The Courteeners: The band that's massive in Manchester
- Published
"The biggest misconception is that we make any money when we play Manchester. It's 95% guest list," Liam Fray jokes.
The Courteeners frontman has been speaking to Newsbeat in the middle of their record-breaking tour.
In the past six months they've played to 50,000 fans in Manchester, including seven nights at the Apollo and 25,000 at Heaton Park.
He says the band feel "more duty bound to deliver" when they play their hometown.
"There's a rapport there that we've always had in Manchester. We're all from here and we've all worked here."
The Courteeners have been going for nine years and have released four albums, all of which have charted top 10.
Liam tweeted his gratitude to Manchester for all the support over the past year., external
Despite that they haven't mirrored their connection with Manchester in other towns and cities but Liam doesn't think that's a problem.
"It's not a numbers game to us," Liam says.
They did also sell out two nights in Glasgow and two in London, although one was cancelled on the night due to safety concerns.
"We can play album tracks from our second album [in Manchester] and the crowd are still bouncing.
"We're privileged to be in that position in some respect so it may have worked out in our favour to a certain degree."
For years they toured small venues around the north west but would often not have the full attention of the room.
Newsbeat spoke to Liam at the Night and Day Cafe, a bar which The Courteeners rehearsed in for seven years.
"I remember the first time there wasn't any backs of heads and people were just watching us," he reminds himself.
"That was a strange feeling thinking people are actually switched onto this. That's when the shirts started getting ironed."
Now people at their sold-out gigs have their backs to the stage but for a different reason.
"You see groups of people with their friends with their backs to us because they're looking at their mates and singing our songs.
"That's so cool. I love that."
Liam instagrammed a picture of the crowd at their Heaton Park gig., external
Liam started to feel "a shift" in the air after their Heaton Park gig in June.
"People had written us off about five years ago but since Heaton there's been some quite positive things written about us."
And it's a "welcome surprise" that their latest single, Winter Wonderland, has begun to get national airplay with people talking about it more than usual.
"We got told very early on that if we didn't get [national airplay] we wouldn't last very long.
"It became us against the world and our fans felt the same way so the 'us' became bigger.
"To get there without necessarily having huge backing makes us feel good about what we're doing.
"It means we are doing something right."
Watch the music video for Winter Wonderland - the Christmas song from The Courteeners., external
The Courteeners are working with Shelter with all money raised from Winter Wonderland sales donated to the homelessness charity.
"You see people walking past [homeless people] all the time and you forget they're people.
"I hate this thing modern society has where people say 'I bet they're a drug addict'.
"They might be but they've still got no home and they're still freezing cold."
Liam's made it a requirement for everyone on the guest list at a Courteeners gig to pay a donation to the charity.
"Shelter know what they're doing with the money so we're just trying to raise whatever we can," he says.
"When you're younger you're running around like a headless chicken thinking it's great being in a band but when you get older other things start creeping in."
And after the tour there's no rest for the band.
They have half their fifth album done and Liam's hoping it'll be out next year, "if we don't mess about," he laughs.
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