Featuring Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and Guest DJ Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff
Wise Up Suckers! This Is The Day! This Is The Hour! This Is This!
Love From Stourbridge is back for 2019 and this time, the Poppies are on patrol. Following the huge success of the tourís debut in April 2018, when two of Stourbridgeís finest exports, The Wonder Stuff and Nedís Atomic Dustbin, shared a stage, Love From Stourbridge 2019 will this time bring together Pop Will Eat Itself and Nedís Atomic Dustbin, touring together for the very first time since 1989.
Friday 5 April Sheffield, O2 Academy
Saturday 6 April London, O2 Shepherdís Bush Empire
Friday 12 April Manchester, O2 Ritz
Saturday 13 April Glasgow, O2 Academy
Friday 19 April Bristol, O2 Academy
Saturday 20 April Birmingham, O2 Institute
Sunday 21 April Birmingham, O2 Institute
General sale tickets £30.00 adv
Available from Friday 5 October from ticketmaster.co.uk
These unique shows will not only reignite the fire of those gigs that happened three decades ago but also give an airing to the seminal Poppies album from the same year, This Is The Day! This Is The Hour! This Is This! Pop Will Eat Itself will be playing their classic second album in all its glory, famed for its monumental chart-topping singles, “Def. Con. One”, “Can U Dig It?” and “Wise Up! Suckers”.
This Is The Day! This Is The Hour! This Is This! (1 May 1989 – RCA Records) received widespread critical acclaim, not only for their inventive sound-tracks, with heavy sampling of hip-hop, metal, disco, punk, indie, rock, dance and pop culture, but also their incredible artwork by Sheffieldís famed Designers Republic. TITD also gave us the very first appearance of the bandís now iconic robot logo and the sound of major hip-hop influences including Public Enemy and Run DMC. It spent two weeks in the UK album charts back in 1989 as well as peaking in the USA.
Pop Will Eat Itself began their career in 1986, and immediately became recognized for their original style and sound. Their first single “Poppies Say Grrr!” became NME’s Single Of The Week and was playlisted by Janice Long on BBC Radio 1. TITD built on their 1987 hip-hop inspired debut, Box Frenzy. Between 1990 and 1994, the Poppies’ success continued with every single release charting in the Top 40, live dates worldwide and festival appearances before disbanding in 1996. After a brief reformation in 2005, Pop Will Eat Itself issued their first release in more than five years in 2010, before returning in 2011. More recently, in September 2018, they released PWEI “Def Comms 86-18” (Cherry Red Records), a career-spanning 4-CD collection, compiled with Graham Crabb, featuring 75 hits of classic album tracks, remixes and rarities, from all eight of the band’s albums, plus the ëlostí 1996 record, and unheard alternate versions and demos.
Founding member of Pop Will Eat Itself, Graham Crabb, had a taste of the Love From Stourbridge 2018 tour when he took the audience on an audio adventure as tour DJ. Now the Poppies, Graham Crabb (vocals), Mary Byker, (vocals), Richard Marsh (guitar), Davey Bennett (bass), Fuzz Townshend (drums) will share the co-headline bill alongside all five original members of Nedís Atomic Dustbin, Jonn (vocals), Rat (guitar), Alex (bass), Mat (bass) and Dan (drums) and take us back to 1989.
Graham Crabb recalls; “We had such a blast it would be silly not to repeat it. This Is The Day is probably my fave PWEI album and we look forward to performing it with all but one of the original band. This year it would be especially nice to complete the tour without smashing my head open in a freak hoverboard accident at 3am in a hotel corridor (photos can be supplied). I can’t remember the early days with Neds very well, I was, erm, away with the fairies most of the time, but now I know them well they are a fantastic bunch of blokes and we’ve had many a top night out together.”
The renaissance of the Stourbridge scene earlier this year saw fans race to revisit these heady days again, with The Guardian exclaiming upon news of the tour that “grebo” rivalled Britpop as the sound of the 90s. In fact, it was the Poppies who actually brought the word “grebo” back from its Midlands slang roots. “I can’t wait to get on the road with the Poppies. We were always going to each otherís shows and our paths crossed all the time in all corners of the globe, but it’s been an absolute age since we shared a stage. There’s bounce in these old knees yet and the Poppies taught us all the moves!” says Neds’ Jonn Penney.
When Ned’s Atomic Dustbin finally got back on the road with fellow Stourbridge mafia The Stuffies in 2018 for the first time in 27 years, who wouldíve thought they would be the real deal? All original members from the Neds turned up as if nearly three decades had never passed – the power, the energy, the pure joy – it was there in spades to remind us all of that first love, the one that still tingles away years later.
Frontman Jonn Penney remembers his love for the Poppies and his first encounter with the album This Is The Day – “Early days in the band I had no faith in my own ability to do something original. I must have seen that “unique sound” as a thing of myth and legend, so I consciously tried to shut out everything that was big at the time. I tried to be a kind of musical monk to ensure I wasn’t influenced by something in case it sneaked its way subconsciously into one of our songs! The Poppies completely blew that stupid idea out the water for me with this album. It was 100% all about influences – musical and cultural but I absolutely loved it. I realised you’re nobody without your influences and it’s not about the origin of your ideas – it’s how you make them your own!”
Formed in 1987, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin quickly built a huge fan base after playing lively shows in their hometown and following a national tour as support band with The Wonder Stuff, they achieved a Number 1 hit in the Indie Singles Chart in July 1990 with the mammoth track, “Kill Your Television”. Being their huge crossover single, the song, the slogan, and the distinctive t-shirt stands as the deepest footprint the band have left to date. The Ned’s saw their first Sony single ëHappyí (1991) storm into the Top 20 of the UK charts and their seminal debut album, God Fodder, landed with a thud in the Top 5 as well as achieving enormous success in the States.
Joining this mighty double-bill in April 2019 will be fellow Stourbridge guest tour DJ, Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff because, well, it wouldn’t be a Stourbridge celebration without Milo now would it?
#LoveFromStourbridge
Videos
Links
http://www.popwilleatitself.net
http://www.nedsatomicdustbin.co.uk
http://www.thewonderstuff.co.uk
