The band, who formed in 2000, have been on the festival trail throughout the summer, with sets at T in the Park and Glastonbury, and now they are preparing to make their debut in Lisburn at Music Revolution '08 in the Island Arts Centre next Thursday (August 7).

Futureheads frontman Barry Hyde said the group would "play their hearts out", for the Lisburn fans when they arrive in the city next week.

"We're very excited," he said, "we've never been there before so it's always an adventure to go somewhere new. We haven't done as many gigs in Ireland as we would have liked so it's always good to get over there."

Speaking about the group's decision to go it alone and form their own label, Barry enthused, "Its been an amazing experience, it has been more important to us than any individual event in the band. It has been such a liberating thing and has made this album what it is."

Despite the bold move, The Futureheads are still going strong, appearing at every major festival in the UK and Ireland this year, as well as shows across Europe and an upcoming tour of the US to keep them busy.

"That's what you want though," Barry stated, "you want to be busy and you want to feel that people are interested in what you are doing.

"Going out on our own label has created a lot of interest and I think we have delivered a great album to back that up.

"We're set up now to just tour and make records, we're not waiting for money from the big label. After we left Warner Brothers we were offered several deals and rather than just going and signing one we thought 'we are just going to take our time over this', it was then suggested we could do it ourselves, the management were like 'now is the time to do it, you've had hits, you can get festival gigs, you don't need the money of a major label behind you.' It's just a smart thing to do, it is far more gratifying."

He added, "We have had so much positive feedback, the album has been a hit in Australia, we're going to the US for our tenth American tour, we played the Fuji Rock festival in Japan, we managed to get ourselves out of a tricky situation by having the courage to go for it."

Local fans can expect a great night when the band headline Thursday's show during the sixth annual Music Revolution festival. With a set full of all the hits, as well as new tracks from the latest album, it is sure to be a show to remember.

"It will be a mixture of old and new tracks," said Barry. "Songs from the first album work really well live so there will be some of them, the second album was mainly meant to be listened to on headphones so there will only be a couple from it and then tracks from the third album are more immediate and energetic and work really well live, so there will be loads from it. It'll be great fun, I absolutely can't wait."

On the night The Futureheads will be supported by the Music Quest '08 winner, and Barry believes the victor will be getting the perfect start in the music business.

"Getting support gigs are an important part of starting out. We still do support gigs," he said, "they may be bigger, we supported The Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium and played at the Royal Albert Hall, but those gigs get you noticed.

"We have been together since the year 2000 and from our first gig we knew this was what we wanted to do. The passion and ambition we have was slightly damaged by the music business, but we have reinvented ourselves in a way, by going out on our own."

Meanwhile, Barry is promising local fans a great night at Thursday's show, "We can't wait to come over and play, we're gonna play our hearts out and hope they walk away from the gig with a smile on their face and that its been worth the wait, because they've been waiting a long time to see us."

stacey.heaney@jpress.co.uk