A FLAGSHIP festival by singer-songwriter Frank Turner could soon be coming to Glasgow.

The punk-folk performer, who has become something of a national treasure, decided to add even more onto his already hectic touring schedule through Lost Evenings festival back in 2017.

Having racked up more than 2000 live shows since parting from his band Million Dead in 2005, there’s no doubt that Turner can pull a crowd – and he’s not scared to embrace his new arena-sized fame.

“I was never really a fan of the hipster panic of trying to be at a show at the right time to get in, I want everybody to be able to come to a gig”, he explains.

“My choice of venue is entirely dependant on how many people want to come see the shows.

“If you’re a band who can sell 5000 but are in a 500-cap show, you’re excluding people who were going to come.

“Currently, I’m fortunate enough that I play bigger rooms but I’m sure when I become unpopular that I’ll go back to playing smaller venues.”

Aside from touring, the 36-year-old released his seventh solo album entitled ‘Be More Kind’ earlier in the year, which was largely inspired by world affairs.

It was the first time Turner had dipped his toe back in to the political pool, after being scorned for a piece where he was quoted as saying he considered himself to be “right wing” – a far cry from the liberal rebel he had been known as.

He took to his website shortly after to clarify that his politics were “based on principles like democracy, individuality, equality of opportunity, distrust of power and, above all else, freedom, including economic freedom”. But that didn’t stop thousands of people sending him hate mail.

“It’s the first album I’ve made in quite a while that attempts to address the state of the world.

“I’ve never been a dedicated political songwriter. I’ve had a few songs in that vein and I got out of it - but I must admit I slept better at night and my blood pressure was in a better state.

“It’s a much easier life not talking about it but, to some extent, as a writer, you have to follow the ideas that come to you and your muse.

“I guess I felt that there was things I really wanted to comment on. It was nerve-racking. There was times where I thought about scrapping the whole thing and giving myself an easy life but that doesn’t seem very artistically integral to me.”

Musicians have faced backlash for sharing their views and opinions but ‘staying in his lane’ is not something Turner plans to do anytime soon.

“I think the word 'should' doesn’t really make much sense when being used around art. What an artist should do is whatever the hell they want to do.

“There is people that respond to material like this by saying ‘shut up and sing, I came to be entertained I don’t want to hear about politics’. On the other end of the spectrum there’s people who, if you don’t engage politically, will spend a large chunk of their working day calling you a sell out or whatever. You can’t win.

“I felt that it was something I wanted to do but if I don’t want to talk about politics at all then that’s my right.”

Not content with his current touring schedule, Turner set his sights on curating his very own, now award-winning, festival.

Lost Evenings started in London in 2017 before pitching up Boston and next, it could be Glasgow.

“We decided to do a city festival – it was a risk and to everybody’s surprise it paid off really well. This year it went well, next year we’re going to Boston and after that we want to keep taking it do different parts of the world. I think we should probably do Glasgow soon.”

In the space of 10 years, Turner has gone from frontman of a relatively known post-hardcore band to arena touring megastar. Few could have predicted the metamorphosis – not even the musician himself.

He says: “There’s a difference between daydream and realistic expectations. I think I daydreamed about being a touring musician and being able to diversify that. My second book is coming out and I’ve got the tour, I’m DJ’ing. I’m not sure if I realistically expected any of this. Especially when I started solo.

“The band had a relatively small fanbase who thought I was nuts when I started playing a completely different type of music.

“I took a step back in terms of my popularity to make that decision at the time but it’s funny because looking back, I thought I had a plan and everyone else thought I was mad but now I think I was mad and everyone must have thought I had a plan.”

Before heading out on tour again in next month – and just back from a tour that started in March – Turner is looking forward to spending time with his family over the festive period.

  • Frank Turner will be performing at the O2 Academy on January 29.