From The Barfly to The O2 Arena may just be a short tube ride across London for most, but for Frank Turner it took years and years of relentless touring, on his slow but steady ascent from the cult punk-folk star to the festival headliner he is today. This week, at XFM's Winter Wonderland, he played gig No.1,629.
Watch our interview with Frank Turner in the video above
"It's definitely been a kind of 'slow and steady wins the race' kind of vibe," Turner tells Gigwise backstage before headlining XFM's Winter Wonderland. "To pick a kind of obvious barometer of London shows, we did the Barfly, then we did 100 Club, then we did Scala, then we did Shepherds Bush, then we did Roundhouse, then we did Brixton, Hammersmith, then Wembley - and that was quite a satisfying way to do it.
"I think I have to be sort of careful talking about this. On the one hand, there are a lot of idiots with the internet who will just shout 'sell out' at anything that isn't their little pet secret any more, or indeed anything that other people like and it's just kind of an annoying knee-jerk reaction."
Turner adds: "The thing is, the choice of venues for me has always been a case of trying to make sure everyone gets in, because that kind of hyper-panicky thing where no one can get tickets - and I do shows like that every now and again and it's usually charity stuff, so there's a reason for it. But it always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable because I want people to be able to get into a show if they want to come. I don't like the idea of people going 'I wasn't cool enough to get tickets for that, because when I was a kid I wasn't cool - I'm not cool now either, hopefully.
"I don't want it to be like 'you've got to be hip to be at my shows'. That's bollocks, I hate that idea."
Watch our interview with Frank Turner in the video above
Frank Turner's upcoming UK tour dates as part of Independent Venue Week are below:
Wednesday 28 January - Night & Day Cafe, Manchester
Thursday 29 January - 93 Feet East, London
