SCOTTISH outfit Fatherson can claim to be rock royalty - after finding themselves presenting awards along with Prince Philip.

The bizarre incident occurred when the trio were asked to appear at the Duke of Edinburgh awards earlier this year.

“It was quite a weird experience, but it was a nice day,” explains their bassist Marc Strain.

“We presented some awards to young people - it’s certainly not the sort of thing you’d expect a rock band to be doing, but we got the invitation and thought ’why not?’ The Duke of Edinburgh did take the mick out of our name a bit when we met him, which we weren’t expecting.”

Given that rock n’ roll has always thrived on the spirit of rebellion and defiance, it seems fair to ask whether the Kilmarnock group have taken any pelters from their fans over their royal appearance.

“We didn’t get any stick from it and there wasn’t any people getting on their high horse over us being at it,” adds Marc.

“We’d done some Duke of Edinburgh stuff while we were at school, and there’s worse things to do on a Thursday than getting a free lunch at Holyrood…”

The group will be back on more familiar ground this weekend, though, as they headline a Magners Summer Nights show at Kelvingrove Bandstand on Sunday. While most of the Summer Nights line-up features established acts like King Creosote (who kicks it off tonight) Joan Armatrading and Glasvegas, Sunday’s event spotlights more emerging acts, starting in the afternoon.

It’s all under the banner of student run label Electric Honey, with several of their acts joining Fatherson and We Were Promised Jetpacks, who jointly share top spot on the bill.

“I’ve known of Electric Honey since I was back in school, because Biffy Clyro did something for them, and then a whole bunch of bands I’d heard of have been on it over the years,” says Marc.

“They’ve managed to pull together a really good bunch of bands, and there’s a few on there I’ve heard of but haven’t seen live, so it’ll be a really good opportunity to do that.

“I think getting younger names in there was really the idea behind Sunday. I think some of the other Summer Night s shows have a different focus (in who‘s been booked for it), so it was cool for us to get the chance to play it.”

Sunday’s show will kick-start an important few months for the band. They’re set to begin recording their second album, following on from 2014’s I Am An Island, and the rockers can’t wait to get started on it.

“We’re not going to end up doing any crazy concept changes, but it just sounds like the next step for the band,” says Marc.

“There’s not going to be anybody annoyed for it being completely different, but it’s a step along for us. We’ve matured, played a lot of shows, and know what we’re good at, so we can play to those strengths now. There will be some big sing-a-long tunes like we had before, though.”

The group have had some other changes, though. Keyboardist Chris Beltran has departed the band, meaning they’ve reverted back to being a trio, just like they were in their early days.

“It was just something that kinda happened,” says Marc.

“We’d started off as a three-piece, going back to when we were in school, and then we went up to four for the last album, but we just decided that it’d be mutually beneficial for us to go back to being a trio.

“It’s been quite interesting and it’s actually helped with the writing for the new album, because we want it to have a really unique identity, and going back to writing as a three-piece has helped with that.”

Electric Honey Sessions, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Sunday, £14, 3pm