They’re under starter’s orders at York Racecourse for this year’s music showcase double header, starting with new wave legends Blondie next Friday night. CHARLES HUTCHINSON catches up with the following day’s headliners, Scouting For Girls.

AFTER scouting for winners at York Races next Saturday afternoon punters can enjoy Scouting For Girls’ pop brio on Knavesmire.

The London trio’s front-man, Roy Stride, can’t wait for a crack at the Gimcrack course. “This is the third year that we’ve done racecourse shows and they’re some of the best gigs we’ve done because everyone is in a good mood; they’ve come for a day out and it’s two days out in one,” he says.

“You have a good time with the racing, maybe have some food and our music rounds off a nice day – and as you know, our music is so upbeat, it really suits the occasion.

“Mind you, most of the guys who’ve toured with us have spent their money for the gig by the time we get on stage!”

Scouting For Girls’ joyous pop will suit its early-evening slot at York. “Our music is all about dancing around and crowd participation, with us playing all our hits,” says Roy. “It’s very unpretentious! I see my job as being an entertainer as much as being a musician, so we’re not going to be playing the B-sides! It’s big, singalong choruses, just like Madness.”

The racecourse shows are no mere tag-on to a day’s racing, stresses Roy. “We’ve been doing these shows with promoter Liz Hobbs each time, and she’s been doing them for so long that everything is high quality, so the quality as is good, if not better, than it is at rock festivals,” he says.

“And for us as a band, we do these shows because it’s important to show what we can do. It’s not a cabaret show; it’s a proper gig – and it’s a different set from what we’d do at a festival, where usually it’s about 40-45 minutes. This will be one hour and 20 minutes.”

Scouting For Girls have released a new single this week, Love How It Hurts, lifted from their second album, Everybody Wants To Be On TV. “We went to the radio stations with that song, which has been all over the radio, but then we had people saying ‘We love it but Without You is even better’,” says Roy.

Consequently, the band and their label, Epic, have decided to delay the July 18 release of a bonus-disc edition of the album until the autumn after issuing Without You as a single. When the bonus version does see the light of day, it will feature Love How It Hurts, Without You, Somebody New, New Day, live versions of big hits She’s So Lovely and Elvis Ain’t Dead from the Roundhouse in London and the Cahill Club Mix of Famous.

It will be worth the wait, promises Roy, just as the two-and-a-half year gap between their self-titled chart-topping debut and its sequel was worth it. “We wanted to get it out quicker. It was the record company who said, ‘No, take your time’. They wanted to bring it out when they could focus on it on its own, not when they were doing the JLS and Olly Murs albums,” he says.

“What I love about the upcoming repackage is that we’re getting these new songs out a year after the album came out, not the bigger gap between the first and second album.”

Songs keep pouring out of Roy, wherever he may be. Love How It Hurts, for example, was written on his iPod Touch. “As long as you’ve got a guitar and a piano with you, that’s normally all you need, but that time I didn’t have those on holiday with me,” he says.” “Usually, I would take recording equipment and keyboards but the excess baggage was going to be nearly as much as the cost of the holiday! So, as I did have my Touch with me, I could write ‘guitar and piano’ parts on there and then took the song back to the studio.”

Performing to thousands next Saturday will be a far cry from Scouting For Girls’ York debut. “The first time we came there, we played to 18 people at Fibbers, but when we came back we sold out,” says Roy.

Now, he will enjoy next weekend to the maximum, including the racing. “I’m not really a racing fan; I don’t follow it on a regular basis but I’ve been to a couple of race days, just to have a good day out,” he says.

“It’s great entertainment and if you’ve never seen horses galloping at speed, it’s a sight to behold.”

• Advance sales are strong for both race days at the Music Showcase Weekend at York Racecourse, but tickets are still available for each card: next Friday featuring a post-racing set by American new wave legends Blondie and next Saturday’s double bill of racing and Scouting For Girls.

Building on the success of Madness and the X Factor bill with Olly Murs and Lee Ryan from Blue, the racecourse is looking to improve the concert experience still more.

“The stage position remains the same, but we’re investing in an even better sound system, and we’ll make good use of two giant screens and wider CCTV network.

“It remains essentially an outdoor concert in terms of space in front of stage,” says James Brennan, head of marketing and sponsorship.

“Please note, the technical nature of the event is deemed racing with music so there are no ‘concert only’ tickets.

“Everyone will need to be here before the last race at the latest, but the desire and expectation is that people will arrive to enjoy the racing – first race at 6pm next Friday and 2pm next Saturday – and the build-up to it, as well as the concert.”

Gates open at 4pm and 11.15am respectively and the plan is to finish the music between 10pm to 10.30pm next Friday and before 8pm next Saturday.

On-the-day admission to the Course Enclosure is £8 but to be in front of the stage you need to be in at least Grandstand and Paddock. To book online, visit yorkracecourse.co.uk