their fourth album, GLA, due out on Friday, September 9.

Produced by Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, it follows 2014’s Great Divide, a No 6 hit; 2011’s Free, a No 37; and Vivarium, their non-charting 2009 debut.

They’ve also notched up one top 40 single, Heart and Soul, a No 17 in 2014, though Brothers and Sisters wasn’t too far off, reaching No 47 that same year.

GLA’s 12 tracks were written in Glasgow but recorded in the US, in Los Angeles, and the LP is very much inspired by their home city, according to McTrusty.

The 28-year-old said: “This is where we come from. It’s laced in our blood, not to mention our art and vision. It’s bold. It’s in our voice.

“It’s time to embrace it and not work around it. This album is our reflection of what it’s like to come from a city at the forefront of multiculturalism, both forward-thinking and with a real sense of community, but also with a dark and rough history.

“We have changed our approach to writing and recording. We turned the idea of a rock band upside down, conforming only to this one idea – to take back rock and roll, to give people something real again.

“You can’t get more real than Glasgow, infamous for rivalry and danger, passion and fear, diversity and depth, love and warmth, small spaces and one climate. We have finally made the album we wanted to make.

“There’s a stereotype, a stigma about Glasgow, but there’s a lot to talk about too.

“The city has, for some years, been enjoying a renaissance, transformed into a multicultural melting pot.

“The city’s rebirth, and our lives changing as we get older and take on more responsibilities, were all channelled into the songs.

“We wanted to write an album that embodied what it was like to be from one of the most exciting cities in the world, but one that also has this dangerous reputation.

“We are done with trying to be someone else or go somewhere else. It was time to be real to who we were. This is a moment of arrival, a stamp that says this is who we are, this is where we come from.”