Yummys are back fur a reunion

'IT WOULD be crazy to think that the spotlight on the Yummy Fur isn't because of what we've all done after it," says Jackie McKeown of the little-known Glasgow band he fronted from 1992 until their split in 1999. "But I do find that a lot of people who discovered us long after we broke up have gone on to become as rabid fans as anyone we knew first time round. We're supporting the Gossip in Portland next month, for example, because Beth Ditto's a massive fan."

Indeed, this month's short-lived reformation of the Yummy Fur for one gig each in Glasgow and London, five US dates and a live session for Mark Riley's BBC radio show – "I want to do Mark's show because he used to be in the Fall and they were probably our biggest influence," says McKeown – is the kind of event which will get a select few very excited and leave many more wondering what the big deal is. Those in the latter category will probably be unaware that Yummy Fur drummer Paul Thomson and collaborator Alex Kapranos, then known as Alex Huntley, went on to found Franz Ferdinand, or that McKeown is the frontman of Rough Trade-signed glam-punk outfit 1990s.

More than that, however, the Yummy Fur were simply one of those groups who never made it at the time and who cry out for rediscovery. Merging energetic indie-pop with breakneck angular key changes and arch, self-referential lyrics, they sounded like little that had gone before, and helped to set the template for much of what would follow. This mini-tour boasts what McKeown calls the proper line-up of himself, Thomson and guitarist Brian McDougall, as well as their old label boss at Guided Missile, Paul Kearney, on bass. Guest appearances by other former members, including Kapranos, are not being ruled out.

"This reunion really wasn't planned," says McKeown. "It was actually Paul (Kearney] who suggested it. He was putting on a night in London to celebrate 15 years of Guided Missile and asked if the Yummy Fur would play a short set at it. We were kicking the idea about and we realised it would be almost ten years to the day since we split up, so we said yes. Then we realised, if we were playing London we might as well play Glasgow, and someone else said they would sort out the dates in the States for us. So it just seemed like a good excuse to meet up with old pals and have a laugh, really."

That's a mellowing from the old days, it seems, because McKeown describes his original approach to the band as deadly serious. "I mean, we were having fun and all, but it was a lifeline for me. It was my outlet for every single idea I had and also the only thing I really did. The same with the rest of the band, everybody was skint, on the dole and not doing much else, so the Yummy Fur was hugely important to us and I've got a great deal of fondness for it.

"But you change over the years, you know? When I write music now I do it very differently, although when I go back and listen to (Yummy Fur tracks] now I do spot the good songs and the clever ideas. We didn't think we were that special at the time, because Glasgow was awash with other good bands, like Lungleg, Trout, Alex's (Kapranos] group the Karelia, but it's easier now to appreciate that some of our songs sounded like no-one else's."

McKeown's recollections of Glasgow's indie scene in the Nineties are filtered through his own perspective as one of a crowd who used to hang about the old 13th Note in Glassford Street, watching each other's bands. "Ours was always the more… erm, how can I put it?… the more excitable of the scenes," he says. "Very social. Lots of drama. Everyone in our group of bands would be sleeping with each other, getting wasted together. We'd look at other scenes and think, 'God, it wouldnae be much fun to be hanging about with them'."

Asked to recommend the Yummy Fur work he's most proud of, he picks 1998 album Male Shadow at Three O'Clock, their third of four. A compilation will be released in the US to mark this tour. "I wouldn't say it's a greatest hits," he says, "as that would sound ridiculous coming from us. We didn't have any. It's just a chance for people to get all the best stuff in one place."

And after that it's back to regular duties with Franz Ferdinand and 1990s, with no immediate plans to be like Fire Engines and spin out the comeback a bit more.

"I don't think I'd know how to write a Yummy Fur record these days," says McKeown, "and I've forgotten half the lyrics to the old songs, so I'm relearning them by listening to them on my headphones all day. Hopefully, it'll all come together when we start to practise, though."

It is, I point out, nine days before the first show. "Yeah, well it won't be a Yummy Fur gig if it sounds like we know what we're doing."

The Yummy Fur play Nice 'N' Sleazy, in Glasgow, on 7 January.