The Hotspur Press ready for their main stage appearance at the Feel Good Festival

The Hotspur Press

Rochdale band The Hotspur Press, who have been awarded a main stage place at this year’s Feel Good Festival, are ready to seize the opportunity that the festival brings them.

The band is made up of Dan Manchester, his brother Tomas Manchester, George Webster and Chris Nutter and all are former pupils of Wardle Academy in Rochdale and all hail for Wardle and Littleborough.

Speaking to Rochdale Online about their upcoming appearance at the Feel Good Festival, Tomas said: “Entering the battle of the bands competition was the best thing we have ever done. We are so grateful for the opportunity and we can’t express how grateful we are for it.”

George said: “It’s a local festival and we have seen it for the past three years and it caught our attention, so we have been wanting to get on the bill since then. The festival is great, it’s like a surprising melting pot of a lot of different people.”

Tomas added: “It’s a really community based festival and it’s big. It’s pretty big the main stage, so once the opportunity came up to play the main stage, we felt like we had an in because we are from Rochdale.”

Guitarist and vocalist Dan started the band when he was 14 and started playing music with fellow band member George. After going away to university, the pair came back together and roped in Tomas and Chris.

“I was going to stay in London (after university) and start a band of my own but Dan said, we are doing something here and we need you, so we joined forces,” added Tomas.

Describing themselves as “Bruce Springstein inspired emo indie” the band write all of the own songs and also do a lot of behind the scenes work, but are now ready to take centre stage.

George said: “We have done a lot of behind the scenes work like writing and recording that has taken a little longer than we expected, these things do, and releasing videos. We have done all of that work and it is ready for us to put out there and for people to listen to.”

Tomas added: “The trouble is now, getting that fan base. We feel like we could earn a fan base but its opportunities like Feel Good that will give us that chance to build that fan base.

“I suppose in terms of building our product and becoming the band that we want to be, it has taken about a year to get that all together. We have been gigging relentlessly for the past year and practicing every weekend and doing what we can.”

Dan said: “We have put a lot of effort into this and we feel like we have earnt the right to a degree of recognition.”

The Hotspur Press will feature on the main stage on Saturday 5 September and will join The South, Toploader, Kirsty Almeida, The Uplifters, Shakedown Stockholm and The Renegade Girls.

George said: “We are excited because it will be the biggest stage that we have played and we are looking forward to wondering what can happen next from it. It is a lot of exposure through fans and industry.”

The band are currently looking for management to help them get to the next level and hope that by appearing at the Feel Good Festival the opportunity will take them to that next level.

Dan said: “We have put in all of the ground work, we have a product that we can market well and we just need a platform to deliver it to a large audience online and live. It is essential to get management.”

Tomas added: “We have nurtured our product over the past few years and have been developing ourselves, so we have come a long way and the next step feels like it is to get someone to help us out a little more and I think the Feel Good Festival can help us out with that.”

“It’s not been a flitting dream like ‘I’d like to do that,’ said George. “We have been dedicated to it for a long time, so it has stuck with us all.”

Before The Feel Good Festival, the band will be releasing a five track EP on 15 August and will be holding a special launch party at The Castle in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

The Hotspur Press will perform on the main stage at Rochdale Feel Good Festival on Saturday 5 September.