ClubAntix

“There is no doubt that Skindred are one of the most exciting live acts the UK has produced in the past decade. Even your most purist, elitist and holier-than-thou of metalheads would struggle to fault their consistently explosive stage performances.” – Thrash Hits

SKINDRED are totally unique and remain without peer in music today. The quintessentially British band is the only one to have combined elements of punk, rock, metal, reggae and electronic music with such success. SKINDRED rose phoenix-like from the ashes of seminal British ragga punks Dubwar at the turn of the millennium fronted again by iconic (and Elvis obsessed) frontman Benji Webbe. With him were bassist and jungle/grime/electronica-loving Dan Pugsley, ginger Billy Gibbons riff-lord Mikeydemus and hard rocking drum prodigy Arya Goggin.

The band hit the ground running with their debut, Babylon, which included the breakthrough singles and consistent live favourites, ‘Nobody’, ‘Pressure’ and ‘Selector’.

To say that the band stood musically apart from anything else going in music would be an understatement, all the while Benji stamping his inimitable personality and life-story on it with his Jamaica-via-Wales patter.

Since then the band have played to tens of thousands of people from Europe’s Sonisphere and the UK’s Download to Summer Sonic Japan and a Russian extreme sports festival, and have sold over half a million records worldwide.

Now, in 2011 the band have completed their third album, Union Black. The fact that it’s the first to be recorded in the UK means much a lot to the band 
“We’re all just so happy to have recorded Union Black in the UK,” explains Dan. “Working with a British producer [James Loughrey] who knows the more British reference points we have is great.

He gets the dancehall thing and all the other underground electronic stuff we like – dubstep, bassline, drum’n’bass, grime and so on – so we’re embracing the things that make us different.” “It’s been great being able to draw on a lot of urban dance elements and sounds that we haven’t before,” adds Benji. “Being in the UK has brought out some of the heaviest moments in us all lyrically and musically since we started.”

SKINDRED just don’t do bad shows, Benji never gives less than 800%, and that’s so much of what makes SKINDRED what it is. Why or how anyone would or even could reign him in is bizarre. And so with Benji off the leash ‘Union Black’ is the nearest the band have got to capturing the live show on tape.
 As for the title of the album, Benji explains that it is a celebration of the diversity of the UK: “We’re all from different places and backgrounds within the commonwealth, but – like with paint – when you mix all the colours together you get black. We’re all kindred spirits here in Blighty.”

Clarkson can keep his Britishness crisis, SKINDRED know who they are. Benji grew up on the mean streets of Newport, South Wales, and while much of SKINDRED’s music is a celebration of life and music, there are poignant moments too. From the new album, ‘Cut Dem’, reflects on the knife crime epidemic sweeping the UK’s urban centres. “It’s been ten years since Damilola Taylor was stabbed to death. I see the family and what’s left behind and it inspires me to write. The album was written in the darkest corners of Newport with nothing but crack-heads, beatings and brawls as a backdrop.” But as he adds, the album is still as upbeat as ever, an arsenal of sonic bombs to lay waste to dancefloors and festivals from here to Rio: 
“Onstage I’m an MC I’m a hype man, it’s my job to get people up and moving not make everyone depressed. At the end of the day, you could be talking about shagging on the dancefloor or burning churches but either way people are gonna rock out. This is our “Back in Black”!”

‘Union Black’ is available in stores and online September 23 via 3Wise Records/Sony.

AUSTRALIAN TOUR w/ Hollywood Undead

Tickets on sale NOW!

FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER - BRISBANE, THE STEP INN - 18+ (www.oztix.com.au)
SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER - SYDNEY, METRO THEATRE - Lic A/A (www.ticketek.com.au 132 849)
TUESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE ESPY - 18+ (www.oztix.com.au / www.espy.com.au)
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER - ADELAIDE, FOWLERS LIVE - Lic A/A (www.moshtix.com.au, www.venuetix.com.au & outlets)
FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER - PERTH, ROSEMOUNT HOTEL – 18+ (www.oztix.com.au)

< Prev		Next >