Glasvegas Wave Farewell to Festival Season

It's mid-afternoon in Glasvegas' tour bus behind the NME/Radio 1 stage at Reading Festival, and the Glasgow band are looking back on a summer season that has taken them the length and breadth of Europe with the odd surprise thrown in.

For instance, as frontman James Allan tells Spinner, in between thoughtful bites of a ham sandwich, having Oasis open for them ... sort of.

"Oasis supported us at Benicassim this year. I was walking to the side of the stage as they were playing their last song of the set, and it was 'I Am the Walrus,'" he says. "I thought, 'Gee, thanks guys.'"

The Gallagher brothers might have proven to be a hard act to follow with their epic cover of the late-era Beatles masterpiece, but who's having the last laugh now? Only one of these bands has survived the festival season intact.

Glasvegas's summer highlights included a T in the Park appearance that bassist Paul Donoghue described as "amazing." He tells Spinner, "We were in the King Tut's Tent and there were people climbing the scaffolding. And it's a very Scottish thing -- you had people yelling 'jump!'"

Guitarist Rab Allan says the band have a few days to catch their breath back home in Glasgow after the last of their festival commitments in Poland before heading out on the road in the US with Kings of Leon.

"They're really good fun, really sweet, really complimentary about our stuff. We've played with them a few times before, the O2 and Brixton in London and at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester."

James Allan says the band have relished playing support at the bigger venues, but he has one particular bugbear about the big gigs -- the prevalence of pre-show table tennis matches.

"I'm always disappointed when bands get the ping-pong tables out when they're playing arenas. Where are the fire-breathing naked women?" When Glasvegas are filling stadiums on their own, we now know what to expect.