THE SAINTS
“Worshipped… a truly great band” NME
“More stage presence than an army of attitudinal hipsters and a back catalogue to kill for” The Independent
“Chris Bailey, a distillation of [John] Lennon and..Van [Morrison], and one of the great punk larynxes” Uncut
“Bailey is one of the greatest singers in rock and roll” Mother Jones
Legendary former garage-punks The Saints, recently covered by Bruce Springsteen, broke new ground with two releases in late 2014 and now they are hitting the road…
Back in November, The Saints released “King of the Sun / King of the Midnight Sun” after joining forces with Fire Records as part of their reissue series.
The deluxe debut European release of their ‘King of the Sun’ offers something different, not only does it feature the original – a beautiful collection that harks back to Saints high points like ‘Ghost Ships’ – but also a freshly recorded rock’n’roll take on exactly the same set of songs, recorded live, and called King of the Midnight Sun.
“I’m very proud of the studio album as a listening piece,” says Chris. “It’s lyrical, musical, an exploration of songwriting. Midnight is more a celebration of the strengths of a rock band. There’s a swagger on it that there isn’t on the original.”
The impetus for the added recording came from the recent reintroduction to The Saints of Barrington Francis, who played in the band from 1979 to 1989. “There’s magic that happens when Barrington, Peter [Wilkinson, the drummer] and I get together,” says Chris. “In this technological world where everything is nine million tracks on computer it’s very important to retain the immediacy of rock’n’roll, to keep that earthy, organic, primitive side.”
The Saints have reached a huge new audience thanks to Bruce Springsteen, who covered their ‘Just Like Fire Would’ on his 2014 global No 1 album, High Hopes.
The latest development in the career of a band that found themselves at the forefront of the punk revolution with the release of their era-defining single ‘(I’m) Stranded’ in 1976, (NME made it Single of the Week; Sounds made it Single of the Year; and EMI executives raced to sign them), that led to Top of the Pops, and a stack of classic albums. Since then The Saints have one moment blasted out the most raucous rock’n’roll, and the next created some the most affecting, emotional lyricism, and often even done it at the same time.
“King of the Sun / King of the Midnight Sun” is out now on Fire Records. Catch them on tour across the UK in May 2015.