Luckily for us (and for you), we managed to track down the Flashguns at Standon, a band consisting of Sam Johnston (lead vocals/guitar), Giles Robinson (drums), Olly Scanlon (bass), and James Write (keys/glockenspiel) – who was unfortunately absent - , sit them down in a LLT circle of trust, and record an interview. However, they requested at the end of the chat that we only express them on our blog through the medium of jazz. So here it is.

 My Funny Valentine - Gerry Mulligan Quartet (mediafire)

But we also did a review.

The Flashguns opened to a small, seated crowd, (as was the unfortunate trend with early bands at Standon) which certainly made the bands job a great deal harder. Sam Johnston, while charismatic and confident as always, seemed restrained by the lack of audience and/or the receptiveness of the audience. It appeared as if the huge stage of a festival was hard to fill, and that flashguns felt more at home in smaller venues where they could connect with the crowd.

LLT – I get the feeling that you prefer a vaguely smaller show, in comparison to festivals?

FG – No, no. I like that, but if there were loads of people here it would have been absolutely brilliant.. Yeah, I like that (festivals), but the crowd here weren’t great.

However, throughout the performance, people began to shift further to the front, and by the time the band had begun ‘St George’, even a few brave souls had begun to stand up and dance. As Sam introduced the song, and the sun began to come out from the clouds, he patriotically thumped his heart and explained that St George would be the next national anthem, so we should listen up – and that’s exactly what the crowd did.

LLT –You guys obviously have a lot of ambition if you wanna’ get St George as the new national anthem. It’s a good goal I reckon.

FG –Yeah. (laughs). Our national anthem sucks. Like, it’s alright, but St George would be better. I guess the first step is to get it on the Rugby or something, and then everyone would be like hold up a sec, this is what we need. It’s proper patriotic.

By this stage, stragglers walking by the main stage had begun to stop and listen, and while the crowd was by no means large; it had certainly improved a great deal. However, despite this advance, the set was rudely interrupted by the booming voice of another band being introduced on another stage, which was a cock-up of the festival introducer – whom, by the way, we thought was the only annoying disappointment to a rather lovely festival. Coming half way through a song, the flashguns no doubt felt rather vexed by this intrusion of their set…

LLT – What do you think of the guy that introduces the band?

FG – The guy thinks he’s a big joker but he’s just a knob.

LLT – And he cut in half way through your set, shouting about someone else…

FG – Did he say where’s Reynold? – I think his mic must have been left on, and he introduced another band.

LLT – We think he’s a dick head, he pisses me off. Almost want to have words with him and just be like look, your ruining my festival. If you could kill him, would you?

FG – yeah, absolutely, I track him down and…  (laughs).

‘I don’t not love you’, the single from Flashguns new EP went down like a plane. The few supportive dancers had been replaced by a line of fans, some singing along with passion equal to Sam Johnston.  The band finished a brilliant, if not slightly under appreciated set with ‘Noah’, which appears to be one of their strongest songs, though unreleased.

LLT – Noah’s a stormer, is that gonna be your next single?

FG – Yeah, we will release it soon. We just need someone (a producer) to get it really fucking massive.

After the gig, they stayed for a few bands (and a little bit of joint LLT slating of the introducer who barged in on their set) and set off to play underage the next day.

As one of LLT’s favourite new bands, we highly suggest you acquire matching hearts/broken parts, their new EP, and certainly recommend you see them live.