MANY artists dream of performing at Wembley Arena.

But Frank Turner had mixed feelings about stepping on to that iconic stage in front of 12,500 people.

The 32-year-old grew up with the punk rock do-it-yourself ethos which is about making fans at a grassroots level.

His previous band, Million Dead, used to perform to crowds of around 300 so performing at Wembley and, indeed, the Olympics Opening Ceremony felt alien.

Frank told Weekend: “It’s kind of weird as the biggest shows that I went to when I was growing up were at the Astoria which is a 2,000 capacity venue. That was kind of the ceiling for me.

“I didn’t go to arena shows or anything like that so to go past that point is cool and makes me laugh actually.

“But it also means I can take it all with a pinch of salt as well. I don’t want to be ungrateful or blasé about the things that I have in life but it means I can be a bit more light-hearted about things which I think is important.”

Frank may no longer be the ‘underdog’ but he has proved he still has the attitude with plans to tour venues around a 10th of the size he normally would.

The idea is to connect with fans who normally have to travel out of town to see him. That includes a Parr Hall gig on Friday, September 26.

Frank, a vegetarian and teetotaler, added: “I grew up in a town that’s not on the main touring schedule. I always had to drive to get to gigs and on the rare occasion that a band would come to Winchester it meant the world.

“The response from people in a lot of the towns we’re going to be playing in has been touching really.

“Somebody e-mailed me and just went ‘I’m just double checking that you are playing in Warrington and it’s not a hoax and I haven’t just lost my mind’.

“We’re going to be playing a lot of new material because we’re going to be in the studio in October and I want to road test the songs before we get them into the studio environment.”

Frank fronted London post-hardcore band Million Dead in 2001 and recorded two albums.

But listening to a tape of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska convinced him to change his musical style.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” said Frank.

“In my head he was that guy with the white T-shirt and blue jeans who was ‘born in the USA’.

“I wasn’t aware of him doing anything else and then a friend of mine gave me a copy of Nebraska and it kind of blew my mind.

“It made me realise that acoustic music can be really heavy. That was a new idea for me because I grew up listening to punk, hardcore and metal.”

But Frank’s transformation into an arena headline act was not the overnight success story it is sometimes perceived to be.

There were about 800 fans at Frank’s last Million Dead gig while just three people turned up for his first solo show.

He recorded three albums before England Keep My Bones captured mainstream attention and then massive success followed last year with Tape Deck Heart which peaked at number two in the UK album charts.

It was recorded in LA with producer Rich Costey because of his connection to one of Frank’s favourite albums – Weezer’s Pinkerton.

Frank was suddenly all over the radio and he still remembers how he felt the first time he heard one of his hits in a supermarket.

It was an odd sensation given that Tape Deck Heart is a deeply personal album about a break-up.

He added: “I got terribly flustered and wondered if anybody was looking at me and then of course realised that no one cared.

“But it’s cool. The live thing with people singing your songs back to you is a much more important barometer for me.

“With the benefit of hindsight, Tape Deck Heart is a really dark, personal and quite intense record. I needed to get that out of my system.

“It has been liberating to start writing again because that period of darkness is behind me and the new songs are quite upbeat.

“I reckon it’s a record about survival and defiance. It’s quite punk. I’ve been listening to a lot of Rancid recently and I wanted to make something that was quite energetic and full-on.”

Frank first started making music in a high school band called Kneejerk, inspired by Iron Maiden’s album, Killers.

And the singer-songwriter recently went full circle when he won Celebrity Mastermind with the heavy metal band as his specialist subject.

“It was great,” Frank added.

“I was a nerdy kid and being on Mastermind was one of my ambitions in life. Obviously the important part of it was that we raised money for charity but I was proud that I won. I had three weeks reading up and listening to nothing but Iron Maiden – and a good time it was too.”

So with Wembley Arena never on Frank’s checklist, what has been the highlight of the folk punk singer’s career?

“My highlight is that I do what I do for a living,” he said.

“I’m a full time touring professional musician and when I was a kid I told my friends that was what I was going to do and most of them laughed at me and told me I was nuts and delusional.

“But I’ve done it and I’m proud of that fact. I wake up in the morning and I think to myself that I play guitar, I write songs and I sing and it makes me happy.”

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls are at Parr Hall on September 26.

DAVID MORGAN