Welsh band The Blackout, who were inspired by countrymen Lost Prophets, experienced some pretty dark times last year, says lead singer Gavin Butler.

The post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil started 2013 well, releasing their fourth album Start the Party in January and going on tour across the UK and Australia.

But then the party stopped.

“We were sitting around doing nothing,“ says Gavin.

“There were a number of reasons that couldn’t be helped. Two months had to be written off. Slov, our drummer, had a baby, well his girlfriend did, so he had a month off for that.

“I got married in July, so I had time off for my honeymoon, and then Reading and Leeds pulled in a clause restricting when bands could play before and after the festival.

“Then we were on tour in October and had to cancel some of it because I was ill. I’ve got this thing called hemiplegic migraine, which is like a migraine on steroids and causes me to lose vision. I have strong medication to block it now.“ Then came the news about Lost Prophets frontman Ian Watkins being jailed for 29 years for sexual offences against children. The Blackout toured with the now disbanded group in 2006 and have said they inspired them to get into music.

Gavin says he was “unbelievably shocked”. He adds: “It still hasn’t really sunk in. First thing I heard was he had been arrested and I thought it was for drugs. When I read the papers I was gobsmacked. He destroyed so many lives.

“The rest of the band are really up s**t creek with money as they don’t have jobs now and aren’t millionaires and have mortagages.“ He is hoping The Blackout, who formed in 2003 and have also toured with Limp Bizkit, can put the bad news behind them in 2014.

“The main thing we want to do is play as much as we can and get more support slots and be out in people’s minds more than we were last year and pick ourselves back up,“ he says.

They will be coming to Islington this week and he says: “London is always where we do our best shows on the tour. “There’s so many shows that go through London you would have thought crowds would be bored of seeing bands, but everywhere we play the crowds are 100 per cent engaged and go absolutely mental and that feeds us on stage.“

O2 Academy Islington, Parkfield Street, Islington, January 17 and 18. Details: 020 7288 4400, o2academyislington.co.uk