The support for Robbie Williams’ huge show at BST Hyde Park next month has been announced, and it includes the soft rock duo, SOFT PLAY. The performance comes only two weeks before they release their first album in six years, ‘HEAVY JELLY’. The album is set to be released July 19th, and has caused a huge stir as they noted their inspiration to produce heavier rock music.
In recent years, the band have undergone a huge transformation, as they changed their name from ‘Slaves’ to ‘SOFT PLAY’ in 2022 as they wanted to abandon the connotations that followed their previous name, and HEAVY JELLY is the first album they will release under this new name. Their new album is suggested to accommodate this change as it includes nu-metal influences. The two piece have taken to social media to express their excitement, saying that they are “proud fathers”. You can read more about their new album on mxdwn here.
Their new album adds to their excitement for this year, as they have numerous performances lined up at festivals such as Glastonbury, Y Not, Truck festival, Tramlines, Boardmasters, Bludfest, and Victorious festival, alongside their own tour. Additionally, they are supporting Robbie Williams on Saturday 6th July at his sold out headline show at the annual BST Hyde Park. They are joining Seal, Gaz Coombes, Kate Nash, and Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape.
The tour for their new album begins in October 15th in Brighton, and takes them across the UK to Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Nottingham, Norwich, and London. Tickets are on sale now, with some dates already sold out. You can find any remaining tickets for the highly demanded tour here.
So far this year, they have been building up the release of their new album and released four singles at the beginning of June, ‘Everything and Nothing’, ‘Act Violently’, ‘Mirror Muscles’, and ‘Punk’s Dead’, all of which will be found on their new 11 track album, which you can pre-order in all formats here.
Since the duo’s formation in 2012 on a residential street in Stoke-on-Trent, they have been on an extremely wild journey, with Isaac, the vocalist and drummer, having personal issues in 2019, leading to their tour for their last album ‘Acts Of Fear And Love’, being cancelled. Their situation then worsened as Laurie’s partner passed away from cancer in 2020, resulting in their almost five year hiatus. However, it was the iconic Blur that reunited the pair as an opportunity to support Blur arose, and the duo began talking, and, despite not getting the gig, started making music together again, and HEAVY JELLY is the product of this journey the two have been on both together and individually. The two are now stronger than ever, calling themselves “brothers” when talking to Kerrang!.
