Hoosiers to reveal The Trick to Life at Sheffield show

The Hoosiers are drummer Alan Sharland, left, and singer and guitarist Irwin Sparkes.

The band are embarking upon a huge UK Tour in autumn to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their number one debut album The Trick To Life.

The band will play the album in its entirety – something they have never done before – on the 27-date tour which includes a show at Sheffield’s O2 Academy 2 on Thursday, October 26.

The album spawned the massive singles Worried About Ray, Goodbye Mr A and Cops and Robbers.

The multi-platinum success of their debut album raised huge expectations for its follow-up, not least at The Hoosiers’ record label. However, The Illusion of Safety was, the band agree, a troubled project from the start.

Frontman Irwin Sparkes says: “The word ‘hit’ is substituted for ‘good’. There’s an art to writing under those conditions, but it wasn’t one that worked for us. It exacts a toll on too many writers. You give up too much if you do that.”

Since then, they have self-released The News From Nowhere, in 2014, and The Secret Service, a year later.

Irwin, who is joined in the band by drummer Alan Sharland following bassist Martin Skarendahl’s departure in 2015, says: “Doing it on our own terms and actually having a proper say in it, felt wonderful. We had nothing to lose, but a lot to prove.”

Tickets to see The Hoosiers in Sheffield are now on sale, priced from £12.50, from www.sheffieldacademy.co.uk