August 18, 2012 19:39

The Enemy talk naked crowdsurfers and album number four at V Festival

Andy Hopkins tells NME that the band are making good progress on the follow-up to 'Streets In The Sky'

Photo Gallery: The Enemy

The Enemy have opened up about their progress in writing the follow-up to this year's 'Streets In The Sky'.

Speaking to NME backstage at this weekend's V Festival, the Coventry trio's bassist Andy Hopkins said that despite the fact that the band's third effort only came out in May of this year, they've already been hard at work writing new songs.

Asked how their new album was progressing, Hopkins said: "For some reason last year we just started writing tunes again and they're coming out so fast. When you're writing good tunes, you may as well keep going and we're going to. We never want to take as bigger gap as we did ever again and we're never going to rush one again, but we're getting there with the new ones. It's a good time to be in this band."

The bassist also spoke about the band's ambitions to headline a festival one day and said that they have retained their ambition to become "the biggest band in the world".

Asked if they'd like to become regular festival headliners, Hopkins said:"That's my dream, it always has been. We will, we just need to take it step by step. We need to get people on our side, but we didn't start this band to play pubs, we started it to be the biggest band in the world. We'd love to headline a festival."

Earlier in the day, the band had played a very well-attended, 50-minute set on the festival's 4Music Stage. Frontman Tom Clarke was uncharacteristically quiet throughout the set, but did tell the crowd that the band considered it "an honour to be there".

Hopkins himself jumped in the crowd at one point and revealed to NME that he'd had a choice encounter with a naked crowdsurfer while he was down there.

He said of this: "I jumped in the crowd today, it was a long way down, but I knew I'd make it. Everyone was loving it, there was a naked crowdsurfer too. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, I was like 'Fair play to you mate, now put it away'. He'd painted it orange too, which made it even weirder."

Speaking about the gig more generally, he added: "It was absolutely quality. We've all got sunburnt, Tom's got really pale skin and he's burnt one side of his face, he says he hopes tomorrow it's the opposite way round so it evens it out. The crowd was great, all the new songs came across so well, it really seems like everyone's appreciating the new music. We're so proud of this record and it's great to see everyone else is enjoying it too."

The Enemy played:

'Gimme The Sign'
'Aggro'
'Had Enough'
'Away From Here'
'Saturday'
'Like A Dancer'
'Be Somebody'
'1234'
'This Is Real'
'No Time For Tears'
'This Song'
'We'll Live And Die In These Towns'
'You're Not Alone'

V Festival gets underway today, with The Stone Roses set to headline the Virgin Media Stage at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, while The Killers will top the bill at Staffordshire's Weston Park. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Example, Noah And The Whale and Happy Mondays are amongst the other acts set to play this weekend.

V Festival 2012 in photos .

The world's greatest music magazine is now available as a digital edition! For exclusive content you won't find on NME.COM, download here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook.

Share on Facebook