Primal Scream’s forthcoming Australian tour in January – the first since 2018 – comes on the back of their just released 12th album, Come Ahead.
Arriving eight years after their last LP, Chaosmosis, it’s the longest break between Primal Scream albums and finds the band teaming with long-time producer/collaborator David Holmes for an album that sings to the soul.
The reaction so far befits the band’s stature.
“Last week, The Cure rose from the grave to run us a warm bath of gothic solace,” wrote the UK’s Independent. “Now Primal Scream are back with Come Ahead, a ridiculously funky stew of a record that all but laces your Gazelles, flops your fringe over your eyes and drags you onto the dance floor for a baggy-limbed boogie.”
In a four-star review, NME concurred. “Personal and political, Bobby Gillespie and co’s David Holmes-assisted first album in eight years wants us to dance our way to justice. Come Ahead may have a whole lot of funk on its surface but still packs oodles of punk and grenades of protest in its trunk.”
Come Ahead’s cover artwork features Bobby Gillespie’s late father, Robert Gillespie Senior, a trade union leader and champion for social justice. The album’s opening track and first single, “Ready to Go Home”, has a deep resonance for the singer-songwriter, as he recently explained in The Big Issue’s ‘Letter to My Younger Self’ series.
“I wrote ‘Ready to Go Home’ a year or two before my dad was dying in hospital,” he explained. “It was just a song about feeling weary and about acceptance of death. It’s not a depressing song. It’s kind of joyous. I’m at the end of my life, and you know what? I’m OK. I’ve given a good account of myself. I’m just part of the world, a small part of it.
Love Live Music?
Get the latest Live Music news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
“So it’s a song of humility and acceptance. I sang it to my dad when he was very ill. He was in a coma. His body had taken over, and he was starting to die. He was on morphine. I kind of knew he didn’t have long to go, and it was just me and him in the room. So I just felt I should sing it to him.”
During the space between records, Gillespie recorded an album of duets called Utopian Ashes with Savage’s Jehnny Beth, collaborated with acid house duo Paranoid London and Peter Perrett (The Only Ones), and composed his first movie soundtrack for the 2023 cinematic release Five Hectares with French filmmaker Émilie Deleuze.
He also wrote and published his well-received memoir, Tenement Kid, tracking his working-class upbringing in Glasgow up to the release of Primal Scream’s breakthrough third album Screamadelica in 1991, which the band toured to commemorate its 30th anniversary three years ago.
Primal Scream’s shows have been widely admired. When the band hits that deep soul groove and Gillespie opens his arms to the audience, it’s the stuff that memories are made of, as the UK’s Telegraph noted of the band’s performance at the South Facing Festival at Crystal Palace Bowl last year.
“As dusk fell, Gillespie finally materialised, impeccably attired in a silver suit, and speculatively invited the packed crowd to add their voices to his five-strong House Gospel Choir. He appeared momentarily choked then grinned manically as perennial party-starter ‘Movin’ on Up’ had the whole bowl singing, in a jubilant vote of confidence.
“This was a powerful, emotionally charged performance, which ultimately climaxed in triumph with an ecstatic ‘Come Together’, low-slung dancer ‘Loaded’, and a thunderingly affirmative ‘Rocks’.”
Primal Scream 2025 Australian Tour
Ticket information available via frontiertouring.com
Friday, January 10th (18+)
The Forum, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, January 11th (All Ages)
Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Monday, January 13th (18+)
Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Tuesday, January 14th (18+)
Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide, SA
