BOLTON band Jordan Allen are one of the headliners on this year’s Isle of Wight Festival’s new music stage.

No strangers to Southampton, the rising indie stars have played here four times in the past two years, including a headline show at The Joiners in December and supporting The Sherlocks at The Talking Heads.

Now the band, who beat hundreds of other unsigned acts to win Virgin Radio’s Fresh Fest competition last summer, are top of the bill on the This Feeling stage on the festival’s Friday night.

This month the band released their latest single, Synchronised, which frontman Jordan says has the potential to take the band to the next level.

It’s not bad for a song that’s only a few months old, but Jordan, lead guitarist Danny Quin, bassist Kieran Loughran and drummer Nathan Howard say they knew they had something special from the start.

“Synchronised is bigger and more anthemic than anything we’ve done before,” explained Jordan.

“It’s a personal one for me too, being about trying to bring all the different parts of my life together.

“I wrote it when I was finishing my degree in Leeds, still working with the band, but finding it tough to write music away from my usual routine and with other distractions.

“When I'm not able to write, I get quite down, but eventually, while walking to university one day, it all came together, and I recorded the fundamentals of the song on my phone.”

The lads raced back to the studio and their Manchester producer David Radahd-Jones to lay down the track, together with two other new songs, Without Any Clothes and Half Life Lover.

While the band are determined to keep what has made earlier favourites like Helter Skelter and R.O.S.I.E. so special, they are inevitably gaining new influences.

“People are finding it harder to label us now; we’re getting compared to everyone from Courteeners to The Killers,” said Jordan, who understands how difficult it is for new acts to break through.

“We know we have to keep moving and grafting. It’s hard work; there are many great bands out there who have everything, but still struggle to make it.”

Their 2017 EP, Livin’ La Vida Bolton, featured the outstanding bittersweet but optimistic single 110 Ways to Make Things Better, a tribute to Jordan’s father and greatest supporter Kevin, who passed away at the end of 2016 after a brain tumour related terminal illness.

Joining Jordan Allen on the This Feeling stage are their good pals The Jade Assembly, also from Bolton, and Alloa band Vida, who they’ve previously played with in Scotland. There is also Himalayas, Hey Charlie, The Surrenders, Calva Louise and Yves.

“Moving to the top of the bill on that stage shows how far we’ve come in a year,” said Jordan.

“I remember watching Welsh band Trampolene close the night after we’d played there last year and I couldn’t imagine then that it would be us this time.

“But we’re ready now, being headliners feels natural to us.”

Jordan Allen headline the This Feeling Pirate Studios stage at Isle of Wight Festival on Friday June 22. Their new single Synchronised is out now.

Richard Derbyshire