After having to recently cancel its summer North American 40th anniversary tour - a run that was to also feature a front-to-back performance of its breakthrough 1982 album After the Snow - legendary British band Modern English will provide fans with a broadcast performance of the entire LP on Friday, September 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET and Saturday, September 26 at 8:30 p.m. PT, as well as 8:30 p.m. in the UK, Europe and Asia time zones on Saturday, September 26.
Filming at Indigo at the O2, London and partnering with LiveHereNow, a fully-independent, specialist live music production company, Modern English will deliver a live show with state-of-the-art sound, lights and production. There will also be projections and Vaughan Oliver artwork designs that will be woven into the performance. In addition to regular tickets, a special VIP Virtual Meet & Greet is available for $75 and will include exclusive footage and content from the event. Tickets for the event, along with the VIP bundle, are available for purchase. Frontman Robbie Grey had the following to share about the upcoming event:
"It was a real kick in the teeth when we couldn't go out and play 'After the Snow' in its entirety this year for the very first time. So now with this one-off live performance, we get to do that for a global audience. We have added atmospheric lighting that will be incorporated into the event featuring artwork from Vaughan Oliver. So it will be a special night for us."
On 1982's After the Snow, produced by the acclaimed Hugh Jones, Modern English's sound evolved from the dark, moody and challenging post-punk found on its debut, Mesh & Lace, to a more commercial and radio friendly mix of synthesizers, guitars, catchy drumbeats and singer Robbie Grey's unmistakable vocals. As the title suggests, the icy sound featured on Mesh & Lace melted away on After the Snow to reveal more concise and potent songs, highlighted by "I Melt With You" which brought the band up from the underground to the mainstream.
Simply put, "I Melt With You" is one of the most iconic songs of the New Wave era. It garnered heavy rotation on the then-thriving Modern Rock radio format, MTV and dance clubs across the globe, and was prominently featured in the classic 1983 film Valley Girl, starring a young Nicolas Cage. It's a song so popular that the band was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 BMI Awards for five million plays on radio.
Formed in Colchester, England, the band self-released its first single on its own Limp Records label prior to signing to 4AD, home to such like-minded acts as Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. Laying the foundation for future musical movements such as goth and industrial, Modern English would gain the attention of renowned BBC DJ John Peel, who featured the band twice on his program.
The band would record various records over the years, and most recently, they released its latest album, 2017's Take Me To The Trees, an album that reconnected the band to their youth, in the fervent and fecund world of late-Seventies/early-Eighties post-punk Britain. Given Modern English's roots were post-punk icons Wire and Joy Division - dark and austere while still melodic and passionate - Take Me To The Trees is a return to the sound and vision of their very early work that even James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem has described as "a sneaky secret that everyone writes off, because they just think it's going to be a 'I Melt With You' but it sounds way scarier than any Joy Division record [Mesh & Lace]."
Modern English will release "I Melt With You" as an exclusive 12-inch as part of this year's Record Store Day on Saturday, October 24 which will also include a B-side featuring "Trees" and "Moonbeam" from Take Me To The Trees. New Mesh & Lace and After the Snow reissues featuring reimagined artwork by the late Vaughan Oliver are also currently available in LP and CD formats via ETA
HERE.
Modern English are: Robbie Grey (Vocals/Guitar), Mick Conroy (Bass), Gary McDowell (Guitar), Daniel Jakubovic (Guitar and Backing Vocals), Steve Walker (Keys) and Roy Martin (Drums).
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