Stratford Sound Pathways presents THE BLOW MONKEYS
Few bands carry four decades of music like The Blow Monkeys and still have something genuinely new to say. Digging Your Scene and It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way made Dr Robert and his band household names in the mid-80s. Their cover of You Don’t Own Me featured on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, the biggest-selling film soundtrack of all time. They worked with Curtis Mayfield, Paul Weller and Cheb Khaled before most bands had even found their sound.
Reformed since 2008 and showing no signs of slowing down, their thirteenth album Birdsong was recorded at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studios and released on Alan McGee’s Creation Youth label. McGee’s verdict: “as good as anything Dr Robert did back in the day.”
These Monkeys continue to evolve. On 2 July they bring all of it to Rother Street Arts House. Seeing a band of this stature in a room this size is a rare thing. One to tell people you were there.
Long may they swing.
Stratford Sound Pathways (SSP) is a year-long programme of original, grassroots live music to Stratford-upon-Avon. Supported by Arts Council England and curated in partnership with Chalkpit Cassette Club, SSP is about building genuine routes into contemporary music for artists and audiences alike.
SSP is more than a gig programme. If you’re an artist who wants to play, a photographer, writer, designer, or someone who just wants to be part of building something new for live music in this town, we want to hear from you. Get in touch at info@stratfordsoundpathways.com.