NOUGHTIES brit pop sensation Toploader are ready to ‘put smiles on the faces’ of the FAB festival crowd with their headline performance on Friday night.

The band achieved fame through their iconic cover of the King Harvest song ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ and they are set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album in November.

Joe Washbourn, singer, spoke to Weekend about their summer schedule, the band’s early years and the 2009 reunion.

Joe said: “The summer festival season has started really well for us and we all absolutely love this time of year.

“Every show is completely different and it’s always a fantastic atmosphere because everyone is just out for a good time and we just want to play our part.

“We’ve been doing this for such a long time now that I’d like to think we are good at it, we have a great festival set with a mixture of old tunes and new ones.”

The band’s busy summer schedule started with a show at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool and Joe revealed that the band rarely have to look for a gig to play.

Joe said: “The Liverpool show was brilliant for us and I’m a massive Liverpool fan as well so it was great for me personally to be in the city.

“To be honest we don’t really go out of our way to find shows. Usually we’ll get a call about a festival and just say ‘that sounds great’ and that’s it.

“People love getting out in the summer and that’s where these festivals are really good. When we started out it felt like there was only Reading, V Festival and Glastonbury that you could play, whereas now there are so many options available.”

It is 10 years since the band reformed from their long hiatus after the release of their second album and Joe believes that the band are in a much better place now because of it.

Joe said: “We got back into the swing of things musically very quickly but we did still have to go through the reasons why we split up in the first place and deal with them.

“When the first album came out we constantly promoted it for two or three years with loads of shows and by the end of it I think we were all burnt out and a bit sick of it really.

“We all enjoy it a lot more now because we don’t have to deal with pressure from the record label so there’s nowhere near the same amount of stress.

“We’ve been together longer now than the first time we got together and I’d like to think we are a little wiser, or it may just be experience.

The band released their debut album ‘Onka’s Big Moka’ in November 1999 and Joe cannot believe that it is almost 20 years since it was released.

He said: “I don’t really know how that’s happened. It’s really surreal, it doesn’t feel like it has been that long. If you would’ve told me that we would still be playing today 20 years ago I probably would have laughed at you.

“It was quite a naïve album from my point of view, we were very young and the songs were very optimistic. You can tell it was written and recorded by a group of guys in their early 20s.

“I’m not expecting to still be playing when the album turns 40 but you never know.”

Joe did offer a hint as to what visitors to the festival this weekend can expect from Toploader’s set.

He said: “We’ve always been a band that is about moving forward not backwards. We love playing old tunes live but we like to balance that with the new songs as well and it always works well for us.

“We hope to put a smile on the face of everyone going to FAB Festival, we are really proud to be able to play at shows like this and we have a really good set to keep everyone entertained.”

Toploader will be playing the headline slot at FAB Festival on Friday, June 14.