East Kilbride band get their big break with King Tut’s festival slot

The Karavats will be performing at the Summer Nights festival in August.

A South Lanarkshire band will be playing in their first festival this summer at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow.

The Karavats, an alternative rock band from East Kilbride, will be supporting The Rampants at the Summer Nights festival on August 2.

Summer Nights, put on by DF Concerts and Events, has been dedicated to providing a schedule spotlighting Scotland’s greatest grassroots talent since the festival’s founding in 2011.

As the COVID-19 pandemic halted the live music scene for a couple of years, the festival is now celebrating its 10th edition of showcasing up-and-coming artists across Scotland with over 100 acts performing across seven weeks at King Tut’s.

As well as giving acts the platform to show off their talents, they get to play on the same stage that musical legends have once performed on such as Oasis, Blur and Coldplay.

This group have previously headlined Nice n Sleazy and Room 2 in Glasgow and has supported acts at St. Luke’s and The Garage since forming in 2022 but will get their first taste of playing a festival through this event.

These packed-out shows prompted interest from DF Concerts and Events who contacted The Karavats to offer them a place on this year’s Summer Nights festival roster.

The band consists of five members: Joseph Fegan (20) on lead vocals, Christopher Cairns (20) on lead guitar, Mark Phimister (21) on rhythm guitar, Sonny Cunningham on bass guitar and Fraser Brawley (21) on drums.

Inspired by the likes of The Strokes and fellow East Kilbride rock band Jesus and the Mary Chain, The Karavats main goal is to entertain people and offer hope through their music.

Led by Fegan, the band members are all crucial to making the whole thing tick.

Brawley’s manic drumming, Cunningham’s dirty bass, Phimister’s solid rhythm and Cairns’ striking lead all culminate in The Karavats sound.

Joseph Fegan, the lead singer of The Karavats, said: “I think excited is the word I’d use because it’s just a huge opportunity, not even for people to hear our music, but just to hear our name, hear the name of our band, of our group, I think it’s just a massive thing.

“Seeing other bands play and seeing their kind of their work ethic and their attitude and how talented they are, I think that will improve us and take us to the next step.

Although not officially forming until 2022, the base of the Karavats was created during the lockdown period after the boys spent their time at home mastering their crafts.

“I was in about fifth year at school and I could play a bit of guitar and wanted to sing and I just wanted to be in a band as I thought that was just really cool so me, Mark and Chris were jamming every few months.

“If someone told us then that a guy that can barely sing and two guys that can barely play the guitar will be playing King Tuts in three or four years from now you wouldn’t even believe it.

“You’d laugh it off.”

The band released their debut single ‘Time Machine’ in the summer of 2022 which gave listeners their first glimpse of what the band is all about and have since released four more singles.

‘Sense of Home’, ‘American Caesar’, ‘See What You See’ and ‘(Don’t) Change Your Mind’ have all gone down a treat with fans begging the question of when they can expect an album to be released.

Joseph added: “There’s some stuff in the works that I think you can expect in the next two to three months.

“Hopefully another collection of songs, but we’re really focusing on our live sound at the moment, you’ve got a glimpse of it on Spotify but that won’t be all you hear this year.

The Karavats have played their last two concerts without their drummer Fraser Brawley who has spent the last few months in France for university with Milo McDade (17) filling in his place on the kit.

However, the fan-favourite Fraser will be back in time to make the Summer Nights Festival his homecoming show.

Joseph said: “The bond that the five of us have is hard to replace.

“Milo has done a fantastic job, I can’t stress that enough but we’re so glad  Fraser is coming back.

“We’ve all missed him.”

Sean Dickie, who has attended all of The Karavats’ shows so far, said: “It’s just so nice to see the boys get the recognition they deserve.

“From watching them at their first concert at Room 2 to playing at one of the most famous venues in Scotland in King Tut’s, I almost feel as proud as they must be feeling.

“East Kilbride is a huge community that is always filled with pride when they see one of their own do so well so they can be sure that they are making their town proud as well as themselves and I hope that there will be a huge turnout to support the band.”

Tickets are now on sale for the gig on August 2 2024 with doors opening at 7:30 pm.