As twentieth birthday parties go, this one is pretty sweet. Influential Glaswegian post-rock outfit Mogwai have been wringing out walls of epic, fuzzy bliss for two decades, and to celebrate they’re curating a series of six shows with All Tomorrow’s Parties, featuring a programme of bands and musicians that have awed and inspired them over the years.
Mogwai themselves headline the first two shows, with stellar support acts in tow, and for the remaining four dates they've drafted in some huge talents. Check the full line-up below.
Wednesday June 24 and Thursday June 25
The much-loved Scottish quintet mark their twentieth anniversary with two shows, which should mean an epic trawl through a substantial, distortion-drenched back catalogue, including tracks from 2014’s well-received album ‘Rave Tapes’. Experimental punk band Prolapse and Sound of Yell play support sets on Wednesday, and spooky beatmeister Forest Swords steps up on Thursday, as does Sacred Paws.
Saturday June 27
Chuck D, Flavor Flav and co are back in the UK, for more revolutionary rhetoric and raucous, rabble-rousing rap as the first guest headliner in Mogwai’s Roundhouse series. Their musical legacy can hardly be overstated: not only have they been a key influence on both mainstream and leftfield hip hop, but also on rock acts from Nirvana to Manic Street Preachers.
Sunday June 28
The Genius, one of the key members of the Wu-Tang Clan and a fine, cerebral MC, takes to the London stage to play a special show as part of Mogwai's twentieth anniversary series at the Roundhouse. Chicago post-rockers Tortoise also feature on a nicely eclectic bill, as do Loop, Lightning Bolt and Mugstar.
Tuesday June 30
Montreal’s finest ambient, experimental post-rock collective were long feared defunct, but in 2010 they got back together after a seven-year hiatus. A typically avant-garde new album, ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!’ came out in 2012, meaning that GY!BE have even more mind-expanding neo-classical soundscapes in their repertoire. Experimental electronic act Beak>, the brainchild of Portishead's Geoff Barrow, will also be performing.
Sunday July 5
The founding fathers of fuzz-pop return to the London stage for a full performance of their 1985 debut album ‘Psychocandy’, as they did for two London shows late last year. Also on the bill are similarly fuzzed-out psych-rockers Bardo Pond, one of the many bands who’ve adapted the Mary Chain’s pioneering combination of sweet melody and searing noise.
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