Inspiral Carpets enjoying Life again with March 2013 UK tour

Inspiral Carpets - Back to Life

It's been thirty years since the Inspiral Carpets first gathered in Oldham and a lot has happened since. That crappy new club on Whitworth Street rose to be a global focal point for house and rave culture before sinking back into the canalside and becoming apartments. The city of Manchester now boasts two footballing giants of the modern game when, in '83, they could barely muster a full stadium between them. The Arndale has been destroyed and rebuilt in glorious Technicolor, as have The Stone Roses.

Yet the Inspiral Carpets remain, and with a neat symmetry. It is not the completely original line-up but it is a faithful one with founding vocalist Stephen Holt restored to microphone duties and the unmistakeable Clint Boon leading the sing-alongs from his keys, always so central to the Inspirals' sound. And Clint, Stephen, Graham and co are as faithful as ever to those defining motifs. When erstwhile frontman Tom Hingley left, the five-piece regrouped as a 'garage rock band', revisiting their early material and original sound. It appears an honest endeavour designed not to cash in but so that the band can continue to live and grow.

Next spring, the Inspiral Carpets, garage rock band, will be heading out on a 10-date tour which will see them play their second album, 1990's Life, in full as well as 'all the hits'. Life was the record which brought us Move, the iconic This Is How It Feels and the blistering, incomparable She Comes In the Fall.

The Back to Life UK tour kicks off in Newcastle on 13th March, followed by dates in Edinburgh, Glasgow (two nights), Birmingham and more, before ending the jaunt with a homecoming show at the HMV Ritz in Manchester on Friday 29th March 2013. There is a London show at Koko on 22nd March. We will have tickets available from 9am on Friday 21st September, priced from £15 to £20.

Stewart Darkin