You Me At Six have reflected on the time that they were able to get The X Factor final moved from Wembley Arena.
The Surrey band are set to take over the legendary London arena for two nights next month as part of their ‘Final Nights Of Six’ farewell tour. Speaking to Kerrang! for the publication’s new print issue, frontman Josh Franceschi reflected on the first time the band played that venue in 2012.
“I think we’ve always surpassed expectation, but sometimes it’s not that we’ve been the ‘best band in class’, but we’ve always been the most willing to dream big and work really hard towards it,” Franceschi told the outlet. “When it came to booking Wembley, our promoter at the time was very, very, very sure that we were absolutely wasting our time by even thinking about it. Our management wasn’t so deterred and said, ‘Book it if you want to play it.’”
He continued: “We ended up having to challenge ITV and The X Factor, because they always had their finals at Wembley Arena. It was the first time in that show’s history where they’d moved from London to Manchester, and it was because of us!
“Bands always dream of saying, ‘Hello, Wembley!’ and we just felt that we made a real jump from being a band that is known and appreciated to being part of a really special club. It was a proper victory.”
You Me At Six have previously claimed that contestants of The X Factor were not allowed to perform their songs as producers didn’t consider the band to be high-profile enough. “Me and our drummer Dan Flint were out with James [Arthur – 2012 X Factor winner] and some other X Factor singers one night. A few of them are You Me At Six fans too,” Franceschi told the Daily Star back in 2014.
He continued: “They’d really wanted to do one of our songs. However, the producers won’t allow rock songs to be performed unless it’s by famous bands like AC/DC.”
Elsewhere, Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes recently joined You Me At Six on stage in Sheffield for a version of their collaboration ‘Bite My Tongue’.
In early 2024, You Me At Six announced they would be splitting after this farewell tour, and they later shared their plans to hold “wakes” ahead of the final shows where fans “can come and celebrate and say goodbye” to the band. The final dates include a show at London’s Brixton Academy on April 2 before a final blowoff on April 4 at Wembley Arena.
NME previously spoke to the band about the split, with frontman Josh Franceschi explaining that the two-decade milestone had “always been our finish line” for the band.
“This is like our childhood crush, that we’ve been together with for 20 years and grown up alongside,” he continued. “But it is so much bigger than us five. It’s completely out of our hands what this band means to others. Let’s have the opportunity to say goodbye properly, versus slipping out the back door.”
As for what to expect from the farewell shows, Franceschi told NME: “We’ve worked out that our final gig is going to be 20 years to the day since our first ever band practice, which is wild. It wasn’t even deliberate.
“The UK tour is gonna be pretty mad. It’s a couple of months until we announce those dates. We’re looking at going to America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.”