YOU may remember guitarist Paul Banks saying comeback kings Shed Seven would play hometown York “if there was a venue big enough”.

“But unfortunately, since the closure of the Barbican Centre, there isn’t anything and I don’t think we’re of the age that we’d be doing the Grand Opera House.” So said Paul in May 2009 when York’s most successful band announced they would be embarking on their first UK tour in two years.

“I got a lot of flak for saying that,” says Paul, sitting with singer Rick Witter in the café of the Bar Lane Studios. “But our 20th anniversary has given us the perfect reason to play here this summer.”

The anniversary has coincided with the opening of a redesigned, remixed and refuelled Fibbers after a £250,000 reinvention of a fond old friend, where the band took their early steps and will return with a line-up of Witter, Banks, original guitarist Joe Johnson, bassist Tom Gladwin and drummer Alan Leach on Thursday and Friday for shows that each sold out in only four minutes.

“The timing is perfect for us as it’s 20 years since we formed and the history for us in Fibbers is that it’s the place we’ve played again and again,” says Rick.

“Fibbers is revamped, it’s our 20 years, and you’re always banging on at us ‘Why aren’t you playing York?’. Well, here we are, and not just playing Fibbers but the new Fibbers.

“We’re now in the position of doing one-off things, like these Fibbers shows, and there’s a pressure we feel to play York, when there isn’t anywhere to play… but Fibbers is great because it’s like a new venue now. The Barbican is a whole other debate and now there’s the racecourse.”

Paul has been chuffed by the response to the Sheds’ Fibbers shows. “Tickets are going for £60/£70 on eBay so the demand has kind of taken us by surprise. We’re still pinching ourselves at our popularity,” he says.

“It’s quite strange but very gratifying that we seem to be more popular than ever; we go down better and we play better than ever we did when we were having our hits,” says Rick. “It’s the lack of pressure, so that we can now chop and change the set.”

The 20th anniversary gigs will give the Sheds the chance to revisit songs from their debut album, Change Giver, songs that have their history in Fibbers.

“There’s a song that we wrote at Fibbers, Stars In Your Eyes. We had a germ of an idea already, and we ended up writing it in the afternoon on stage at Fibbers when we rehearsing,” says Rick.

“It’s probably the most complicated song we ever wrote,” says Paul.

The Sheds are contemplating making the Fibbers shows unique events by playing two sets each night, and now thoughts are turning to how to mark the 15th anniversary of the most successful album, A Maximum High.

Find out more next Friday in part two of The Shed Seven 20th anniversary interview.

• Shed Seven play Fibbers, York, on September 16 and 17. Sold out.