Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds answers a few questions ahead of his band’s performance at Aintree Racecourse tomorrow night as part of the Jockey Club Live series

We’ve all been wondering what you’ve been up to recently?

I’m just halfway through recording a new album

I haven’t really done an album in about 10 years really, maybe more. I did a solo album in 2005 I think it was, or 2004, so it’s been ages since I’ve really worked on an album’s worth of songs. It’s quite exciting!

It’s taken me a little bit of a while to be honest, so I’m deeply into that. So this summer, we’re just doing a few live shows really, just events, not a tour.

The Jockey Club Live event is obviously home soil for you. Is there something special about playing in Liverpool for you?

We’ve played Aintree once before and I’m really looking forward to playing again, hopefully it’s going to be nice weather and a nice balmy evening in Liverpool, so it’s been very exciting waiting for it to happen and I can’t wait to actually get there now.

You mentioned that you played at Aintree before, do you go there for races too?

I don’t! I’ve never been. The only time I’ve ever actually been to the races was for a Grand National but it got called off because of a bomb scare! So that’s my only experience, you know I walked in the door exactly as they called it off for a bomb scare.

When it comes to planning setlists for shows, do you prefer to play older material to new?

Well I haven’t recorded any new material for such a long time so that is never really a problem. That is quite a big problem for bands like myself that have been going a while, obviously people very much want to hear the songs that they know. I think it’s slightly different if you’re doing a tour but when you’re doing festivals or events like this one, it’s good to get a good mixture of things that people will know.

Given the World Cup is looming, will Three Lions be on the setlist?

Yeah of course. We always tend to play it around football events so this will be no exception.

The reason we don’t always play it is when it’s out of context, it would be like playing a Christmas song in the summer, so it just feels more appropriate to play at some times than others, so we make that judgement and play it when it feels like the right time.

Did you ever expect it to become this soundtrack of British football?

No I didn’t expect it! It’s quite interesting as time goes on because so many of the lyrics have gone on to become phrases that are in everyday language.

I do remember when we first recorded it and I played it to people the first thing they used to say ‘what is three lions?’.

So I’d have to explain that they’re on the badge, but people weren’t really very aware of that whereas now the three lions has become a thing, which I never would have expected that really. And people even nick lyrics out of it for various events or elections.

The Lightning Seeds, Jockey Club Live, Aintree Racecourse, Friday, May 18. Details fromwww.thejockeyclublive.co.uk