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| EMF courtesy Reybee PR |
I'm very excited about the news of this tour. I interviewed EMF for their first album...
Coming this summer, two platinum-selling artists will join forces for a co-headline tour – Forest of Dean, UK band EMF and Leeds-by-way-of-NYC's Spacehog. The tour kicks off in June and focuses their routing around the West Coast, including dates in San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Los Angeles before wrapping up in Las Vegas, both bands are excited to be combining forces for a perfectly inspired lineup.
"We’re so looking forward to getting back on the road, reconnecting with everyone, and sharing these moments together again," says Spacehog vocalist/bassist Royston Langdon. "To be out there with EMF makes it all the more special — we can’t wait to see all your faces and feel that energy once more.” Adds drummer Jonny Cragg, “I am personally very excited at the prospect of playing with EMF who were such a big part of my youth in Leeds - both playing in bands and going to the clubs. Sometimes it's just about waiting for the perfect wave and riding it to the shore."
Echoes EMF’s vocalist James Atkin, “The fact Spacehog is joining us on this double headline jaunt is just the icing on the cake for EMF."
A decade since their last show in San Francisco and 30 years since the release of their breakthrough debut Resident Alien, Spacehog took a break from the music realm to focus on life for a spell. A pivotal placement of their massive single “In the Meantime,” however, awoke the itch to get back on the road.
“We were all busy doing our big boy jobs in 2023 when ‘In The Meantime’ found a whole new audience in the soundtrack of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3,” says Cragg. “The attention got us talking to one another again and resulted in a very kind invitation to rehearse at the legendary Record Plant in Sausalito, CA. Being in a place where so many amazing records were made was magical, and playing together helped us recapture the alchemy that happens when we make music.”
EMF returned to the U.S. in 2024 for three shows - Milwaukee’s Summerfest, Detroit, and Brooklyn - their first Stateside performances since 1992. Fifth album, the critically acclaimed The Beauty and the Chaos, was released in January 2024.
“Having had a small taste of being back in the USA last year in Milwaukee, Detroit and NYC, we are thrilled to get a West Coast tour in the diary for June 2025. We can’t wait to see you all again,” replied Atkin.
ABOUT SPACEHOG:
Spacehog were formed by natives of Leeds, England in the spring of 1994 in New York City. Guitarist Antony Langdon met drummer Jonny Cragg at a café in the East Village, where Cragg worked killing rats in the basement. The pair agreed to make music and Langdon persuaded his younger brother Royston to move to the States to sing and play bass. The current lineup was finally completed by Craggs' friend Richard Steel who moved to New York to fill out an all Yorkshire lineup.
The band quickly generated a following and record company interest with their epic live shows and sharp, irreverent and mesmerizing song craft. They signed with Sire Records in the Spring of 1995. Spacehog, with producer Bryce Goggin recorded their platinum debut at Bearsville Studios later that year, scoring a mega-hit single with "In The Meantime" in early 1996. The band's follow up, The Chinese Album, was released in 1998, taking a more thoughtful and conceptual approach, it consolidated their appeal In Europe and South America, and tours with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith and Sex Pistols.
The advent of the new millennium saw more touring with REM and Oasis and a third album The Hogyssey, recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with producer Paul Ebersold Spacehog were largely inactive from 2001 until July 2006 when they reformed to play Craggs' birthday party. The party served as a catalyst for recording their fourth studio LP As It Is on Earth ,again with Goggin and released in 2013.
In 2024 the band contributed to the GRAMMY®-nominated soundtrack to Guardians Of The Galaxy 3. And now after this long ride the band has decided to saddle up once again.
Spacehog "In the Meantime": https://youtu.be/PCsGRCf8T9Y?si=veZdAhnvj3lxgl9O
ABOUT EMF:
Exploding on the U.K. scene in November 1990 with their debut album Schubert Dip, EMF made quite an entrance with their inescapable and irresistibly catchy single “Unbelievable,” which conquered the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 in the UK. The single was certified gold in May 1991 in the U.S., and it sold over 500k. The song was in such heavy rotation for most of the year in America that it finished as the #6 single overall. Schubert Dip was certified platinum in the U.S. by September of that year, selling over one million.
Their latest album, The Beauty And The Chaos, saw the return of the late Ralph Jezzard (Chapterhouse, Fatima Mansions, Senseless Things) in the producer’s chair (he produced their first two full-length albums, Schubert Dip and Stigma). Said the band of working with Jezzard again, “We produced another set of classic songs about our lives and the world in 2023 inspired by our favorite past, present, and future sounds. We mixed James Atkin’s techno synths and Ian Dench’s punk guitar, heated it to 200 degrees with Stevey Marsh and Aid Todd’s groovy rock rhythms, iced it with Derry Brownson’s maniacal sampling and popped it in a box of Ralph Jezzard’s sonic excellence. Unwrap and enjoy!” The album’s first single, “Hello People,” reestablished the band’s stronghold on the mainstream, with My Global Mind commenting, “I, for one, am overjoyed. Bouncing around the room like it’s 1991-92 all over again and feeling great for it.”
Tour Dates:
Jun 14 San Jose CA The Ritz (tickets)
Jun 15 San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall (tickets)
Jun 17 Portland OR Star Theater (tickets)
Jun 18 Seattle WA The Neptune (tickets)
Jun 20 Salt Lake City UT Metro Music Hall (tickets)
Jun 21 Denver CO Oriental Theater (tickets)
Jun 23 Phoenix AZ Crescent Ballroom (tickets)
Jun 24 San Diego CA Music Box (tickets)
Jun 26 Santa Ana CA The Observatory (tickets)
Jun 27 Los Angeles CA The Regent (tickets)
Jun 28 Las Vegas NV House of Blues (tickets)
