Here's news to make it This Perfect Day or send you down a One Way Street...
The Saints are reforming with Mudhoney's Mark Arm up front for a six-date Australian tour in November.
Arm, founding Saints members guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay will be joined by bassist Peter Oxley of Sunnyboys and former The Birthday Party/Bad Seeds member Mick Harvey on guitar.
The dates will be in celebration of a vinyl box set release of the 1977 classic debut album "(I’m) Stranded" on In The Red. The sets will be largely drawn from it, "Eternally Yours" (1978) and "Prehistoric Sounds" (1978).
Wed Nov 13 Hindly St. Music Hall, Adelaide, SA
Fri Nov 15 Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC
Sat Nov 16 Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Wed Nov 20 Freo Social, Fremantle, WA
Fri Nov 22 Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Sat Nov 23 Princess Theatre, Brisbane QLD SOLD OUT
SUN Nov 24 Princess Theatre, Brisbane QLD
Tickets via feelpresents.com
The news will sharply divide fans. Original singer Chris Bailey, of course, died in 2022. Bailey, Kuepper and Hay reformed their band in 2009 for the All Tomorrow's Parties run of festival shows.
Bailey famously kept The Saints name when the original incarnation dissolved in London in '79. After a distinguished career with Laughing Clowns and his own bands, Kuepper has also kept the band's legacy alive, fronting The Aints! to play a mix of the back catalogue and early unreleased songs.
A frequent Australian visitor with Mudhoney, Mark Arm has been down a similiar path before, fronting DKT-MC5, the part-MC5 reformation with a core of oriignal members Wayne Kramer, Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson (all now deceased).
The tour will coincide with the November 15 release on In The Red of a deluxe edition of (I’m) Stranded, housed in an embossed box and featuring four LP’s covering all recordings (studio and live from) 1976-77; the previously unreleased 1976 mix of the album, a 28-page full colour photo essay; an official band history; a 1976 promo photo reproduction and an "(I’m) Stranded" sticker.
