The King Blues are one of the UK punk underground’s best loved bands, and they’re now primed for an assault on the wider world having signed to new label Field Recordings.Their first break came in early 2006 when a demo of ‘Mr. Music Man’ made it into the hands of Mike Davies of Radio 1’s The Lock Up, who gave the band repeated plays. Support from Zane Lowe soon followed and The King Blues grabbed the attention of the UK’s biggest punk label, Household Name, who signed the band.They are now about ro release their debut album Under the Fog as frontman Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox chats about The King Blues'rise to fame.

You were all already playing in other bands - why did you put The King Blues together?

Me and Jamie [Jazz, guitar] were playing in a street punk band called Ramraid The Offy before The King Blues - we still play gigs with Ramraid but not as much as we used to.

I wanted to do something a bit different though and loved the idea that we could just set up an unplugged gig on the street, at a protest, anywhere if we were acoustic so that's how it started.
Who do you collectively draw inspiration from - musically or otherwise?

There aren't many bands all of us agree on, but the spirit of Bob Marley, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg and Rage Against The Machine certainly speak to us loudest. I think that mentality of not having any rules and allowing the collective to be creative through jamming without thinking of censoring anything is what unites us.

Ukuleles are not generally associated with punk bands. What lead to you playing the instrument?

Jamie and a girl I was with at the time bought it for me for Christmas three years ago as a joke, thinking I'd never learn how to play it.

But then I've started to get a bit nerdy about them and I love how there's this whole culture surrounding ukuleles in current bands. It's so mobile as well. I can easily sit in the back of the van playing all day long.

Where is the strangest place The King Blues have played a show?

Playing on protests and marches is always a very strange yet liberating experience, having people dance around you whilst surrounded by riot police tapping their shields with their batons. We played one of our first gigs outside an art gallery, we were meant to be playing inside but we got a bit rowdy and were kicked out fairly early on.

When we had our residency in Camden there were some under 18's who couldn't get in so we played another gig on the street outside. We've been on soundsystems screaming our music outside the House of Commons and Downing Street.

We've played to a lot of queues of people going to see other bands before and once in Brighton we managed to sneakily do a forty-minute unplugged gig inside by the bar.

Did you really get given ASBOs?

In the end, no. We just got cautioned. That was on Mayday in London’s financial district which the police swiftly chased us out for. We're certainly no strangers to grabbing our guitars and legging it.

Do you think enough bands are politically active these days - or are most bands afraid of damaging their 'careers'?

For a war generation I think it's ridiculous how little has been said by artists. People are scared but I can't really work out what they're scared of.

When you're recording songs you're recording your legacy and that's just far more important than being accepted by the 'right' people who supposedly control your career. If a band's good enough I don't see why someone wouldn't want to hear a political song that's well written.

All you're doing is talking about modern life and we do live in a time where our civil liberties are being eroded away; it gets to a point where I want to hear something that isn't about some indie star's latest relationship.

Can you tell me a little about the time you played six shows in on day? Where did you play and how did you pull it off?

Well, in 1991 Status Quo set the world record for the most gigs in one day and I decided we could easily beat that. The next day we loaded our van up with petrol and drove outside every venue the Quo played and set up a gig on the street outside.

Our van was an old 1980s ambulance and our driver had been awake for three days at a techno festival so we had to keep him awake by giving him speed rationed throughout the journey.

Looking back it seems stupid and dangerous but it really just made practical sense at the time. In the end we beat Status Quo with 20 minutes to spare.

How did you approach playing a place such as Wembley on your December 07 arena tour with Hard-Fi?

By throwing up into a carrier bag the entire journey down from Manchester. We'd just done 2 tours back to back and I'd caught some horrible bug that was making me puke blood. What great timing! Backstage the medical team gave me a jab in my arse and a bunch of other injections.

My school boy dream of playing Wembley involved me swaying between consciousness and passing out at the side of the stage with my head in a bag watching my band courageously battle their way through a set without their singer.

To those who haven't heard it, how would you describe debut album ‘Under The Fog’?

It's a very diverse, raw affair, part punk, part reggae, part doo wop and also none of the above. Lyrically it's angry and political with a smile on its face. All the instruments are fully acoustic and the vast majority of the record was recorded in a few days in our front room and I think you can definitely hear how much fun we're having making it.

Under the Fog is released 3 March