Plus Support: Alexis Taylor
Ages 14+ (advisory)
Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of SCRITTI POLITTI’s Cupid & Psyche 85, in 2020 the band have announced a series of performances of the album, in its entirety, for the very first time.
The album, released in the summer of 1985, was both a pop masterpiece and landmark in music production. Terrifyingly complex technology, embarrassingly expensive studio time and months of intensive work resulted in a brilliant, immaculate sound, described today by singer Green Gartside as ‘pyrotechnics of pointillist syncopation‘.
Overseen by legendary producer Arif Mardin and featuring some of New York’s finest session musicians, Cupid & Psyche 85 took Scritti’s acute pop sensibility to new, glittering heights. It spawned five singles, all hits on one side of the Atlantic or the other: Wood Beez, The Word Girl, Absolute, Perfect Way and Hypnotize. Critics bestowed the album with effusive praise:
‘This is pop as it should be: smart, sweet but not sickly, rich and seductive, exotic, teasing…’ – Melody Maker
‘Stylishly wrought, at times delightfully eccentric’ – Rolling Stone
‘A music of amazing lightness and wit that’s saved from any hint of triviality by wordplay whose delight in its own turns is hard to resist’ – Robert Christgau, Village Voice
‘No disco was ever this sublime’ – SPIN
The project has been revitalized by the new-variant Scritti Politti, featuring Robert Smoughton, Rhodri Marsden and Dicky Moore, who have played alongside Green for the last decade. The shows will feature previously unperformed songs from Cupid & Psyche 85, alongside other material from Scritti’s history.
‘Gartside still possesses one of the most unashamedly lovely voices in British rock’– The Times
‘They don’t make pop stars like Green Gartside anymore’ – NME
Promoted by AEG Presents in association with 13 Artists.
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