Poised for a fresh run of shows with their bright and blistering new album LoveCop, Royal Republic can always be counted on for a rollicking, nuclear-grade night out. As frontman Adam Grahn reveals, it's been an eventful road getting here.
You described Royal Republic's 2024 Download appearance as "pure sex". It went well, then?
There's an excitement we get whenever we go back to England. It feels like it's brewing. We just upgraded the venue in Manchester because it sold out. It's the same all over Europe at the moment.
We don't have a 'hit'. We don't have headlines because none of us are politically involved or anything. It's all just music, the live performance.
It's a slow burner, but if you're looking at ticket sales it's never been going as well as it is now.
You were a hit at Bloodstock last year. Seemingly there's a lot of love for sequins and disco in the heavy metal community.
I think the heavy metal community is one of the most open-minded. There's something in the outlet, because everybody carries those kinds of thoughts and emotions and aggressive stuff.
So listening to aggressive music, maybe that's what balances its fans, so you end up with these charming people.
If you could join any metal band for one day, which would it be?
I'd stand in for James Hetfield. Honestly, though, if I could sub for anybody, I would rather sub for Lars [Ulrich], because there's nothing more fun than playing drums. I didn't have any frontman ambition until late on. I was a really nerdy shredder alone in my room with my metronome, until I started writing Royal Republic songs. I'd sang only at weddings and stuff before that.
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Dream Theater
With friends (and bandmates) reunited for the band's 40th anniversary, it'll be a special night for fans at Wembley Arena.
Royal Republic
Livewire, turbo-harmonised, disco-rocking Swedes get ready for upgraded UK and Europe dates.
GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'
In 1968 the MC5's Kick Out The Jams album was a grenade thrown into the music scene. In the decades since, Wayne Kramer acted as guardian of the band's legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.
THE KILLING FLOOR
Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England's rock royalty, came out of a chance encounter several months earlier at a gig in San Francisco.
ROGUE TRADER
Recording almost everything on his latest album himself and putting it out on his own label, Tuk Smith followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.
BILL WYMAN
WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer... Even just his time in The Greatest Rock'N'Roll Band In The World is storied, but there's been much, much more to his life than that.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
For some people, travelling life's road is easy. For lifelong worrier Myles Kennedy it's anything but. But with his brand new solo album The Art Of Letting Go he's learning just what that title says.
ALL ABOUT BEING LOUD
In an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography Make My Day, long-time Motörhead associate Kris Needs looks back at the making of their game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour.
Nikki Sixx
The Mötley Crüe bassist on making new music, replacing Mick Mars, work-life balance, learning when to say no...
Bobbie Dazzle
Meet the West Midlands singer bringing back upbeat music, fun and fashion of the 70s.