大象传媒

Fox Cubs (C) Nathan Jerome

Berkshire has done it again. Last year Reading's OK Tokyo won a slot on the 大象传媒 Introducing stage at Glastonbury; this year it's the turn of Newbury's Fox Cubs.

"I found out about half an hour ago when I woke up and checked my emails," exclaims frontman Tim Baggott, who only finished his Philosophy finals exams on Wednesday 28 May at Brighton's Sussex University.

"Everyone's really excited," he adds. At least two of us have never been to the festival before. This is the first summer I'd actually intended to go so to actually be playing it is obviously brilliant!"

Fox Cubs and Lamacq at the Camden Crawl

Feeling the time had come for a musical change in direction, Fox Cubs reinvented themselves from the ashes of their former band Han Solo in July 2007.

"Han Solo was really different," reflects Tim. "There was a lot more emphasis on deep guitar music and we weren't really focusing on the song-writing aspect as much.

"Whereas as Fox Cubs we wanted to go out there and have an arsenal of short snappy pop songs that people can relate to a bit more than our self-indulgence that we were doing in Han Solo."

Since Fox Cubs' inception the band have taken off, sharing the stage with a variety of artists including The Metros, Milburn, !Forward Russia! and most recently supporting One Night Only on Wednesday 21 May.

The band, featuring guitarists James Johnson and Pete Grubb, Phil Miles on bass and Ben Johnson on drums, have also recorded live sessions for both Radio One and XFM and headlined Steve Lamacq's stage at the 2008 Camden Crawl.

"We've must have just been lucky that a few of the songs have caught the attention of people like Steve Lamacq," says Tim, explaining how the band have shot to popularity.

Fox Cubs at Oakford Social Club (C) Adam Ososki

"He's obviously been quite instrumental in what we've done with the Camden Crawl and we did a Maida Vale session with him for Radio One, which is again amazing.

"We're still on a high from all of this because we never expected to be doing all of this so soon."

Now that Tim has finished university he'll be haring it back to Newbury to start rehearsing as a full-time band.

"We're going to spend a lot more time on the song writing. The songs come out generally from two or three hours in our little home-made studio. Just: 'Oh we need a song for this gig, we need something fresh' and then we'll just sit there and do something and we'll be like: 'okay we can play that'," says Tim.

He adds: "It'll be lovely now to re-address some songs and make them as good as they can possibly be, maybe make them more intelligent!"

Cover of Fox Cubs' You Never Learn

As part of Tim's new-found freedom following weeks of studying, the band are embarking on a five-date tour this Thursday 29 May 2008, heading to Bristol first and ending at London's famous Water Rats.

They are one of the 23 emerging bands selected to play on the 大象传媒 Introducing stage following a tough decision by a panel of judges, including Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol and Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, editor of Observer Music Monthly.

See Fox Cubs on the 大象传媒 Introducing Stage at Glastonbury on Friday 27 June.

If you're not heading to the festival, they're playing a free gig at the Oakford Social Club in Reading on Saturday 19 July.

The band will also be unveiling second single You Never Learn along with an accompanying video very soon. Currently unsigned, they release everything under their own label Kuko Audio Recordings.

In the meantime, their first single Beasts Of England is available now, and it sounds like we'd better snap up those limited edition 7" copies quick smart!