English post-punk legends The Pop Group have announced a fall tour of the UK. They will be playing their 1980 album We Are Time in full, which they will also reissue in a from-the-original-tapes remaster. Additionally, the English quartet will include some more rarities and unreleased material in the reissue, compiled under the title Cabinet of Curiosities. And just in case you were about to berate them for their blatant commercialism, keep in mind that the tour is also meant to support the Campaign Against Arms Trade initiative, so save your hating for more deserving targets.
Formed in the late 1970s, the band released an epochal triptych (1979’s Y, 1980’s For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? and We Are Time) before breaking up in 1981. Later, their vocalist and leader Mark Stewart embarked on a solo career that fused dub with noise, sampling, electronic music, and even hip-hop, coming up with groundbreaking — albeit criminally overlooked — LPs like Learning to Cope with Cowardice (1983) and Metatron (1990), which are more than due a reappraisal. The Pop Group reunited in 2010 and have been touring ever since, announcing (already a couple of years ago) a yet-to-be-released new album; the Cabinet of Curiosities anthology is thus far the closest we’ve got to hearing new material by the Bristol quartet.
Despite lacking the popularity of contemporary acts like Joy Division, Wire, The Fall, Public Image Ltd, or even Gang of Four — this is the band’s first ever tour of the UK — The Pop Group have been influential in their mixture of punk, free jazz, and disco grooves, a cocktail fueled by politically charged lyrics and a belligerent ethos. Indeed, throughout their three-and-a-half decades of existence, they’ve managed to pick-up some illustrious fans: Nick Cave pretty much admitted to conceiving The Birthday Party after watching The Pop Group perform, freshly arrived in London. More recently, St. Vincent covered one of The Pop Group’s best-known songs on US television, later weaving the track into her touring setlist.
Tickets for The Pop Group’s first-ever tour of the UK are out now through the band’s website. The We Are Time reissue and the Cabinet of Curiosities compilation are out on October 20, via Freaks Are Us.
Dates:
10.20.14 - Edinburgh, UK - Voodoo Rooms
10.21.14 - Nottingham, UK - Bodega Social Club
10.22.14 - Manchester, UK - Gorilla
10.23.14 - Bristol, UK - Anson Rooms
10.24.14 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
10.25.14 - Brighton, UK - Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar
10.26.14 - London, UK - Islington Assembly Hall
• The Pop Group: http://www.thepopgroup.net