Critically acclaimed band Idles announce gig dates
IDLES has announced much-anticipated new UK and Irish tour dates for May and June 2021. A band long revered for the power of their live shows, these new dates will include back-to-back shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, Glasgow Barrowlands and Vicar Street in Dublin.
The news of the tour follows the announcement of the band’s latest single from their forthcoming LP Ultra Mono (out Sept 25 via Partisan), Model Village.
The new single decries the often-dangerous small town fish bowl mentality, while its jet-powered instrumentation leans heavily into the band’s love of hip-hop (Kenny Beats provided additional programming on the album).
The song is accompanied by an animated music video directed by Michel Gondry (Daft Punk, Radiohead, The White Stripes) and Olivier Gondry, created in collaboration with WePresent, WeTransfer’s editorial platform.
Frontman Joe Talbot elaborates on the song’s meaning: “I hated growing up in a city that was really a town that was really a fish bowl.
“I left as soon as I could, only to realise the fish bowl didn’t exist ... just the fish, and they’re everywhere.”
The video was painstakingly pieced together over a period of weeks with Michel held up in his LA studio.
There he cut out handdrawn bits of paper into characters and shapes, arranging them on lightboxes, and filming from above on his iPhone before sending everything to Olivier in Paris, where he’d then take the collages and bring them to life through CGI.
The video premiered recently on WePresent, accompanied by BTS material and an exclusive interview with Joe and both filmmakers, delving into their creative process.
Michel said: “Olivier and I were excited to work on this because we use completely opposite techniques.
“I work with a primitive system of cutting paper and moving it under the lens frame by frame. Olivier then transforms it by morphing,
warping and CGI.
He added: “Basically, in the first part we try to illustrate the lyrics as close as possible, to create the world, and then in the second half ... they go to the moon.”
On the creation of the video, Talbot explains: “Michel’s work is hand-made and it’s human and that’s something that our society pushes against - you need to be perfect.
“You need to look perfect and everything needs to be seamless and strong. But actually, vulnerability and naivety are strengths. To be vulnerable and to be naive is to have empathy.
“And so, to empathize with your adversaries and allow yourself to be naked on film or on record is a really strong thing to do. It liberates you and it also liberates your audience. That’s something that I hope that Idles can do, and that Gondry’s been doing for years.” Dates are as follows ... Fri May 7 - Glasgow Barrowland
Sat May 8 - Glasgow Barrowland
Mon May 10 - Newcastle O2 City Hall
Weds May 12 - Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Thurs May 13 - Birmingham O2 Academy
Fri May 14 Sheffield O2 Academy
Sun May 16 - Dublin Vicar Street
Mon May 17 - Dublin Vicar Street
Thurs May 20 - Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse
Fri June 18 - London O2 Academy Brixton
Sat June 19 - London O2 Academy Brixton
Supports remain to be confirmed.
Tickets are on sale with fans able to pre-order the album from idlesband.com website.