To say rock’n’roll is dead is just mental. When was the last time you heard an artist called the Saviour Of Jazz? Jazz hasn’t gone away, and neither has rock’n’roll.
“That ‘Saviours Of Rock’ tag is a dramatised headline, but it doesn’t really make any sense. “There’s nothing we can do to control what the press write,” says Kerr. Nevertheless, their thoughtful, reasoned outlook on the tumult which has enveloped them offers an interesting snapshot of the mechanics and machinery of modern fame. “We’ve never sold this band on personality.” “We’re not interested in selling ourselves, we’re interested in playing music,” Kerr says at one point. Open enough to confess that a dinner of seared tuna in Dublin the previous evening brought on a worryingly intense dose of pre-gig diarrhoea for both of them, they exhibit a certain guarded wariness when the red light on the tape recorder placed on the table between them is illuminated. Sipping coffee in the corner of a Tyneside bar ahead of the opening night of their latest sell-out UK tour, the pair may be sufficiently well known that a couple of blushing female fans will sidle over for selfies and hugs, but in their black hoodies and sensible winter jackets, they resemble engineering students more than rock gods, and their conversational tone is unfailingly polite and low-key to the point of self-deprecation. There are audible sighs from Kerr (bass, vocals and beard) and Ben Thatcher (drums and even bigger beard) when that tag is brought up in front of them. As if all this weren’t dizzying enough, mainstream media outlets have now taken to labelling the duo the new Saviours Of Rock. A 14-date tour of Britain and Ireland scheduled for next February/March, taking in venues such as London’s 4,800-capacity Brixton Academy, Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom(3,000) and a two-night stand at Glasgow’s Barrowland sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale in October. Their performances at Download, Glastonbury, T In The Park and the Reading and Leeds festivals this summer drew huge crowds to small tents, they’ve been fêted by Jimmy Page (who showed up to a New York show in May) and had their debut album nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. To date, Royal Blood’s self-titled debut album has sold 155,000 copies in the UK, 66,000 of those in its first week on sale in August – a statistic which not only secured the record the top spot on the national album chart, but also ensured that Royal Blood became the fastest-selling rock debut in the past three years. This, unquestionably, is the most talked-about band of the year.