They’re playing our record at the ice-cream stand!” declares Joe Reeves proudly. Shitdisco's recreation time at the Italia Wave Festival has been rudely interrupted for promo duty.
“It was an ill-advised choice, we’re in Florence, it’s about 40 degrees and we’re trying to play football in it,” admits the singer.
The Glasgow outfit have done their fair share for global glowstick sales. They're currently jostling for nu rave pole position alongside New Young Pony Club, Klaxons, Sunshine Underground and their ilk.Their Kingdom Of Fear album garnered the requisite nods of approval from the indie cognoscenti, and the irrepressibly catchy ‘OK’, with its wonderfully inventive video, has generated similar plaudits. They’ve come a long way since the shipping container days.
“Yeah, we started playing in shipping containers,” states Joe matter-of-factly. “We were a quasi-fake band doing gigs in weird venues, that was the strangest place we could think of. Then we started doing parties in our drummer Darren’s living room (the infamous 61 events which were closed down by police on three occasions) and playing at them. Word spread, and people from other bands started coming along.”
Members of the sadly defunct Clor were regular attendees.
“They were probably our favourite band,” muses Joe. “They invited us to play our first gig in London. We got to be really good friends with Luke (Smith, guitarist) and after they split, he ended up producing our album.”
Joe is full of praise for the modest ex-Clor man.
“He’s playing guitar with Charlotte Hatherly ex-of Ash and is just back from Japan,” he enthuses. “He said there are industry people asking him about ‘some band called Shitdisco from the UK.’ He’s so self-deprecating he doesn’t say: ‘I made that record.’ He just goes: ‘I’ve heard of them, yeah.’”
When queried on the origin of their colourful moniker, Joe comes clean.
“I came up with it. I guess anyone in their right mind wouldn’t choose the name. It’s a typical name to come out of an art school, which we are at together – provocative but humourous and self-deprecating.”
Glasgow art schools have proven to be unusually fertile breeding grounds for musicians, but the thriving scene is not without its flaws.
“The city's quite small, but it has quite a loud voice musically,” Joe proffers. “You have to prove to people in Glasgow that you can play in London and then they recognise you. It's sad in a way.”
Now they've earned their hometown stripes, high-profile live shows are two-a-penny. Joe cites The Rapture tour earlier this year as a particular highlight.
“They’re lovely guys, it was really good fun,” he gushes. “We met them last year on the NME tour with Klaxons. One night we were playing a house party after the show and invited them along but thought they wouldn’t come. The whole band turned up! At the end of the night, Luke from The Rapture was playing guitar, James from Simian Mobile Disco was playing keyboards, and Stef from Klaxons was singing. It turned into a weird supergroup we hadn’t planned.”
As Joe is a Newcastle native, I ask for his thoughts on fellow resident Sting and The Police’s reunion tour.
“I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about him as a person,” he divulges. “He used to be in a band with my friend’s dad. I find it hard to like a band when you find out one of the key members is a complete arsehole. That’s just my opinion, not necessarily the band’s.”
A perusal of the Shitdisco blog reveals they're quite fond of taking over people’s sitting rooms for impromtu parties. So who would be his dream host?
“A celebrity you mean? Good question! There are so many. People who are very opposed to the idea would be good. Someone like Paris Hilton, playing in her whole chain of houses would be hilarious! Arnold Schwarzenegger would probably be top of our list. Playing in the future president’s living room would be quite funny.”
And will they be looking for sitting-rooms to hijack on their next Irish visit?
“As long as we’re not in the middle of some humungous tour, I think it could be arranged!” he laughs.