Rising star Sam Fender told The Beat he’s looking forward to making up for lost time at Electric Picnic and getting to perform in front of a festival audience again after being left “gutted” that he had to pull out of Glastonbury earlier this summer due to illness.
Apart from the Glastonbury letdown, it’s been a great year so far for Sam who was named as one of the BBC’s Sound of 2018 alongside Sigrid, Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi and Khalid.
And even Stormzy recently left him a nine-minute voice message about how much he loved his song Dead Boys.
Sam, who also supported Bob Dylan and Neill Young this summer at Hyde Park, has just been announced as the support act for Liam Gallagher’s Radio X show at the O2 Ritz in Manchester on September 21.
Sam’s debut album Hypersonic Missiles is released on September 13.
We’ve been listening to it these last couple of weeks and reckon it’s got potential “superstar in the making” stamped all over it.
Sam told The Beat: “I can’t wait for Electric Picnic. I love it (Ireland). I love a drink!”
And just like his heroes in Oasis, Sam has his own Irish family connections too.
Explaining about his Irish roots, he said: “I’ve got great grandparents or something like that were all from over there.
"They came from the south (of Ireland) and they moved over to Cumbria to work in the mines basically. And then went from mining there and moved to Durham and then they moved to Shields where I am.”
It’s clear Sam has a real gra for Ireland as he’ll be returning to our shores to play Dublin’s Olympia on December 16.
