If you haven’t seen Red Rum Club live yet, you haven’t been trying. A proper old-fashioned success story, the Liverpool lads have seen the venues get bigger by being permanently on tour over until they’ve earned their first festival headline slot, at next April’s Liverpool Sound City. As singer Fran Doran puts it: “We’d played every city in Britain six times before anyone in the media took any notice of us.”

There’s no doubt the gang are one of the most essential zones around, a brilliantly sweaty mess where six best mates absolutely have it night after night. But Red Rum Club have the songs to match their gigs’ euphoria. That’s shown brilliantly on new album The Hollow Of Humdrum, which veers from the Kasabian-style beats of Kids Addicted via the party vibes of Dorado and the furious punk of The Elevation and Vivo to the more thoughtful emotional ballads Favourite Record and Brando. “People have got a blueprint of what they think Red Rum Club is,” admits Fran. “This time around, people will get more of a picture of what we’re all about. We’ve become more confident, both as people and in the studio, and it’s a bigger record. It’ll change people’s view of us.”

The singer is only semi-joking when he says the ballads arrived to give the band time to catch their breath on stage. “Now that the venues have got bigger, we’re playing shows lasting an hour-and-a-half,” explains Fran. “We needed slower songs to give us a breather! With six of us on stage, we’re quite an imposing experience. We’re very loud and very big. We wanted to broaden the appeal of people who might get into us if they’ve been dragged along to come and see us. Someone who isn’t into Kids Addicted or Vivo might see the appeal of Brando or Favourite Record. They’re songs you can put on a chillout playlist in the bath! I wanted to try a bit of crooning, basically.”

For a frontman with a lot riding on his band’s new album, Fran seems pretty relaxed himself. You wouldn’t bet against his bath-time chill selection working a treat, probably with candles involved. Red Rum Club have had their frustrations along the way, but they’ve risen up the festival bills and gatecrashed Radio 2’s playlist with stupidly catchy recent single Eleanor, all while staying mates. That’s some feat, with six people in the band. Fran’s cousin, guitarist Tom Williams, and rhythm guitarist Mike McDermott are the chief songwriters. They’re joined by bassist Simon Hepworth, trumpeter Joe Corby and drummer Neil Lawson.

How do six people all get their voices heard? “There’s no ego in this band,” states Fran. “We can all say ‘That’s crap, that.’ I’ve had it plenty of times, when I’ve spent two weeks pulling my hair out on a song until I think it’s perfect, only for one of the lads to say ‘That’s a bit cheesy…’ You’ve got to take it, because it’s only ever said to make the band better. That honesty is a great filter, as it means the shit doesn’t get through. Besides, we’re mostly aligned. It’s not like one of us wants to be a rapper or someone else would rather be in a metal band.” If decisions ever get tense, a vote is had. If that ends up 3-3, Red Rum Club producer Chris Taylor acts as peacemaker: “And if anyone still has a cob-on, one of the benefits of our studio is that it’s got a bar upstairs, where we all finally resolve everything.”

Producer Chris runs Parr Street Studios in Liverpool with Rich Turvey, the pair having worked on albums with Courteeners, Blossoms, The Coral and a host of other stars at the studio, which sadly faces closure as part of a redevelopment under new owners. Fran says it’d be “sickening” if Parr Street Studios had to close, but he’s still optimistic. “You always find a way,” he shrugs. “There’d probably be another creative hub under Chris and Rich’s guidance somewhere.” Fran is so even-handed partly because Liverpool’s musical community spirit has rarely felt better, with Jamie Webster, Rats, Lucy Gaffney among the thriving local talent. “Liverpool is a big city, but a close community,” reasons Fran. “You can walk anywhere and see something amazing happening creatively within 20 minutes. If we’re in the studio, there’s always another band we can meet for lunch or have a pint with after.”

