Kendal calling again for Borders band Frightened Rabbit

The folk-rockers are on the bill for the opening night of this year’s Kendal Calling at Lowther Deer Park in Cumbria, along with Franz Ferdinand, Happy Mondays and British Sea Power.

Acts including Stereophonics, Jake Bugg, Kate Nash and Circa Waves follow next Friday, July 28; Manic Street Preachers, Editors, Brian Wilson, the Hunna and Feeder the day after; and Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Tinie Tempah, Seasick Steve, Slaves and Lethal Bizzle on the Sunday.

This will be Frightened Rabbit’s second appearance at Kendal Calling following a previous appearance in 2014.

It’s also the first British outdoor festival appearance of the year for the band, formed in Selkirk in 2003 but based in Glasgow since the year after, although they did play a support slot for the Kings of Leon earlier this month at the latest series of British Summer Time shows in London’s Hyde Park.

Two more will follow for the Borderers – consisting of frontman Scott Hutchison, his brother Grant on drums, Billy Kennedy on bass, Andy Monaghan on keyboards and Simon Liddell on guitar – the Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, Hampshire, on Saturday, August 26, and Electric Fields festival at Drumlanrig Castle, north of Dumfries, on Friday, September 1.

For now, though, they’re focused on Kendal Calling, having tweeted on Thursday: “It’s just one week until we welcome all you Thursday ticket holders to the fields.

“Who’s excited for Happy Mondays, Franz Ferdinand and Frightened Rabbit?”

Veteran dance-rock act Happy Mondays – formed in Manchester in 1980 and together from then until 1993, 1999 to 2001, 2004 to 10 and since 2012 – are an 11th-hour addition to the festivals line-up, having only been announced last week.

The band are best known for their third album, Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches, a No 4 hit in 1990, and the two top 20 singles it yielded – Step On and Kinky Afro, both No 5s – although they did go on to make the top 20 one further time, with Loose Fit, a No 17 in 1991 from the same LP.

Like Frightened Rabbit, this will be their second Kendal Calling appearance, and, also like the Scots, their previous one was in 2014.

Tickets for this year’s Kendal Calling have long since sold out, but resales might be available at kendalcalling.twickets.co.uk

For further details of the festival, go to www.kendalcalling.co.uk

Other acts on the bill for the Cumbrian festival, just an 80-mile drive from Frightened Rabbit’s Borders home-town, include Field Music, Nothing but Thieves, the Coral, Reverend and the Makers, Loyle Carner, Example, Little Comets and Honeyblood.