THE sound of pure rock will fill Chinnery’s in February when the Crave pay the Southend venue a visit.

The Brighton band have played with the likes of Deep Purple and the Foo Fighters, and most recently supported Brit legends Status Quo, but this time they’re headlining their own tour.

Their last visit to the town saw them play the Cliffs Pavilion as they warmed up the crowd for Status Quo last November.

“It was really good fun,” says singer and guitarist Ryan Burnett. “They’re not the usual band we’d go out with, but it was actually amazing. We did 22 shows with them and got to play to about 40,000 people over a month.

“Their audiences are still the album buying public, so we shifted lots of albums. It was the best tour we’ve ever done in terms of that.”

Despite enjoying their last Southend appearance, Ryan says the band are glad to be back in their own right, and playing to their own fans.

He explains: “Last time we went out on our own headline tour was December 2009, so we’re really excited to go out again and, hopefully, see an increase in numbers.

“As a support band you get about seven songs, but now we get to play for a whole hour, so we’re really excited.”

As well as the tour, the Crave will also see their album, Breaking the Silence, currently only available at gigs, get its full release on February 7.

It was originally due to be out last April, but the perfectionist band decided it wasn’t ready.

“We ended up getting it completely remixed,” says Ryan. “It’s nearly a year late but it had to be perfect.”

Ryan describes the album as a mix of more melodic numbers and hard hitting rock. He reveals he and the rest of the band developed their classic sound as they grew up listening to their dads’ music collections.

“We grew up listening to the likes of Queen and Led Zep,” he says. “We get compared to the Foo Fighters and Jimmy Eat World, a lot of modern American rock.”

The Crave played alongside some true gods of rock when they supported original hard rockers Deep Purple.

Says Ryan. “We played two sold-out nights at the Hammersmith Apollo, which was pretty incredible.”

The Crave have existed in various formats for eight years, but the current line-up, Ryan on vocals and guitar with Carlos Garcia on guitar, Tom Swann on bass and CJ Evans on drums, has seen the band’s profile really take off.

There’s lots to look forward to this year – they’ll be shooting a video soon to coincide with their next single release and they plan to go international in March, with dates in LA, Croatia and Austria on the cards.

l The Crave play at Chinnerys in Marine Parade, on February 15 at 8pm. Tickets are £7. Call 01702 467305 or view www.chinnerys.co.uk