That togetherness makes it an extra big deal that Red Rum Club’s first festival headline show is local. Fran is buzzing at the prospect of headlining Liverpool Sound City, enthusing: “We’ve got to make it special, especially as we’re headlining the Sunday, so we’re the end of the festival for everyone. We’re going to have to start looking into getting confetti canons now! We’ll be going full-on Muse before you know it. We’ve played Sound City for the past four years, and it’s been a way to mark how we’ve climbed the ladder. Headlining it is such a strange feeling – I’ve been looking at the festival posters in disbelief.”

With bigger shows have come bigger songs, as Red Rum Club have expanded their horizons on album two. Alongside the widescreen ballads are broader lyrical concerns. Eleanor described Tom’s girlfriend’s battles with mental health, while the punky Vivo discusses social anxiety: it was recorded before lockdown, but its chorus “I don’t want to go outside no more” obviously strikes even more of a chord right now. “We thought about putting Vivo out as the first single,” Fran reveals. “We eventually decided against it because we wanted something more of an escape from how people are feeling. But we wanted to discuss things that concern us and our mates. Kids Addicted and The Elevation go into social media, because we’re on our phones the whole time when we don’t have a guitar round our necks. We’ve got three different WhatsApp groups in the band! We’re the first generation to be addicted to social media. Everyone understands there are age limits with addictions like drugs and alcohol, but with kids on social media, everyone seems to be ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’” Kids Addicted was the first song written for the new album, after Rich Turvey suggested the band should write an anthem about life in Red Rum Club. “Rich told us we should have an upbeat song about being the lads on stage,” Fran recalls. “Rich said one reason we’re doing so well is because people can see that we’re six mates who’ve started a band, and that’s rare these days. So why not write a song about our generation that would speak to other lads – a song that says ‘Yeah, we are the lads’ they could jump around to, where we’re inviting them into our gang. Of course, as soon as we started messing around with that idea, we had loads of lyrics about ‘our generation’ that just sounded like The Who. But then the phrase ‘kids addicted’ came along.”

Previously, Red Rum Club’s songs had been about the band’s own point of view. Writing from the point of view of the people in the crowd opened up their social commentary side, expanded on in frantic album opener The Elevation. But has writing about social media addiction made the band’s phone habits any better? “My screen time has gone down 21%,” laughs Fran. “We’re still pretty bad, but we do try to be more constructive: if we’re on a video shoot, we try to take some interesting behind-the-scenes pictures for our social media pages.”

Having kept busy in lockdown with some inventive livestream videos, the band are also eyeing up wider exposure from streaming sites. “We’ve never been that hip Instagram band,” frets Fran. “Our Spotify numbers are only decent as a by-product of playing so many shows. Getting on Spotify playlists is the one thing we’re missing so far – it’s the golden chalice. But we don’t get annoyed by it, because even being on those playlists doesn’t matter as much as fans wanting to come along to a show. Having a million plays on Spotify isn’t as much of a thrill as playing to 150 people in Hull.” Red Rum Club are due back on tour in September, culminating with a show at the 2,500-capacity Liverpool university venue Mountford Hall. It’s where Fran saw his first ever gig, an NME Awards roadshow in 2009 starring Glasvegas, White Lies, Friendly Fires and Florence And The Machine. (“I’d never heard of Florence, so I missed her. Gutted!” admits Fran.) More than the Radio 2 plays and chart positions and even festival headline shows, playing at Mountford Hall will cement Red Rum Club’s status for their singer. “Growing up in Liverpool, you know the proper local bands like The Wombats, The Coral and The Zutons,” Fran explains. “Then there are the bands where you think ‘They were good, what happened to them?’ If you’ve played Mountford Hall, you can say you’ve made an impact in Liverpool. I want to get that box ticked. That way, when I’m 50, I can tell people ‘Yeah, I’ve played there.’” By the time Fran Doran hits 50, don’t be surprised if Red Rum Club are selling out stadiums, with or without Spotify’s support. One thing you can be sure of: those six lads will still be best mates.