The Jesus and Mary Chain have announced a UK Tour, including being confirmed as the first headliners for the Looe Music Festival 2017, as first reported by NME and The Plymouth Herald.
The main tour will take in 12 cities in the UK and Ireland between the 23rd of March and 7th April. Full details of the tour can be found at the bottom of this article. However, that will not be the only chance to catch the Indie legends in person next year. They will also headline the Looe Music Festival which will take place from Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October 2017 in Looe, Cornwall. The event’s organisers said, via The Plymouth Herald, ‘Distorted guitars, feedback over haunting pop melodies and a big dose of attitude on and off-stage – The Jesus and Mary Chain were one of the ’80s most influential bands. Shades of Velvet Underground, favourites of Nirvana, their live performances are legendary and not to be missed.’ Although there are currently no other acts announced for the festival, the organisers added that, ‘This is the first of many major headline announcements planned for LMF2017, but we wanted to give you an early Christmas present.’
The Jesus and Mary Chain have had a busy week after announcing the March 24th release date for their new album, ’Damage and Joy’ and new single, ‘Amputation.’ ‘Damage and Joy’ will be their first album since the band reformed in 2007 for a comeback show at Coachella, and last year launched a UK Tour in honour of their best known album, ‘Psychocandy.’ Jim Reid spoke, in Icon Vs Icon, about their renaissance, saying, ‘In the last couple of years, we’ve buried the hatchet to some degree, and thankfully not into each other.’ Their new track ‘Amputation’, deals with feelings of ‘being edited out of the whole music business… I felt like a rock ‘n’ roll amputation’ and Reid added, via Icon Vs Icon, ‘To make a good record is an achievement if you’re twenty-two, but to do it in your fifties, the way we are, I think is a minor miracle.’ The album will feature the band’s touring drummer Brian Young as well as former Lush bassist Phil King. You can check out their single, ‘Amputation’, below:
Tickets for the main tour will go on sale on December 14th at 10am, while tickets for their set at the Looe Festival can be purchased in limited numbers as day tickets from the 14th December at 9am. Early bird weekend tickets for the entire festival are available right now priced at £99 for adults or £30 for under 18s. Full details of all the Jesus and Mary Chain’s live dates are shown below.
23/3 – Northumbria University – Newcastle
25/3 – Academy – Manchester
27/3 – Church – Leeds
28/3 – O2 Academy – Leicester
29/3 – O2 Academy – Bristol
31/3 – O2 Institute – Birmingham
1/4 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth
2/4 – O2 Academy – Oxford
3/4 – Junction 1 – Cambridge
5/4 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire – London
6/4 – De La Warr Pavilion – Bexhill on Sea
7/4 – Academy – Dublin
29/9-1/10 – Looe Music Festival – Looe
