Spear of Destiny at The Asylum, Birmingham

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Tue 22 Nov 2022 - Sat 17 Dec 2022

Spear of Destiny are marking their 40th anniversary with a new album and UK tour that plays The Asylum in Birmingham on November 24.

The punk-influenced power-rock outfit, led by Kirk Brandon and Stan Stammers, emerged from the wreckage of iconic post-punk band Theatre of Hate. Debut album The Grapes of Wrath was released in 1983 on the band's own Burning Roman label and they toured relentlessly during the next few years. After releasing One Eyed Jacks in 1984, and almost cracking the UK Top 10 with 1985's World Service, Brandon disbanded the existing line-up and Spear of Destiny vanished for much of the next two years.



After bouncing back with a completely new line-up, Spear finally achieved the success that had evaded them for so long, with 1987's Outland spawning some of the band's biggest hits to date, including Stranger In Our Town, Never Take Me Alive and Was That You. They also toured with U2, playing Wembley Stadium with the band that summer.

But, on the eve of a slot at Reading Festival and with their first American tour on the horizon, tragedy struck when Brandon was diagnosed with Reiter's Syndrome, also known as reactive arthritis. Over the following years Spear of Destiny struggled amidst his diagnosis and legal problems that meant they were prohibited from using the band's name.

After finally reclaiming the Spear name in the late 1990s, Brandon and the band worked consistently: their ninth studio album Morning Star was released in 2003, followed by Loadestone, Imperial Prototype, Omega Point, 31 and Tontine.

The current line-up is the band's longest serving to date and features Kirk Brandon, Adrian Portas, Craig Adams and Phil Martini, as well as Clive Osborne on saxophone and Steve Allen-Jones on keys.



New album, Ghost Population, includes tracks spanning everything from personal to political, past to present. Speaking of the LP, Brandon explains: "The album title came about because of a piece I read online where scientists were researching the available DNA samples from human history — Denisovans, Neanderthals etc. It became clear to them from fragments in the DNA that there was another race back then. They haven't found out who these people were as yet, but they nicknamed them a 'Ghost Population'.

"I applied this in my non-scientific way and thought of how social engineering has marginalised so much of society, not acknowledging the disenfranchised and writing them out of existence. When someone is no longer talked about, eventually they no longer exist."



Standout songs are Ballad of the Dog ("a true story of a piratical burial at sea"), Neolithic By Design, a track set "at the beginning of a relationship when both parties are in the maelstrom") and Pilgrim (one of the album's "few autobiographical songs" inspired by Brandon's mum merging together the tales of Jack and the Beanstalk and Dick Whittington when he was a child).

Tracks from the album will be played live for the first-time during Spear of Destiny's 2022 UK tour:

**November

22 - Leeds - Brudenell
23 - Cardiff - The Globe
24 - Birmingham - Asylum
25 - Brighton - Patterns
26 - Southend - The Venue
27 - Plymouth - Junction
29 - Stoke - Underground
30 - Norwich - Waterfront

December

01 - Hull - Polar Bear
02 - London - Oslo
03 - Derby - Hairy Dog
04 - Nuneaton - Queens Hall
06 - Southampton - Joiners
07 - Hertford - Corn Exchange
08 - Bristol - Fleece
09 - Bedford - Esquires
10 - Darwen - Library Theatre
11 - Worcester - Marrs Bar
13 - Nottingham - Rescue Rooms
14 - Newcastle - Cluny
15 - Glasgow - King Tut's
16 - Dunfermline - PJ Molloys
17 - Manchester - Academy**

#bands
#birmingham_city_centre
#central_birmingham
#concerts
#music
#music -venues
#pop_culture
#shows
#west_midlands
#november
!date 22/11/2022 -- 17/12/2022
%wnbirmingham