Former Meet The band stars The Blackout are pleased to announce re-scheduled Start The Party tour dates after singer Gavin Butler was taken seriously ill mid tour in October. The band are pleased to report Gavin is doing well and will be tearing up stages in January 2014. All original tickets are valid for the re-scheduled shows, any tickets that need refunding due to no longer being able to attend the new date can be done via ticket vendor.

Andy Howells recently caught up with band member Gareth Lawrence.

First of all how is Gavin?

Better than ever actually! He's somehow discovered the ability to set fire to things with his mind and read Japanese, backwards!!!

He's doing good, which we are all super pleased about! It was a scary situation for us all when what happened to him went down! I still feel bad for thinking he was being unprofessional because I thought he was drunk when he went off stage! How wrong was I!!!

You’re back on the road once again with rescheduled tour dates are you looking forward to this?

We cannot wait! We has never had to cancel a show ourselves in the whole history of our band, so to have to cancel half a tour was absolutely devastating! We are gonna be like a load of excited children on lots of E numbers on stage I reckon!

What do you like most about touring?

Just being able to play our music to people who care about it and us so much that they pay their hard earned money to come see us! We never thought that would ever be a thing where we were concerned! It's class!!

You’re playing Bristol’s Fleece soon – any more Welsh dates scheduled?

We did try get one lined up as a warm up for this tour, but it fell through! But we are playing in Newport with the mighty skindred In march, which is gonna rule! We can't wait!

Its been over a year since Start The Party was released – will The Blackout be putting down some new tunes in 2014?

You bet! We have already written about 5-6 new songs in the last two months or so as it is! We are writing in Gavin's freezing cold garage, which is kinda keeping the motivation up! But yeah, we'll be back, bigger and better than ever!

Catch The Blackout at Bristol's Fleece on February 2 with support from LostAlone and Rat Attack. Tickets on sale now from gigsandtours.com/tour/THE-BLACKOUT/ theblackout.net 08448110051