Visitors are top of the class

EP launch gig . . . The Visitors (from left) Charles Cotton, Greg Higham, Jack Bottomley-Clift and Jonny Wray

MUSIC EXTRA: WHAT a great place to play your EP launch gig — Blackshaw Lane Primary School!

That’s the plan for raucous indie rockers The Visitors. The Oldhanm quartet - frontman Jack Bottomley-Clift, lead guitarist Charles Cotton, bassist Greg Higham and new drummer Jonny Wray - will release their new EP “Rain Check” on Friday - which happens to clash with the date the band promised to play at the Royton junior school as a favour for head teacher Angela McCormick.

But there is serious thinking behind the eagerly-anticipated school showpiece. Greg Higham explained: “My nan’s cousin is the headteacher at the school, and because she’s retiring shortly and Charles being a former pupil, they asked us if we fancied playing there. We were more than happy to oblige. Bottomley-Clift is clearly relishing the prospect of playing at the school: “We don’t want kids to be sat in front of a computer all their lives — why don’t they go and join a rock band?

“Kids that age might not normally be into music. When I was 10, I was in a brass band. Johnny was also in orchestras at an early age. Playing this gig will take our music right into those kids’ lives. We just see it as doing our bit for the school.”

The Visitors’ new EP, featuring title track “Rain Check”, “Born In The Thick Of It” and “White Woman” was recorded on a three-day stint in London and will be available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon from Friday.

The lads hope it will provide a platform to a successful early 2016, which follows December shows in Manchester and Liverpool.

Higham added: “We have got a busy period of gigs, but we’re glad to be back into it now because it’s been a hard couple of months.

“We lost our drummer due to him going off to university, we’ve had holidays and a few personal things going on, and Charles has only just got over an appendix operation.

“But we’re right back into it, ready to start the new year right.”


LISTEN to Simon’s exclusive audio interview with the Visitors here: