After racking up a plethora of glowing reviews for this year's self-titled debut album, British hard rocking amigos Inglorious have been hitting the road with some pretty high profile support slots, opening for The Winery Dogs and The Dead Daisies. They’ve also appeared on some of Europe’s biggest festival stages including Download. We caught up with singer Nathan James at Ramblin’ Man Fair to discuss touring and what lies ahead for one of rock’s most talked about acts.  High Flying Gypsy: Eamon O’Neill

Photo: Nedim Nazerali.

Hi Nathan, how are you today?
I am wonderful! Thank you very much for talking to me.

How was it opening Ramblin’ Man Fair 2016?
It was awesome. It was so, so hot! It was so different to Download – we played Download and we got lucky with the weather, but here, we got really lucky. It’s going to be a lovely day, and there’s some awesome bands on. To stand today in the same spot where David Coverdale is going to stand a few hours later, to me, it’s just unreal; it’s very surreal.

Inglorious has covered Whitesnake’s ‘Fool For Your Lovin’ and Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’; did you ask David Coverdale if he fancied joining you today?
I didn’t, but my fans did. They tweeted him saying that I should get up and sing with them, but he - we’ll he didn’t even decline, I just think he ignored it! But yeah, he is my hero and my idol. Usually at these festivals you don’t get to hang around for the day; you get to come in, and go out as there’s another show, but today I’m staying for the whole day. I’m with my family, I’m with my friends, and I’m going to stay and enjoy the festival like the rest of the people here.
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Who are you looking forward to catching today?
I love Europe, and I love Whitesnake, and I’m really intrigued to see the Thin Lizzy show, because every single person in that line up is excellent, and the songs are excellent. I feel like we’re going to get a real treat later on. 

Photo: Press.

It’s been an incredible year for Inglorious; you started it off on tour with The Winery Dogs.
It was unreal, actually, because all of us are fans; everyone in the band was a fan. Our bass player’s hero is Billy Sheehan, so to be on tour with those guys, and for them to watch our sound check and to be hanging with you, is just absolutely incredible. They were the nicest guys, and they were just so, so talented. It was brilliant.  

Your debut self-title album was released around the time of those shows.
It was just before that our album came out, so yeah, it was great. We did fifteen shows in Europe, and it was packed houses. To play to that many people on your first tour is just excellent.

You’re currently on another big tour with The Dead Daisies. That must be a lot of fun.
I’ve known those guys for quite a while. We did Planet Rockstock with them last year, and I’ve hung out with them when they’ve come to London, and they’re just lovely. Doug [Aldrich], I met when he was on tour with Glenn Hughes, and they’re really complimentary. That’s the one thing that I’ve found; all these musicians that we’re going on tour with are saying great things about us. When Doug Aldrich says; “you guys sound killer”, you go; “wow, we’re doing something right”, and that’s amazing.

You’ve got a tour with Steel Panther coming up, haven’t you?
I can’t believe we’re going on tour with Steel Panther, because again; it’s going to be great crowds, and fun, and it’s all about fun, right? Rock and roll shouldn’t be sad and angry; to me, it should be fun, it should be a good time, people should be enjoying it, and that’s what we’ve got coming up with this next tour as well.
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You’ve had some great tours, but is there any band that you’d like to be invited to tour with?
I just saw Guns ‘N’ Roses in Toronto for my birthday, and if that comes to the U.K. next year, I want that gig. I know I’m aiming for the stars, but hey-ho, that’s the gig I want. 

Photo: Nedim Nazerali.

So what currently lies ahead for Inglorious; is it more touring, or are plans turning to the second album?
We’ve a couple of festivals; we’re doing a festival in Belgium with Limp Bizkit and Steel Panther, and then we’re straight in the studio for the whole of August. August is recording month. We’ve been writing our album for a couple of months now. It’s really good, and I can’t wait to show people.
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You have a lot of support in the U.K. Are you hoping that this one will bring it up a gear?
Yeah, that’s the aim, and we want to do more in Europe next year as well. We’ve just had a meeting with our agent and he said next year we’re going to focus on getting everywhere, and seeing the world. So yeah, that’s what we want to do.

There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of bands doing that classic style of hard rock that you guys do.
I think there’s a few reasons for it; you can’t be shit, is the first and foremost reason. If you want to play proper classic rock, you can’t be an average guitar player, you can’t be an average drummer, you can’t be a crap singer - you have to be able to deliver night after night, and whatever people say about us; we’ve got stamina. We do that every day, and it sounds the same. It’s taken me fifteen years to learn how to sing properly, so it’s not me in a bedroom with an acoustic, singing sad songs - you need to practice, and you need to commit and be serious about it, and everyone in our band practices all the time.

Taking on a song like ‘Burn’ is a big ask for any musician, isn’t it?
Yeah, well it took two men to sing the original, didn’t it? It is a hard tune to sing, but I love singing it. And that was one take – the video that you’re talking about. We got in the studio, and everything was live, the same as we recorded our album. There’s no fakery, there’s no bullshit,; its real, it’s real rock and roll music, because you don’t want to let people down. Why record an album that you can’t replicate live? Why not just record it live, and then people aren’t disappointed? If they like the album, they’ll like the live show and vice versa, and that’s what we’re all about. 

Is that the standard that you’re holding yourself up to; we want to be as good as Deep Purple, etc?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s hard at the moment because obviously, this may not be the time for our type of music, but I think it’s obvious to see with the fact that there was a good few thousand people watching us today, and on our tour we sold out a couple of our shows, that rock is well and alive. I feel really positive that we are at the front of it in the U.K. right now; we’re representing quite a lot of people, we’re giving a lot of fans what they want, and we’re very happy about it.
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So the future is looking really positive for Inglorious right now?
Yeah, we have some really cool stuff coming up. I can’t tell you too much about it right now, but the next year is going to be a good one. We’re talking to a really awesome producer for our second album, so yeah, we’ll see. 

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