SOUND OF THE CROWD

Barry Fratelli is looking forward to the time when fans can get back to gigs and football matches again

- TONY CONNELLY

THE lack of fans inside stadiums has made of a sombre footballing experience for much of 2020 throughout the world, and Barry Fratelli can relate to how much the players are looking forward to a reunion with supporters.

The Fratellis bassist has missed feeding off the energy of a crowd during gigs but he is optimistic about the future and is hopeful the new year will soon bring fans back. When that happens, he wants to be in amongst them at Paradise with his son.

The Fratellis were due to release their sixth studio album Half Drunk Under a Full Moon earlier this year. It would have been a wonderful accompaniment to the nine-in-a-row celebrations and the band had a busy summer and autumn gig schedule lined up.

That all changed with the pandemic and the band was forced to delay the release of the album until a time they could tour with it.

“We’re releasing the album on April 9, 2021, now,” said Barry Fratelli in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “The last thing we wanted to do was push it back but it was initially meant to be released around March/April this year just as everything was kicking off and there was no way we could have toured for it then.

“We optimistically pushed it back to October but when it was getting to a point where we released we couldn’t tour we took the hard decision to push it back again.”

While Barry and the rest of the band were hugely disappointed not to be touring and playing their songs for fans, his immediate sympathies with regards to the music industry were with everyone outwith the musicians who have been unable to work for most of the year.