Written Article: 2nd draft

Dreams becoming reality

The success of new UK rock band Rage City has roared its way through 2013. One year on from their tour of universities throughout the UK rock band, Rage City’s lead vocalist Josh meets with me, at a coffee shop in his hometown of Abergavenny. Here he reveals his feelings about the up and coming UK tour!

Josh tells me how 2013 was an amazing year playing at gigs throughout the UK universities, but how the 2014 tour has gone even one step further. “I can’t stop smiling, my life at the moment is just awesome” he tells me. Going on to talk about the bigger venues of the 2014 tour, Josh informs me that the gig at Cardiff St David’s Hall has actually sold out! You can just tell by his confident body language that he is just buzzing with excitement. Rage City is also playing at 10 other venues including the amazing academy 3 in Manchester. The band is over whelmed with the thought of playing at these larger venues, in the past Josh told me that they have only played large towns in old cinemas which are often home to amateur dramatics societies, so the venues in this year’s tour are “mind blowing” for the group.

Josh reveals how he and the other two band mates feel about performing at these larger venues. “We are all bricking it to be honest, but so excited as well.” This must be a huge step for this young band, playing at venues that they’d always dreamed of and probably never in their wildest dreams did they think it would actually take place! Josh tells me how he and his fellow band members cannot wait to perform and start the tour. He also continues to say how they are grabbing every opportunity they can to perform on local radio’s and even on BBC’s One Show. “It probably won’t last, we’re just going to enjoy the ride” he light-heartedly reveals. Rage City has kept their ticket prices low so their fans which usually range from 16 to 20 years old, can afford to attend the tour. They’ve done this by keeping the stage set low key with just the band and lighting at its minimum. The boys feel that people want to see them and hear their music and not see some big stage production.

Josh is sat in the coffee shop in ripped jeans, a t-shirt, vans and a massive smile just looking like any other normal 18 year old. I wondered if the band get recognised much doing normal everyday things, apart from in their hometown where they are very much part of the community and not really treated like the celebrities they’ve become. Josh tells me a story of when himself and the other two band mates were in Cardiff McDonalds just before Christmas, when about ten 18 year old drunken girls, who seemed to be on some sort of Christmas celebration started screaming their names and asking for photographs. He tells me how surreal it felt especially when they were all very hangover from a Black Friday night out and “a mouth full of Big Mac.” Josh tells me what an amazing feeling it was that Rage City were recognised and had girls actually wanting autographs and screaming their names.

The band has been greatly influenced by Green Day and Blink 182. Josh tells me how him and the lads have constantly listened to these bands music in their early teens and look at Green Day as amazing role models for both their performance and lyrical style.

Rage City often describes the feelings and obstacles of young teenagers in today’s society in their lyrics. They also sing about strong family bond and community spirit in a lot of their tracks, showing how grounded the boys really are.

The tour starts next month and I for one will definitely be attending. I would strongly recommend everyone to attend one of these gigs and purchase a ticket; it’s going to be awesome. I can just see the sheer enthusiasm in Josh’s voice when he tells me how he and the band just cannot wait to perform in front of crowds of enthusiastic fans, who have just come to listen to Rage City. Josh tells me how he and the other two band members cannot believe that after years of practising in an attic conversion, this is really happening to them “were all enjoying every second of this awesome time in our lives” he tells me. What a story to tell their grandchildren!