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Plus Support: Alexis Taylor
Ages 14+ (advisory)
Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of SCRITTI POLITTI’s Cupid & Psyche 85, in 2020 the band have announced a series of performances of the album, in its entirety, for the very first time.

The album, released in the summer of 1985, was both a pop masterpiece and landmark in music production. Terrifyingly complex technology, embarrassingly expensive studio time and months of intensive work resulted in a brilliant, immaculate sound, described today by singer Green Gartside as 'pyrotechnics of pointillist syncopation'.

Overseen by legendary producer Arif Mardin and featuring some of New York’s finest session musicians, Cupid & Psyche 85 took Scritti’s acute pop sensibility to new, glittering heights. It spawned five singles, all hits on one side of the Atlantic or the other: Wood Beez, The Word Girl, Absolute, Perfect Way and Hypnotize. Critics bestowed the album with effusive praise:

'This is pop as it should be: smart, sweet but not sickly, rich and seductive, exotic, teasing…' – Melody Maker

'Stylishly wrought, at times delightfully eccentric' – Rolling Stone

'A music of amazing lightness and wit that's saved from any hint of triviality by wordplay whose delight in its own turns is hard to resist' – Robert Christgau, Village Voice

'No disco was ever this sublime' – SPIN

The project has been revitalized by the new-variant Scritti Politti, featuring Robert Smoughton, Rhodri Marsden and Dicky Moore, who have played alongside Green for the last decade. The shows will feature previously unperformed songs from Cupid & Psyche 85, alongside other material from Scritti’s history.

'Gartside still possesses one of the most unashamedly lovely voices in British rock' - The Times

'They don't make pop stars like Green Gartside anymore' - NME

Promoted by AEG Presents in association with 13 Artists.