This Manchester band are about to go from playing at tiny clubs to opening up for Liam Gallagher at his epic Knebworth opening night. Pastel will play the biggest gig of their lives today after Liam personally requested the band to open his first night at Knebworth where 80,000 fans are expected.
The indie band, fronted by Manchester-raised cousins Jack and James Yates, will start the live music this afternoon as the first support act on the bill which also includes Amyl and the Sniffers, Paolo Nutini and Kasabian, before Liam is due to take to the stage for an eagerly-anticipated performance at 9pm. And it is all a bit of a pinch me moment for the lads.
Pastel will perform at the first of two huge gigs that Liam will play at Knebworth - fresh from his huge homecoming gig at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Wednesday night. There, fans got a taste of what to expect at the Knebworth shows, with a stirring setlist including a mix of Oasis classics and Liam's solo anthems.
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Lead singer Jack Yates, 21, from Clayton, and guitarist James Yates, 24, from Droylsden, grew up on the music of Oasis and Manchester bands, and so it's a dream come true for Pastel to have been personally chosen by Liam to kick off his historic double header at the Hertfordshire park. The band, completed by Rhys Wheeler on drums, Joe Anderson on lead guitar and Liam O'Shea on bass, are travelling down to Knebworth on Friday ready for the huge gig with their performance due to take place at 2.45pm.
Jack says: "We've never played a gig anywhere near this size before. People are saying are you nervous? But I'm not nervous, it feels we were destined to do this."
James adds: "We are first on, we're opening the show, but the other bands are like 100 times bigger than us. The fact Liam has given us the opportunity is pretty amazing."
The band first came to the attention of Liam when they were asked to appear in last year's Autumn/Winter campaign for the fashion label he first started, Pretty Green. And the band had also caught the eye of film director Charlie Lightening, who worked on the Liam docupic As It Was in 2019.
James says: "He saw us on instagram, and when we brought out our first single he said this is cool and messaged to say he wanted to work with us on a video - but we said "we can't afford you!" But he wanted to do it and we ended up filming on the Hough End Playing Fields it was really cool and we kept in contact after that."
He adds: "Charlie phoned us over a year ago and mentioned the Liam gig, at the time he was only going to be doing the one date, the Saturday, and we were just joking about saying 'imagine if we could support Liam'. And he said stranger things have happened. We then found out that Liam had been asking about us, it still doesn't feel real."
It was a hugely emotional moment when the band first found out formally that they would be playing at the Knebworth show. James explains: "Jack's mum sadly passed away last year, and we got the email to say we would be playing Knebworth at his mum's funeral. It was the worst day of our life, but as soon as we got the email we took some sort of comfort, it felt like a sign. It was an emotional rollercoaster."
The band are signed to Manchester-based independent record label Spike Island, but all still work full time in their "day jobs" while they follow their dreams of making it in the music world. Jack is an electrician while James renovates old houses, and he says: "Our dream is to be creative, we'd love to live our dream with the band full time."
After the huge Liam gig, Pastel will be heading out on tour in July alongside fellow Manc band Afflecks Palace, including at Glasgow's legendary Kings Tuts on the 27th, Nottingham Rescue Rooms on the 28th, and a special homecoming show at Manchester Academy 2 on July 29th.
And while Liam will give them one of their biggest moments in the spotlight, James also found himself going viral this year when he partied with One Direction star Louis Tomlinson after his recent solo gigs. He posted a photo KISSING the world-famous pop star and James all of a sudden found himself getting a lot of new friend requests on his Insta!
James explains: "Louis was playing his gig in Doncaster his home town, first time playing there since X Factor, and we were invited ages ago, and me and my girlfriend ended up going to his afterparty. I've met him once before and he's a good lad, he remembered me even though he's a global superstar in the middle of a world tour, but we were just hanging out and having a laugh it wasn't staged.
"I posted that photo and it just went crazy, it got 40,000 likes and there's fan pages all over the world that shared that picture! I think the main reason is because I'm kissing him on the cheek and all these girls have gone into meltdown. I had all these girls asking "what did he taste like" it was crazy."
James says he's happy to have lots of One Direction fans now following Pastel as a result laughing: "It's just nice for people to know who you are."
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