The Vaccines infect Hogmanay

REWIND to the start of the year and just about every music magazine was tipping The Vaccines to be one of the breakthrough acts of 2011 – and that’s pretty much how it played out.

By the time debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? was released in March, the hype surrounding the London four-piece was huge. Not that they let themselves get caught up in it.

“We always had the attitude of just ‘shut up and play’,” says guitarist Freddie Cowan, whose band first played in the Capital during August as part of the Edge Festival. “We never really thought about that stuff, never paid any attention to it.

“People were talking about us being this next thing and we were in the back of a car and playing s*** venues, so it was like it was happening in something we weren’t really in,” he adds.

The Vaccines, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party, Waverley Stage, stage live from 9pm to 1am, £15, 0844 894 2011