THEIR rise to music stardom has been remarkable – but Royal Blood say they are barely ever recognised in their home county.

Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher, who grew up in Worthing and Rustington respectively, have scored two number one albums and toured around the world.

Ahead of a huge homecoming gig at Brighton Centre, singer and bassist Kerr told The Argus that the duo’s lives haven’t changed since they shot to fame.

He said: “My life is exactly the same when I go home now.

“Nobody knows who I am – I’m rarely recognised.

“I just get on with what I’m doing, like everyone else – it just so happens that I get to do what I love.”

The extreme touring schedule around the release of Royal Blood’s self-titled debut album resulted in Kerr and Thatcher being hospitalised twice due to exhaustion.

The website Songkick estimates that the duo travelled 236,380 miles in the course of promoting their first record.

Kerr said: “It’s been the wildest time of our lives. We went from doing three or four night tours in our previous bands to being one of the busiest bands around.

“Eventually that catches up with you and you learn your lessons. But I wouldn’t have done it any differently.”

The band wrote some of their second album How Did We Get So Dark? – released earlier this year – in their adopted home of Brighton before recording the majority of it in Los Angeles.

Kerr spoke fondly of Brighton and said he and Thatcher had enjoyed plenty of “memorable times” in the city in the band’s early stages.

Royal Blood formed after Kerr returned from travelling and started to write songs. Initially, however, he and Thatcher struggled to get gigs in Worthing.

They made the short trip to Brighton to hone their live set.

Kerr said: “We knew everyone there so there were some pretty special moments. I remember playing good gigs at The Haunt and The Royal Pavilion Tavern among others.

“Although we didn’t realise it at the time, those gigs were a good signal that we were doing something that was translating.”