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Due to popular demand, tonight’s show has been upgraded from the original venue of Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall. The show will now appear at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall - a venue that, just last week, was host to the legendary Nine Inch Nails, a band that were formed before the frontwoman of tonight’s headlining act was even born. Welcome to the simply unbelievable success story that is also known as Paramore.

It’s been three months since Paramore’s second album ’Riot!’ hit the shelves and in such a short period of time, they have managed to sell well over two hundred thousand copies, as well as perform at this year’s Carling Reading and Leeds festivals. Now, they’re back in the UK to play their sold out six-date tour. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that there’s something exceedingly special about this band, and that they’re guaranteed to do something huge very, very soon. However, the utterly unreal fact about Paramore is that their average age is actually only eighteen years old. Mind-boggling, right?

When we get to sit down with Paramore a few hours before they take to the stage at the 3,500 capacity venue, they’re bright-eyed and wearing comforting smiles. Whilst most teenagers in the same position would probably hold some air of arrogance, Paramore’s vocalist Hayley Williams and guitarist Josh Farro bear none at all. We begin with talk of Reading and Leeds, which last year, the band were unable to appear at after Hayley became ill and lost her voice towards the end of Warped tour. However, this year they were back with vengeance and blew crowds away as openers for the main stage.

OS: How was Reading and Leeds, especially seeing as it was your first time there?
Josh Farro [guitarist]: It was awesome! There were tons of kids. It was really cool. And I had fun!
Hayley Williams [vocals]: Yeah, at first it was kinda weird, because the gap between the stage and the crowd was so big. It really seemed like, probably fifty feet. But, I think, the crowd and us together, I think we did a good job of making it feel a lot more intimate, which was cool.

OS: Yet this year, in true dramatic style, there was some worry of the band not making it to the stage in time. What happened?
Hayley: [turning to Josh] Was it Chicago? They were having bad weather storms and literally all of the flights got cancelled and that’s where we were meant to fly to before we flew to New York to fly here. Everything just got screwed up!
Josh: Well, we were supposed to fly from Chicago to fly here.
Hayley: Ohh, okay!
Josh: But they had to re-route our flight to New York to get here. And New York’s always jam-packed…

OS: It must’ve been so much extra stress just added on to the fact you were about to play to 80,000 people.
Hayley: Definitely, but worth it.

OS: This summer, before your trip to the UK, the band headlined America’s Warped Tour 2007. How was it in comparison with the Carling Weekend Festivals?
Hayley: Completely different. I mean, Warped is a lot more spread out and I think there’s a lot more, sort of, local bands and younger bands because there’s more dates. But, at Reading there’s tons of legendary bands playing all in one day and everyone has to come to it or they’d miss it.

OS: So, how was Warped in general for you?
Hayley: [smiling] It’s our favourite tour. It’s so much fun.

OS: How did your new album ‘Riot!’ go down on Warped?
Hayley: Dude… I honestly didn’t know what to expect with the record coming out and going right to Warped tour. But, I don’t think it could’ve gone any better.

OS: So, how the actual writing and recording process of ‘Riot!’?
Josh: It was cool. I mean, it was long. We were all in the studio for about three months and then we were writing three months prior to that; just, at home writing. We had been writing, like, we had a few songs that we finished up in those few months, then we still wrote a little bit in the studio. But, it was cool. We had a lot of fun with David Bendeth and all the guys at the studio were great. We had the best time. Every day was fun; we would have cook-outs every night.

OS: And had a lot cheesecake?
Hayley: Ohhhh yeah.
Josh: There was a lot of cheesecake factory.
Hayley: We ate soo much. It was amazing.
Josh: But otherwise, I think we got to accomplish what we wanted.

OS: How was it to look at the finished outcome of the record?
Josh: It was cool. I mean…. I don’t know…
Hayley: Yeah, because you work … it’s kinda hard because there’s not a definitive moment when you’ve finished. It seems like there can’t be because you spend, you know, basically six months - we spent six months - working on this record and all of a sudden it’s over and we had finished. So, even after we’d put all the finishing touches on it and were on our way home, we still felt like we gonna wake up the next morning and do something else; add to it. But listening back to it and actually getting the finished product with all the artwork and everything, was a really big moment for us. It was just so special to us. I still love when kids come to the shows and bring the CD for us to sign, I still love just looking at it and thinking "man, this is our CD".

In the aftermath of 'Riot!'s release, Paramore - despite the album being hugely popular with old and new fans alike - were subjected to some, well, let’s say… critical press. With a front cover article printed in a well-known rock music publication this summer, came a lot of controversy. The band themselves felt that the interview included false information and demeaning material and they did address this issue on their livejournal page. But still, the fans stood beside them and wrote letters of complaint, replies to the post and all manner of methods to support the band‘s cause.

OS: How is it looking back on what was said, knowing that, despite that article, you’ve gained so much support, and that you didn’t react to it in the aggressive manner in which you could’ve?
Hayley: I mean, we did address it a few times, but we’ve always addressed it in a sarcastic, humorous type of way because that’s kinda how we deal with that stuff. There’s no reason for us to go off and get pissed - of course, it certainly did piss us off.
OS: But, it must be good to have made such an impact despite that, showing that people must tend not to listen to that sort of thing?
Hayley: Yeah, our fans were there for us. They sent us letters and posted things online in support of us. It really brought us closer to the fan base too. Really, magazines are gonna say what they want and someone has to be the one to take it.

