The Blow Monkeys

Yes it’s true. Long before there were Arctic Monkeys or Gorillaz there were The Blow Monkeys. Purveyors of Simian Soul and Primate Punk, they cut a swathe through mid 80’s popular music. And now for the first time in 18yrs all 4 original members are back together - Dr Robert, Neville Henry, Mick Anker and Tony Kiley - with a brand new album and UK tour.

With classic worldwide hits such as Digging Your Scene and It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way, The Blow Monkeys have built a reputation as innovators and agitators: from the BBC banned collaboration with the late great Curtis Mayfield on Celebrate (The Day After You) all the way to the UK’s first genuine ‘garage’ soul hit Wait with Kym Maselle, even working with artists as diverse as EEK-A-Mouse and Cheb Khaled.

Devil’s Tavern was funded by fans through the official website and was recorded in the Andalusian port town of Motril, southern Spain. The band did the majority of the production themselves, yet also enlisted the help of one time Blow Monkey associates Marius de Vries (Bjork, Rufus Wainwright) and Adam Moseley (Beck, Dust Bro's) for additional mixing and production duties.

Says Dr Robert, ‘We hadn’t played together for 18 yrs but we grooved straight away. It’s basically the sound of us playing in a room - something we never really did in the bad old 80s when the machines took over. Quite a few songs here are first takes. And with songs like Travelin' Soul, A Momentary Fall and The Bullet Train we've gone into areas we’ve never been before.’

And so ‘the last of the great meat eating poets’ as they were once memorably dubbed, those ‘Glam Jazz’ swingers are back in town and back on the road.

The Bullet Train will be released as a first single from the album, also on August 18th.