Simon ParkinEd Mac, Friendly Firest Are these the biggest dates you've played?'We did actually support the Kaiser Chiefs at a football stadium so that the biggest gig we've done, but we're really excited to be stepping it up properly.Simon Parkin

ED MAC, FRIENDLY FIRES

t Are these the biggest dates you've played?

'We did actually support the Kaiser Chiefs at a football stadium so that the biggest gig we've done, but we're really excited to be stepping it up properly. I think we've done the whole playing in backrooms thing. We're more confident now, and the stuff we're playing lends itself really well to playing bigger venues. There is less faffing around now.'

t Do you know the other bands?

'We've toured with White Lies before and they're really nice people. We've never played with Florence and the Machine, I've heard she's quite crazy. And we've played with Glasvegas before, we were first on, so I'm not particularly worried about playing to Glasvegas fans because we've done that before and it was alright. With White Lies and Glasvegas it's probably a very similar crowd. Maybe we won't go down well, but that's all part of the fun, seeing how the different crowds react.'

t The tour is always quite debauched - will you be diving into the party?

'I really hope that people don't go straight back to their tour bus, because that's boring. I'll be sorely disappointed if that's the case but I can't see it. I think Florence will probably be the craziest.'

t Will you have any new material to play?

'I think we'll have one brand new song to play, hopefully, if we can get it worked out in time.'

t What essential item can you not be without on the road?

'Baroca is very, very essential. I always end up having at least five Barocas a day, because you end up waking up about three in the afternoon so you never see much sunlight properly. Another tour essential is don't hang out backstage too much, make sure you walk around the city otherwise you're just stuck in a cold dark backstage area. And Band Of Brothers DVDs. We're big Band Of Brothers fans in Friendly Fires.'