After a 14-year break, Scottish rockers GUN are back with a bang.

Debuting in 1989, they toured with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Simple Minds, Bryan Adams and Def Leppard.

Nine years later, with several critically acclaimed albums, eight top 40 singles, countless awards and line-up changes under their belt they called it a day.

“It was just one of those things; I think it was record company politics as happens in bands and in the music industry. The label wanted us to cross over [into] the pop audience market, go really pop; that’s just not us,” says guitarist Jools Gizzi.

“It just became really frustrating and everybody became – well I became – anxious and angry. We thought we’re not enjoying it anymore it’s time to call it a day. The ten or 11 years up to then were great, up till when we made that last record. A band’s a band; you should stick to your roots and what you do best. What we do best is being a rock band playing live.”

There’ll be doing exactly that when they take time out from touring with The Cult to play The Railway Venue, Ipswich, on September 15.

The decision to get back together came after the band won the prestigious Nordoff Robbins Tartan Clef award for Scotland’s Best Live Band in 2008.

“They wanted us to play. Mark [Rankin], the original singer, wasn’t too keen... not for any bad reason; he’d just rather remember GUN for what it was. We got a fantastic response so thought a couple of years ago why don’t we put the band together and test the water?

“Dante [Gizzi, Jools’ brother and lead vocalist] and I had recorded two or three songs and thought we’ll just keep those aside, you never know what happens.

“The opportunity came up to make a new record and keep the right people involved so we put our heads together; worked on the songs we had and new ones.”

Released in July, Break The Silence - produced by Dave Eringa, the mastermind behind the likes of The Manic Street Preachers and Idlewild - has been getting fantastic reviews.

“The response [from fans] has been really overwhelming. We enjoyed getting back into and really putting a stamp on it. Dave said ‘wow, I’m really digging this and can exactly see where the band are coming from’. He really worked hard with us and on the songs; we just locked ourselves away for two months and we’ve got a really great album I think, we’re just really enjoying it again.”

Playing to live audiences is where it’s at for them though.

“Billy Duffy from The Cult was watching some of our set; he came up to us and was like ‘wow, what a great show. You’re not in your early 20s anymore but by God you play as if you really believe in it’.

“That’s what it’s about; I want everybody watching us to go back and tell their friends ‘wow, I’ve just seen one of the best gigs in my life’.

“Where we feel most comfortable is when we’re playing live on stage because we just get this adrenalin from the feeling there’re fans out there; it could be two, it could be thousands. If you don’t have that kind of feeling in your band, in your blood, there’s no point in doing it.”

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