Yet, with the success that ‘Riot!’ has brought the band, some could say that a hint of elitism is creeping into the fan base. Whilst it’s almost become tradition in the rock scene for older fans to react badly when their favourite bands gain a larger amount of success, it’s saddening to see this tradition continue with Paramore’s fans. Obviously, everyone has occasions in which they wish for the band they first saw live to come back, for the venue to be smaller, or for their favourite song from that first album to be played again, but how do Paramore feel about the increasing amount of posts in their livejournal community stating that some fans miss ‘the olds days‘?
Josh: [who hesitantly, but honestly approaches the question] It is difficult [to read/ watch] but I feel that the old fans can be a bit selfish. Say, a new fan wanted to be the way that an old fan is and they just need to start off. Know what I’m saying? What if they’re just as dedicated to us? But, I feel like some fans don’t give them the time of day and are like "oh, all they care about is… oh, they only know one song!". I mean, there are some fans out there who only know our single but that’s just what happens when bands grow, you know?
Hayley: Yeah.
Josh: It’s difficult though.
Hayley: I mean, we’ve been so close, with all our heart, with the older core fans for so long and we really wouldn’t be here without them. So, we’re trying to figure out ways, all the time, to stay connected with them but keep growing and I think that people are starting to understand that that is really what we want. We do want to become a successful band and do what we do and be able to share it with as many people as possible, so I think as time goes on, everyone will kind of get it more. And then we’ll work together and love each other [laughs].

OS: So are you all for the idea of more mainstream radio?
Hayley: I think, when the time is right, for sure. Things have been happening really fast, just really quickly, in a natural way with this record. ‘Misery Business’ was picked up naturally by MTV and naturally by a couple of pop stations and that’s with us. We’re not knocking down their doors, begging them to play our music.
OS: They’re just recognising you as talented musicians.
Josh: What we really want the kids to realise is, even though we’re on mainstream radio - which we kinda are in the US, we just want them to realise that we have a vision for the band and it’s what we’re doing right now. We’re never gonna change as people, we’re never gonna let fame get to us. And, we’re also not gonna ‘sell out’ [yes, he even did the air quotes] It’s not gonna be like that. Our band is gonna be who we are and if we get radio play or TV play, we’re gonna take it, unless it’s like… totally dumb. We just have to use our best judgement. But, we’re not ever gonna be one of those bands that has people write songs for them, or basically the label runs the band, because that’s not who we are. We’ve been what we wanted to be since the beginning.

OS: So, with ‘Riot!’, do you feel as though you’ve gotten closer to that vision idea, with the introduction of outfits and artwork etc? And do you enjoy that side of things?
Hayley: Yeah, we really do enjoy that side of it and it’s so much fun because with music you have so many more opportunities, rather than just music. That doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy the music solely, because without all this other stuff we’d still be playing our songs. But, there’s so many opportunities that we’ve had a great time with - I mentioned MTV earlier. They had us come in and do little stints in commercials for their new scheduling but a year ago, we probably would’ve thought "maybe we won’t do MTV, because it’s just not… it’s kinda cheesey" or whatever. But it really felt natural and we got to like, just put ourselves and our personalities out there and show people the faces that are making the music. It was a fun time. And with that comes the way you dress, the way your artwork looks, what’s behind you, like our backdrop tonight and it’s all really fun and creative and it’s what we enjoy.

OS: Can we ask about ‘Born For This’ [the final album track] and how exactly the Refused line [Paramore used the line ‘We want the airwaves back’ which was originally featured in the song ‘Liberation Frequency’ from ‘The Shape Of Punk To Come’] came into it?
Hayley: Oh gosh, Refused are so good. It was, kind of, really natural. We wanted to write a song about the fans and I had been listening to ’Liberation Frequency’ all day, like, on repeat, all day. And I think that the whole pre-chorus is actually inspired by that one line of the song. So, a lot of people - especially Refused fans - are probably thinking "they’re just trying to reach out for some credibility", but we really just love Refused. We wanted somehow to acknowledge that.

OS: You’re releasing ‘Hallelujah’ as your next single, so what made you decide upon that song?
Josh: I dunno. Why did we release that? I dunno, besides the reason that we all like that song a lot, I guess we just figured that… The UK’s a lot different from the US - the US, they go on singles for like, months at a time. But here, the cycle’s so short so we were thinking what song could we do. And ‘Hallelujah’s an older song and the video we did, we put some old footage in there.
Hayley: I think that what’s cool about that is we had such a long time to grow as a band in the US, and develop over there, but the UK thing’s happened so fast. So, it’s really cool to put out old footage and to show people where we were and where we are now, all in one video and one song.

OS: Have you got an idea for the next single?
Josh: We’re thinking about it. We’re gonna try and let the fans decide and you know, we have a couple of options at this stage. A lot of fans like ‘crushcrushcrush’ and ‘That’s What You Get’ - ‘That’s What You Get’s one of my favourites.

OS: Finally, how does it feel to be so young yet be considered the heroes of people who are, in fact, your own age?
Hayley: … Kinda surreal. It’s a big responsibility, you know? I think, we try to look at it as, not so much us, it’s more the music that they can, sort of, [pauses] find comfort in, maybe? I know for a fact that we as people aren’t capable of caring… I just don’t think that we could ever be held responsible for caring for so many people because it is such a big responsibility to be like, their saviour or hero. So, if we can let our music speak for that and hopefully people will just enjoy it. That‘s the best thing.

Paramore’s second single from ‘Riot!’ is out now and rumour has it, they may be returning to the UK shores in the new year.