The Sound of Progress - Lostprophets

Two months later they were at number on in the UK album charts with their third album ‘Liberation Transmission’ - something else that blew them away. “We finished the album and we were very proud of it,” adds Mike. “We hoped it was going to do well and we hoped people were going to like it but I mean we never imagined it’d be going in at number one.”

While 2006 has proved a hard year to follow, 2007 might just be the year to do so. Straight off the back of ‘Liberation Transmission’ they want to get their fourth album out by the end of next year. But the band want to approach it completely differently, “We’re gonna start writing the next record in February, March time,” says Mike. “In the past we’ve always toured, taken a break to write and record a record and then toured again. But with our next record we’re not gonna do it that way. We just want do the next album very different. The first record was done in two weeks, our second record took a year, our last one was a year, the next one we wanna take it back. Write it in a month, record it in a month and get it out the end of next year.”

Next year will also see the Lostprophets play the biggest homecoming show of their lives - headlining The Full Ponty in Pontypridd in May. “I’m really excited about The Full Ponty,’ Mike continues. “Cos when we booked the arena tour we were all like, ‘We always play Cardiff Arena, we’ve played it a bunch of times.’ So we wanted to do something a bit different. It’s gonna be amazing to play Ponty – and a huge show like that as well. I mean we’ve never really played Ponty, we played there like years and years and years ago, playing in pubs, and then earlier this year we did a warm up show there before Give It A Name, but it’s going to be awesome to go back and play that.”

The Full Ponty 2007 will not only reflect how far the Lostprophets have come but also how far they’ve helped to bring the Welsh rock scene and the credit given to it. Six years ago, most people would’ve struggled to name one ‘rock’ band from Wales. Now you can take your pick – Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine, The Blackout, Kids In Glass Houses, Dopamine – and the Lostprophets were the start of all that. “I just think we showed people… we did two things,” Mike says. “We drew attention to Wales. Because until that point the media and record labels saw Wales as, y’know Wales had that whole thing of Cool Cymru: Catatonia, The Manics and the Stereophonics and all of that, which are all good bands. But our roots are in the south Wales hardcore scene. We’re punk kids. I think we drew attention to Wales, that there were good bands coming out of Wales and also we showed Welsh bands that you can do it.  We did it and then Funeral got up and then Bullet, and now you’ve got like The Blackout, Dopamine and Kids In Glass Houses are starting to do really well.

“It’s so awesome for us to see our friends starting to do well. And we feel like we have a weird responsibility to help those bands. This year we took them all out on tour. Cos we got helped out. When we started it was kind of like Pitchshifter and Stampin’ Ground and bands like that took us out on tour when nobody gave a fuck and now we feel like we have a responsibility to help out.”

Just how much Lostprophets grabbed their opportunities with both hands isn’t more evident than when Mike talks about next year’s arena tour. “I’m just excited that we’ve been touring the UK for six years plus,” he says. “We started off playing to 50 kids in Cardiff. And to go from that to Wembley Arena growing and growing, it’s just… we’re chuffed.”