Hard to believe, but it is now two years since Newport’s finest, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, last graced stages across the country.

Now the eight-piece, and associated hangers-on, are back with a new album Asbo4Life, which is set to be released on their own label later this month.

“We’ve been waiting a while before we put anything out,” says founding band member Eggsy from snowbound Newport.

“We’re looking forward to doing some of the tunes live. I’m very excited. I want to take off all my clothes and run round the beach!”

The shellsuit-clad band were a true phenomenon when they came to public attention in 2004 with the top three single Guns Don’t Kill People Rappers Do, and its attendant album Greatest Hits, which collected favourite tracks from six self- produced albums.

“In the past, we sampled so much stuff we would have to pay out a lot of money to release them officially,” says Eggsy. “The nice thing about those albums though is that all of them are still floating in cyberspace, they’re there for the taking.

“They started as CDs for our mates, but it spread like AIDS, only more fun and not as dangerous.”

The 2005 follow-up, Safe As F***, didn’t quite scale as high up the charts, and saw the band get dropped from Atlantic Records, despite band member Maggot appearing on Celebrity Big Brother.

But the boys haven’t been keeping quiet in that time.

Among other things, Eggsy and Dwain Xain Zedong had their own show on London-based independent radio station XFM and Eggsy got to the final rounds of The Weakest Link where he went head-to-head with Fish from Marillion.

“Mike Balls nearly died in hospital after he had an operation,” says Eggsy. “Some of the boys got married and life has been going on basically. We have always been recording and trying to get everything into position to get it out there.”

The biggest decision was to go it alone, without major label support. The band did a trial run, releasing a limited edition album, Under The Counter, last year.

“It was all part of the process,” says Eggsy. “We figured out how to get stuff pressed and distributed. We found people to do promotion for us. It’s a funny old game but that’s the way it goes now. We’re still learning, it’s like going to school but with more drugs.”

With the economic downturn things have changed for the chav-loving band, but Eggsy is convinced that his shellsuit- wearing brethren will survive, despite his dire predictions for the future.

“Everything is going to go crazy,” he says. “It’s going to end up like Mad Max.

“At the moment you’ve got kids on street corners wearing leisurewear who can either go to prison or get a job. If you can’t get a job, what alternative is there? The world is going to break off into cyberpunk gangs, on scooters and XR3is, fighting each other for petrol.”

For the GLC, though, hopes for the future are high, with ongoing dreams of making a movie, or at the very least a TV show.

“I had this idea of a Starblaster Academy for spacemen training, which we get thrown out of for smoking,” says Eggsy. “Then this evil dude comes along and steals my girlfriend.

“Or Nasty Carpark, about a carpark the size of America with homeless guys trying to kill people. You’ve got to have rubber monsters in it. It’s not a movie if it doesn’t have one.

“We are all up for doing a TV series, it’s just finding somebody with money to finance it.”

For now the band is looking forward to getting back on the road, and playing the festivals.

“With GLC, as long as we’re enjoying it, it works,” says Eggsy.

“You can’t take it seriously. Everybody is miserable at the moment, at least if you come to the gig you can have a good time.”

  • Doors 8pm, tickets £10. Call 01273 673311.