Legendary alt-rockers The Lemonheads return to the UK and Ireland this October, their first dates in almost three years. Led by 90’s magazine pin-up Evan Dando, the band formed way back in 1986 but found success hard to come by until Dando met Tom Morgan and Nic Dalton in Australia in 1991. It was essentially this line up that recorded the following years breakthrough album ‘It’s a Shame About Ray’, the title song of which scraped into the Uk top 40, and was followed by a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs Robinson that crashed the top 20.
From there, there have been the usual ups and downs – follow on album Come on Feel The Lemonheads made the top five in the UK, but various meltdowns from Dando around the world, and an almost constantly changing line-up (there are literally dozens of ex-Lemondheads dotted around the globe) meant that maybe some of the impetus was lost.
Through it all though, Dando has remained creative, save for a short period of ducking and diving (his words) between 1997-2000. He’s played solo shows, joined The MC5 as lead singer, and there have been a smattering of Lemondheads records, including 2006’s self titled record that featured Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez of The Descendents, long-time collaborator Tom Morgan, Garth Hudson from The Band and Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis, and their last full studio LP 2009’s ‘Varshons’, an album of inspired covers produced by friend Gibby Haynes from Butthole Surfers
The week-long tour includes gigs in Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester, before culminating with a performance in London on Thu 8 Oct, which will feature support from indie rockers Sebadoh. What’s not to like?
UK TOUR DATES
Library, Birmingham – Thu 1 Oct
The Gate, Cardiff – Fri 2 Oct
Limelight 2, Belfast – Sun 4 Oct
The Ritz, Manchester – Wed 7 Oct
Indigo2, London – Thu 8 Oct
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