RockNess 2012: The View Warns Bands 'Don't Get Caught'

ROCKNESS: The View Warns Bands 'Don't Get Caught'
|

"Don't get caught," says Kieren Webster from The View.

Referring to the time the Scottish band's lead singer Kyle Falconer was charged with cocaine possession in 2007, this is the bassist's advice to groups starting out in the music industry.

Speaking backstage at RockNess festival on the banks of Loch Ness, he adds: "Don't get caught. That has hindered us in America, we had to cancel two tours, so be nice."

The Indie rock band, who released their most successful single to date Same Jeans that year, were denied visas to America and reportedly banned from Japan after the incident, which saw Falconer, 19 years old at the time, arrested outside Dundee's Student Union.

HuffPost UK interviews The View: Photos by Phill Hutchinson

The band are now preparing to release their fourth album, Cheeky For A Reason, on 9 July. Kieren says: "It has got loads of character, it sounds old school, some are quite personal and some are just songs for the case of being songs designed to make indie places go mental as opposed to pulling at your heartstrings."

The band, influenced by the likes of The Clash, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones, were due to perform on Saturday night at RockNess, in front of a "cool Scottish crowd" as guitarist Peter Reilly put it, however their gig was halted because organisers feared too many fans were trying to cram into the tent.

The band had planned to play a gig in the Clash arena, which has a 2,500 capacity, but so many fans piled into the tent that they stopped after just four songs and performed instead on Sunday in the larger Golden Voice arena.

As frontman Falconer left the stage, he told the Sunday Mail: “We broke the tent! It was just one of those things – it was really busy and just too mad.”