Blossoms star Joe Donovan admits the band are waiting for something else to be stolen to inspire upcoming songs and albums.
The ‘Blown Rose’ group released their fifth album ‘Gary’ in September – with the name of both the song and album being inspired by the theft of an 8ft fibre-glass gorilla of the same name from a garden centre in Lanarkshire, Scotland, last year – and are now waiting for other bizarre stories to inspire their future work.
Joe – Blossoms’ drummer – exclusively told BANG Showbiz at ‘The National Lottery’s Big Bash’ at London’s OVO Arena Wembley on Wednesday (04.12.24): “We’re just going to wait for some fibre-glass ornament to get stolen.”
Tom Ogden was responsible for creating ‘Gary’, which secured the band – which also features Charlie Salt, Myles Kellock and Josh Dewhurst – their fourth UK Number One album.
Speaking about coming up with the idea for the song, Tom said: “I heard the news story on the radio, and I was just struck by a wave of inspiration and kind of found it amusing because he was called Gary, and people were talking as if it is the most serious thing in the world – which obviously it wasn’t.
“So I went home, read about it, and wrote a song off the back just for a laugh, and then the song turned out to be OK.
“I’m always looking for new things to write about and don’t put any restrictions on that.
“The song came first. The album title is usually the final piece of the puzzle of a record, so when we were picking songs for the album, I already wrote the song ‘Gary’.
“As the album took shape, we tried a few other names, and I thought, ‘I think we should call the album ‘Gary’.’”
In 2025, the Stockport band are looking forward to supporting big-name acts at gigs around the globe, including Kasabian.
Tom said: “We’re doing quite a few festivals, supporting some bands across the world – Inhaler in Europe, Kasabian in Australia, Stereophonics in the UK.
“So we’re spending Blossoms’ word far and wide.”
Watch ‘The National Lottery’s Big Bash’ on December 31 on ITV1 and ITVX.