Alan and Stevie Jukes of the popular Glaswegian indie pop band reflect on their earliest memories of supporting Rangers, their favourite players of the past and how the opportunity to record the club's 2022 Europa League Final soundtrack came about.
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00:00 Talk to me about how you grew up obviously supporting Rangers, talk to me about your earliest memories.
00:05 Sure, so coming from a Rangers family, mum's side, dad's side, big Rangers fans.
00:10 Our uncle, or my dad's uncle Bobby used to play with Rangers and I used to take us to games
00:16 and had season tickets. We've got another brother Dave who's in Australia.
00:20 Another brother Dave's in Australia and we had four season tickets and season tickets with mates
00:28 and just you know through the years just following them everywhere pretty much.
00:33 What about you? I think just when you're growing up and obviously your dad supports Rangers,
00:37 your family supports the clubs, you get Stevie's strips and I used to get the hand-me-downs that
00:41 went from Stevie to Dave to myself. So when they were all wearing the new strips I was all wearing
00:46 their intro numbers of three or four seasons behind but I even come in the stadium when we
00:50 were going to the first game, my dad took me, I think we were all short in child care and he said
00:54 I'll need to take him in the game. I was far too young to get an offer but that was my very first
00:59 game and we won 2-0, it was unbelievable. Just to see the excitement to be fair, I think the atmosphere
01:06 was absolutely electric that day so an unbelievable feeling, you just fall in love with it.
01:10 Stevie, what has been some of your favourite memories? Obviously you said you've went to a lot of
01:14 matches over the years, what games kind of stand out to you? I mean there's so many. The first
01:20 game I ever went to was Gaza, 8-0, hat-trick, that was my introduction to Aibrox, it was unbelievable.
01:26 Being here with my dad when he was alive with Alan, Peter Lundgren scoring against Villarreal
01:34 was a special moment. Maurice Adu, last minute winner. We were here for Leverkusen,
01:42 sorry, against Leipzig, sorry, before to get to the final. And also being in two European finals
01:51 with my dad, getting to go to Manchester with my dad and then getting to go to Seville with my
01:56 brother. So they're probably the biggest ones that you'll cherish for the rest of your life.
02:00 What about you Alan? We were lucky enough to go out on a night out and Peter was actually there,
02:06 we were saying to him about the actual experience of, we were sitting in the main stand,
02:10 middle tier, and Stevie ended up with us 10 rows down, my dad doing a backflip off his seat,
02:17 it was just sheer shock. But those are the nights you remember, the European nights are unbelievable.
02:22 But going to the game, not just like, not just actually coming to the game, it's the full day,
02:28 it's the full atmosphere, you know, getting your strip on, the drive to the game, even the traffic
02:33 that one, then the build-up walk in before the players warm up, the game's unbelievable. So I
02:39 wouldn't have it any other way. So what about favourite players growing up, any kind of, who was
02:43 your idols? Super Ali, always has been, always will be. Been very privileged and lucky to meet him a
02:49 couple of times and he did something very special for us before our dad died for him and we'll never
02:56 forget that but he's always been my idol. But you know like Barry Ferguson, Lou Drobkazza, Alberts,
03:06 but I'd say Super Ali for me. Fantastic, and I want to touch on as well your career so far,
03:11 gents, obviously, talk to me a bit about how your song 'Make Us Dream' came around in the build-up to
03:17 the Europa League final, how did that all kind of stem from? So we were playing the fan zone
03:25 before the match for Leap Street and we were very lucky to get hospitality, but when you get
03:31 hospitality you get free beer and free drink, so the emotion of the game, we were absolutely
03:37 wee bit gone by the end of it, celebrating and before, a week before, Rangers had tweeted
03:44 'Make Us Dream' and I just saw it and I thought wow. So I had, after a couple of drinks after the game,
03:50 I grabbed the marketing guy from Rangers who was in with us, he said listen, why don't you hear this song
03:54 I've wrote for Rangers, 'Make Us Dream' and he went... And I'm looking at him like this, he's not writing a song.
03:59 You're joking me, you wrote a song? I said it's one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life, it's
04:03 unbelievable, can you send me it? I said perfect, I said I'll send you it tomorrow. So my manager phoned me
04:09 that night, he said oh the Ranger's brilliant, blah blah blah, and I said listen I've wrote this song,
04:13 just telling him as well, and I woke up in the morning to an email from Rangers saying can you
04:17 please send us a song, and an email from my manager who'd copied in their label at the time,
04:23 Atlantic Records, saying we've secured the official soundtrack of the Europa League final, and I hadn't
04:28 even wrote it, I just told them that I'd wrote their song, I hadn't. I know, that's what alcohol does to people.
04:34 So we went into the studio on the weekend and we just basically spilled our hearts out about
04:41 what it was like to support Rangers, and the inspiration of getting there, and that's how
04:46 we put it together, and kind of teased it out on Twitter, thinking you know what, it can be brutal,
04:53 football fans can be ruthless, but thankfully the feedback was amazing, and then you know
04:59 we got to release it, we got to a place, we go to Seville, and when we get there, everybody's playing
05:05 the fan zones for a special moment. Fantastic, and how important has, obviously you're both local
05:10 lads, how important has Glasgow been for you in terms of the launchpad for your careers? Obviously
05:16 you've played a lot of gigs in and around here over the years. Well as Stevie says, you know Glasgow
05:21 and Scotland people in general are brutally honest, so you know if you're doing good, you're doing terrible,
05:26 you know the music's good, the music's bad, but Glasgow keeps its feet on the ground, you know,
05:31 so many amazing bands, many amazing bands come through from the Glasgow scene, and
05:37 it's a really, you know, although it's a small community, it's quite a big community as well,
05:41 everybody's together and trying to strive for the same thing. I think the one thing as well,
05:46 when you travel the world, Glasgow Region humour is unrivalled, which is a good place when you meet
05:53 lots of people, but Glasgow's always been our hometown and I love when we come home to play.
05:59 Fans are the best to be fair, best crowd you'll get. In terms of abroad, you just mentioned you've
06:03 toured the world, where's kind of been some of your standout places that you've been to so far?
06:08 We always loved Chicago, we played Chicago a couple of times, brilliant. Milan was good.
06:15 Germany's always good. Germany's good. Playing Europe's really special, but when you get out in
06:20 America, that's kind of living the dream out there, so that was the best. Fantastic, and just finally
06:26 then, what's next to come from St Phoenix? Obviously you said you've been really busy at
06:31 the moment, you've got a lot of tours and gigs lined up, talk to us what's next? We've got a
06:37 new single with Nathan Evans, it's out, just now called Home, it's basically a tribute to
06:44 Scotland getting to the Euros. I haven't really told them, nobody's told them about it, but it is out.
06:49 But we've shot some content, music video that's going to be showcased this week, and then we've
06:53 got our own single coming out the end of the month, and then going to tour some festivals
06:57 over the summer, and then an album coming out in October.