Kasabian aside, the bigger local story is The Fratellis: Baz Fratelli says the band are buzzing to play to a home crowd when they reach the Main Stage at TRNSMT on Saturday, June 20. For a Glasgow-born group that has spent 20 years on the road, the booking lands as a home-city return rather than just another festival slot.
“It was brilliant,” Baz said of being part of the Glasgow music scene in the 2000s. He added that it was “just such an exciting time,” with “a lot of great bands running about then and there still is now.”
Glasgow in the 2000s
“Glasgow has always been a great music city,” Baz said, tying the band’s own rise to the city they grew up in. “Growing up there, attending gigs and playing our own shows in the city was amazing.” That is the practical reason this TRNSMT date matters: it puts a long-running Glasgow band back in front of a crowd that shares the same scene reference points.
“That’s one of the reasons why I’m proud about being from Glasgow because the music scene has always been consistently good,” he said. “We’re a small city but we’re mighty.”
Twenty years together
The Fratellis formed in 2005 around the time of Franz Ferdinand and Twin Atlantic, then built a catalogue that includes Chelsea Dagger and Whistle for the Choir, six studio albums and tours around the world. Baz said, “Being together for 20 years feels like we are really old, but it’s brilliant,” and that it is “not lost on me how fortunate we are to have lasted this long, especially given today’s music business.”
That longevity gives the TRNSMT slot more weight than a routine booking. The band still have the older crowd they built “back in the day,” and Baz said they have also picked up younger fans, which is exactly the kind of audience mix a Main Stage set in Glasgow should test.
Saturday, June 20
“We’re very lucky to still be making music and performing,” Baz said, before turning the focus back to the festival itself. He did not spell out the setlist, so the immediate draw is the same one that has followed the band for years: whether Chelsea Dagger, Whistle for the Choir, or both, end up in the run of songs when The Fratellis take the Main Stage at TRNSMT.
