Long Read // “You’ve been offered the alternative, but the alternative’s even worse”: SOAPBOX talk politics, punk, and their latest EP ‘LOCK IN’

We caught up with SOAPBOX frontman Tom Rowan at The Great Escape 2025, covering everything from the band’s Glaswegian roots and international touring plans, to an increasingly right-wing Labour Party and the inclusive origins of the Skinhead.

When we first lay eyes on him, SOAPBOX frontman Tom Rowan is quite literally swinging from the ceiling. Clad in a classic white vest and clinging precariously to a lightbulb, he’s in a kind of punkish flow state, having surrendered himself to the primal vitality the performance demands. “You just need to go as hard as you can, as often as you can, and just give them the best show that your body’s willing to give”, he tells us later as we sit at a table just outside end-of-pier bar Horatios, overlooking the sea…