WHEN you imagine a band on tour, a husband and wife duo with a toddler in tow is probably not what springs to mind.

But as underground garage-pop duo The Lovely Eggs pile in their tour van and hit the road, it is with their young son Arlo sitting at their side.

Holly Ross and David Blackwell are the married guitarist and drummer who hatched the band, and they could not be happier bringing their boy, and his tour babysitter Sally, along for the ride.

“We have taken him on tour since he was four months old,” says Holly. “We never play a gig when he is not there.”

She goes on: “We are not just touring venues, we are touring the soft play centres of the UK. We wake up every morning, slightly hungover, and then by 10am we are in the middle of a soft play centre surrounded by screaming children.”

Holly says she still has to “pinch herself” as she thinks: “How the hell are we doing this? It is just joyous.” 

The mum and dad musicians will bring Arlo along as they hit Patterns this weekend – returning to Brighton as the band celebrates their tenth anniversary this year.

Their story started after Lancastrian guitarist Holly left all-girl punk rock band Angelica in 2003, sitting away feeling disillusioned with the music industry as a whole. 

“I did not touch a guitar for two years,” she says. “I would not play music because I was so burnt by the industry – I thought that was what music was.”

The Lovely Eggs are built on an unapologetic, independent and deeply personal attitude which has carried them to a loyal and loving fanbase.

From their raw sound and their refusal to play “fake” encores, the couple do things their own way and make no bones about it.

“Angelica did not even get big, but it was just the fakeness of people was the real big thing which got me down,” says Holly. “They would be your friends one minute, really chummy with you, and then not even recognise you or say hello.

She goes on, “I understand you have to have thick skin to be in the music industry, but you still have to be a decent person.

“The whole world of the Lovely Eggs is being right and decent with people, and not being a t***.” 

But after spending a number of years in the wilderness and rediscovering her passion, Holly along with David came out fighting as they played their debut gig as the Lovely Eggs in a dive bar in New York.

Starting out in the Big Apple instead of down the local pub or in some backroom venue in their hometown was all part of the Lovely Eggs’ desire to break the mould, setting out as they wanted to go on – “making music and travelling”.

“Our ethos is to have no rules and not follow any patterns. We just want to wipe out any rules,” says Holly. “We asked ourselves: ‘Where do we want to play first? Bloody New York.’”

The mind-set is fed by the husband and wife supporting each other, existing as one unit with one team agenda as a couple.

While Holly jokes “cider and nightclubs brought us together”, she goes on the couple and the band are “for each other, we stand for each other, and we look out for one another”.

7.30pm, tickets £8.50.
Call 01273 894777