Inverness band Chancers return to playing live on Friday at Hootanannys as they follow up last week's single release Three Of Swords

The latest incarnation of an Inverness band – which had only just got started before Covid – is fulfilling some long-term plans on the cards from the start.

Chancers – which began as former Oxides frontman Jake Bolt and singer Lauren Mackenzie – are now five.

Their latest single and video Three of Swords has now been released.

The band were also performing live in the Highland capital as one of the acts playing the Ukraine fundraising gig at Hootanannys on April 29.

The full line-up of Chancers had a familiar look, with former Oxides’ guitarist Mikey Duncan and bassist Archie Stewart, but young newcomer Callum Ford joins them on drums.

“It’s three-fifths of The Oxides,” smiles Lauren.

Jake added: “I think we were a two-piece getting Mikey in when we talked about the band before Covid.

“We were playing as a three-piece for a while with Mikey on guitar.

“Then we got Archie to join us – and Callum we seemed to find really easily,” Jake marvelled.

“It’s hard to find a good drummer – impossible, usually.

“We had advertised, but Callum just came to us.”

Jake laughed “He will bring our average age down – he had just turned 19 when he joined the band!”

But the five have an education in common, all having spent time on the same music courses.

Lauren explained: “Callum and me studied music on the same course in Glasgow, but at different times and with different lecturers.

“Then Jake and Mikey did the same course at North Highland, and now Callum and Archie are doing a degree in music at UHI, Archie’s just about finished and Callum’s in his last year.”

But it seemed that the challenges of Covid and lockdown saw work on the Chancers as a band forced to a halt.

Having released single Still Here With You in 2019, the band as just Lauren, Jake and Mikey on guitar had made a public debut at the Market Bar that had showed huge promise at a gig with Thomas Newell and Jamie Douglas’s very different The Dihydro, where the single had been one of the stars of Chancers’ set, along with Beatles’ cover I’m Only Sleeping.

Jake makes the lockdowns sound like an enforced hibernation for the band’s planned expansion.

“We didn’t really do anything,” he admits.

“It was hard to get time off.”

And Lauren adds: “It was hard to get motivated.

“We couldn’t practise together, though we did do a couple of acoustic sessions, livestream things, but we weren’t productive enough.”

Jake said: “This song Three of Swords has been ready to go for about two years, but I just felt it was such a waste.

“So we just sat on it before getting our act together and are finally getting the ball rolling.”

Last September they played at Bogbain at a gig Fraser McLean organised which they gleefully announced at the time as their “first gig back in the real world”. And last November they played at Mad Hatters in a night with Polar Bears In Purgatory.

Earlier in April they played a live session on Rapal recorded recently.

Listening to their latest single which comes with a video filmed by Jake’s sister Megan McMillan, it’s a poppy winner with lyrics that put it in the Jolene category of songs talking to a love rival.

“I heard you’d do anything to come between us… heard you’d do anything to be me,” Lauren sings with a heartfelt ache in her voice.

The song is based on a real-life tarot card reading.

“It was written after a reading I had when a toxic relationship broke up,” Lauren confirmed.

“The first card the person doing the reading turned over was the three of swords and she said ‘That makes sense, it’s emotional upheaval and betrayal’.”

“There’s actually a ridiculous tarot bit in the video,” Jake laughed.

“It’s so cheesy!“ Lauren admitted.

We start to talk about songs with cards – The Gambler, Ace of Spades...

“We digress!” said Jake.

As live music really returns, the two reveal hopes to play Belladrum and to record the debut album.

Jake said: “There have been a lot of false starts, but we are going to record in the summer at a proper studio.”

Lauren says. “It’s so good to get cracking!”

Three of Swords is available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music and other digital retailers. Catch the video on YouTube. Facebook: @chancersmusic Instragram: _chancers