IT was a question no one else had, apparently, the bottle to ask: are we seeing the last knockings of Bowling for Soup?

For the pessimistic, reading the runes is not reassuring – 17 years together, a split with their record label, the last but one album didn’t shift as hoped, side projects, promoting other bands, the bassist living in another state, half the band doing acoustic tours, hints fans will see less of them and a tour that is going to be greatest hits only.

So, ahead of BfS returning to Oxford’s O2 Academy on Saturday, the question has to be posed to lead singer Jaret Reddick: “Is it all nearing an end?”

It’s not one to pose with any pleasure.

Many may look down their noses at Bowling for Soup for what is seen as juvenile, comedy pop punk but this band has done the hard yards and has a solid core of fans in the UK.

“Actually, I’m glad you’ve asked that question,” Reddick says from his home in Dallas. “No one has asked it like that before.

“Bowling for Soup is definitely not coming to an end.

“(The last album) Sorry For Partyn’ didn’t do what we thought it would but then we have released Fishin’ For Woos and it has done amazingly.

“We’re doing other things, but we are all growing up. Gary (Wiseman, the drummer) has just had his first baby and wants to be home, for instance, but we are happy for him and understand. But Bowling for Soup will always be the number one project for all of us.”

He adds: “We are in no way going away. I feel people are a little gun-shy about it all but there’s no hidden drama – we all support each other in all our endeavours.”

Reddick concedes fans (American ones at least) are likely to see less of the band in person, but they have settled into a well-established pattern for the UK.

Saturday’s show in Oxford will be part of their fourth trip to these shores in the past 12 months, a cycle of spring acoustic shows from Reddick and bassist Erik Chandler, a festival in the summer and then, around October, the full band.

Reddick and Chandler were at the Academy for acoustic shows both last year and this.

“Oxford has always been great for us,” he says. “But we can’t always go everywhere. We get people who say: ‘You played here last time so why not this?’ and it’s difficult for the fans to understand why we aren’t returning.

“But you have to spread the load around.

“I was glad we were able to do Oxford this time around for the full band tour.”

This tour will have one essential difference – rather than a conventional gig, the shows will be purely their singles.

He said: “I know this may disappoint the hardcore fans because we won’t play those songs they might want to hear but the energy will still be there.

“It is something (promoter) Live Nation has been trying to get us to do for years.

“But it is a good moment for us to do it. Girl All The Bad Guys Want was eight years ago so we can cover the old stuff and new stuff. We haven’t done this in the US or the UK but it will be fun.”

He adds: “It will be less of a challenge for us because I would throw the band the odd curveball in a conventional set.”

BfS are touring on the back of this year’s release, Fishin’ For Woos. It was the first album to come out following their split from record label Jive.

Its predecessor Sorry for Partyn’ was a disappointment saleswise, an album Reddick to this day thought was an unappreciated winner. But out of picking themselves up from that twin disappointment, came Fishin’ and a much truncated recording schedule.

“As a follow-up I could not be happier with Fishin’ For Woos,” he says. “We just simplified a bit, even the writing. It was a conscious and unconscious thing. There was a set amount of time we had to do this album so we decided to stop all the experimental stuff.”

The sound is much closer to their breakthrough album, Drunk Enough to Dance – home of Girl All The Bad Guys Want – but has yet another ballad of real depth, Turbulence.

Fishin’ may have been rattled out comparatively quickly, but surely Turbulence, a song about overcoming life’s trials, must have been a gem worked and worked on?

“I did have the line bumps in the road floating around but no, I sat down with (collaborator) Linus of Hollywood and it took 45 minutes and we instantly knew that we had something really, really special,” he said.

Given this is a band on its own, the video was shot by Reddick’s video company, Built By Ninjas. Proof, perhaps after all, Bowling for Soup aren’t ready yet to let that turbulence bring them down.