Shriekback — self-described “weirdshit danceband, now very old indeed” — is planning to play live for the first time in nearly 25 years, and is soliciting fans to help fund a U.K. and European tour with the promise that, if successful, a North American outing could follow by summer 2018.
The band, led by co-founder Barry Andrews, has launched a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $43,440 to defray costs of touring and merchandise. As with any Kickstarter, there are various donor rewards, from CD and vinyl releases to a book and even a chance to hang out with the group.
The 2017 edition of Shriekback will be an eight-piece, featuring the core of Andrews on keyboards/vocals, Carl Marsh on guitar/vocals, and Martyn Baker on drums, plus Steve Halliwell on guitar/keyboards, Mike Cozzi on guitar, Wendy and Sarah Partridge on vocals, and Scott Firth of Public Image Ltd. on bass.
“Unfortunately, no Dave Allen,” Andrews says in the video accompanying the Kickstarter campaign, referring to the former Gang of Four bassist who co-founded Shriekback with Andrews in 1981. “Dave declined. He has a proper job and wants to keep it, and who can blame him. While Dave is in one sense irreplaceable, we are going to replace him.”
(Allen, who now works in artist relations for Apple Music, appears supportive of the project, having shared the Kickstarter post on Facebook and asking fans to support it.)
Andrews, in the video, says the current lineup is “predominately the group you see on (1987 concert film) ‘Jungle of the Senses,’ the end-of-the-’80s big band.”
On its Kickstarter page, Shriekback says it has committed to three U.K. shows in June, “plus some more intimate warm-ups, which will form part of a rewards package for early subscribers.” After that, the band expected to spend the summer playing in Europe, probably at festivals.
Should that all be a success, the band — which released a new album, Without Real String or Fish, in 2015 — hopes to play North America “and beyond” by the summer of 2018.
“Touring the U.S. and Canada is very expensive, and what we didn’t want to do is do a Kickstarter campaign that, heaven forfend, might not reach its target because it would be so costly,” Andrews says of the decision not wrap North American touring plans into the current fundraising effort.
Check out the band’s Kickstarter video below, and, to contribute, head over to Kickstarter.com.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- New releases: OMD’s ‘Live in Berlin,’ plus Shriekback, Sonic Youth, Rockpile
- Shriekback’s ‘Oil and Gold’ to receive 2CD reissue with B-sides, mixes, live tracks
I’m so excited about this. . . . I hope it works out and they make it stateside. A little bummed about Dave Allen not being in there but maybe he will pop up for a few dates in the states. . . . I think he’s here.
Big Black Nemesis.
Parthenogenesis.