Organising a festival slot is difficult enough, without having to organise it for an 8 piece brass band.

This evidently doesn't phase Tom McGuire and the Brassholes, arguably one of Glasgow's biggest street brass bands, who will take to the Great Western Festival stage later this month.

In fact, they even made a joke about it - their video for 'Ric Flair' sees a multitude of Glaswegians all getting out of the one car on a Glasgow motorway, quickly going viral and leading them to over half a million views.

"It's an interesting little festival indeed" Tom tells The Evening Times.

"It'll be our first time playing the Oran Mor, so it feels good to be able to strike off another place that we've not played yet in Glasgow.

"We only play here sporadically - we don't want to play too much or put any big shows and oversaturate people."

There is hardly a chance of that happening, so wide is their following in their native city.

Originally meeting on the streets as buskers, Tom McGuire and the Brassholes have come to be known for their larger than life, high energy live shows.

"We're lucky with our crowds, and the crowds that we get in Glasgow" says Tom.

"We put a show on not too long ago at the Hug and Pint, just to see if people were still interested. To our surprise it seems that they still are" he laughed.

It seems strange that this would be of a concern to the band, but I am reassured that this is the worry that all artists must have at one point.

"We had a great success at the start with our album launch at the QMU. There seems like such a huge amount of work that goes on behind the scenes that three months not gigging suddenly feels like a dramatically long time. You do find yourself if people still care and when you find out they do, it's amazing. The work is legitimised and it all seems worth it."

Tom McGuire and the Brassholes are a certain unique type of Glasgow band in that they literally bring the party with them, capturing the warmth and cheek that Glasgow characters are known for.

Their place on the bill for the Great Western Festival isn't so much a showcase but a homecoming, particularly to be playing in the city's west end.

"I'm the only guy in the band originally from Glasgow" laughs Tom. "Everyone else was from different parts of the world, and Glasgow brought us together.

"The city itself is what has drawn us together so of course playing in the heart of that can only ever be hugely exciting, and hugely influential on our sound".

CARL A JENKINS