Short-lived British postpunk act The Pop Group — which somehow managed to meld punk, dub, noise and funk — will reunite this September after nearly 30 years apart, with four concerts currently scheduled in the U.K. and Italy and a new studio album reportedly in the works.
According to a news release today from All Tomorrow’s Parties — which is putting on Sept. 11 and 12 concerts in London — the band is reuniting for the first time since splitting in 1981 in order “to play a small amount of club dates to ‘blow the dust off the old songs and pick up where we left off.'” The group also is scheduled to play Sept. 9 and 10 in Bologna and Turin, Italy, respectively (see full dates below).
The reunited band features original members Mark Stewart (vocals), Gareth Sager (guitars, keyboard, sax) and Bruce Smith (drums) — the latter of whom has been playing in the reunited Public Image Ltd. this year — as well as Dan Catsis, who replaced original bassist Simon Underwood in 1980 around the time of the group’s second and possibly no longer final album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
Back in May, Stewart told the AV Club that not only is the band reuniting to tour, but it also will be recording a new album called The Alternate that’s tentatively due in September. Today’s news release makes no mention of an album, but says the band has “a number of invitations to headline various arts and music festivals around the world in 2011.”
See the Pop Group’s tour dates and a vintage video after the jump…
The Pop Group tour dates:
Sept. 9: Locomotiv Club, Bologna, Italy
Sept. 10: Spazio 211 Club, Turin, Italy
Sept. 11: The Garage, London, UK
Sept. 12: The Garage, London, UK
Video: The Pop Group, “She Is Beyond Good and Evil” (1979 single)
