Dave McCabe admits his memory isn’t what it used to be.
But when the now three years sober frontman of The Zutons thinks back to the “once or twice” that his band played Dundee – including Radio One’s Big Weekend at Camperdown Park in 2006 – it’s his memories of Kyle Falconer, The View – and Pink – that stand out.
“I just remember The View turning up with all their mates and it was f****** hilarious,” explains Dave in an interview from his home on Merseyside.
“I couldn’t really understand what most of them were saying.
“They were just like hanging off the f****** walls.
“Everyone was having a nice time. It was great. I remember that.
“But I remember the Radio One Big Weekend was cool as well.
“I remember seeing Pink the singer in the flesh.
“She just didn’t look like what I thought she was going to look like.
“I thought she was going to be quite little.
“But you know when you see someone in real life, like when you see a footballer and see them on the telly?
“That’s what it was like when I saw Pink. She was beautiful. I just remember seeing her and going ‘that’s Pink like’.
“But again I can’t remember much. I just remember it all being quite a frenzy. But it was a good time.”
Liverpool band The Zutons play Dundee and Dunfermline in early March
Dave is sounding hoarse and is apologetic for missing an earlier pre-arranged phone interview when The Courier calls on a rainy Tuesday morning.
“I’ve got a bad memory,” he says, in his broad Merseyside accent.
“I had my little boy, and as soon as I dropped him off I was like, ‘oh I forgot about it’.”
But the 43-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist quickly makes up for the delay with a down-to-Earth 30-minute conversation about his road to sobriety and his delight at The Zutons getting back on the road.
The band are playing gigs at PJ Molloys in Dunfermline on March 6 and Fat Sam’s in Dundee on March 7 as part of a UK tour.
However, they are also looking forward to the release of their first album together for 16 years.
The Big Decider is out on April 26 and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with legendary songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers, alongside the band’s original producer Ian Broudie.
The multi-platinum selling band released three studio albums between 2004 and 2008, scoring nine UK Top 40 singles including two Top 10s with ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love?’ and the all-conquering ‘Valerie’.
The latter went on to become a triple-platinum hit for Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse.
Dave says it was when the second album came out that things “started to get a bit messy”.
By the third album he “wasn’t really interested anymore” and he’d “had enough”. He thinks everyone in the band felt the same way.
But while the band never officially split, their cessation felt like “splitting up with a girlfriend”.
Dave says the “curse” of drink and substance abuse became so apparent he had to stop.
The most difficult part of giving up is that you “have to face yourself”.
However, with most of the original members working together again as an “experiment” before the pandemic, The Big Decider comes into view as an album of stark significance to the band, completed by Dave (guitar, lead vocals), Abi Harding (saxophone, vocals) and Sean Payne (drums, vocals).
What inspired The Zutons’ first album in 16 years?
Written against the backdrop of a decade and a half’s worth of lived experience, it is born under the weight of family tragedies, lives lost and created, reality checks, and home truths faced up to and stared down.
Curiously, the pandemic seemingly fast-tracked the process of the band’s next phase.
It was McCabe’s subsequent time in rehab that truly sparked a turning point in the positivity of the new album and the joyful experience of putting it together.
Talking about the new album, Dave says working with Nile was “just an amazing experience”.
“Our manager said he had a connection with Nile Rodgers,” says Dave.
“We sent him five songs and within 48 hours he was on a Zoom.
“He was singing one of the songs back to us.
“That was an incentive really.
“He gave us a level of confidence that what we were doing was right and it was good.
“He knew Valerie. He said ‘I know the Zutons from back in the day’. He must have a few back in the days!
“But he’s a funny fella to work with. When he took his shades off and I saw his eyes, it was like ‘is he the same guy’?
“You are so used to seeing him with sunglasses on. It was a bit like that fella on Star Trek!” he laughs.
What was it like working with Ian Broudie again?
Dave said it was also great to reconnect with Ian Broudie on this record.
Broudie told him the demo of The Big Decider brought a tear to his eye and that’s why he said yes to working with the band again.
Dave adds: “I just want to say thanks personally to everyone who’s bought tickets for the gigs in Scotland.
“It’s always a pleasure to come to Scotland and the crowds are always the best.
“I’m not just saying that. They are. They always make you feel welcome and like there’s something in the air.”
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