Post-punk legend Kirk Brandon believes he has a special bond with Aberdeen fans and is relishing a return to the Granite City.
Kirk will play the city’s Drummonds on Friday. December 8 with Spear of Destiny, the influential band he formed in 1982.
The singer-songwriter has described Aberdeen fans as “brilliant” and is relishing performing to them again.
One of the most distinctive voices in British alt-rock Kirk has played Aberdeen numerous times with Spear of Destiny and his other band Theatre of Hate.
And one freezing night at the city’s Krakatoa on Trinity Quay remains vivid in the 67-year-old post-punk great’s memory.
Kirk said: “Aberdeen is absolutely brilliant and so are the people who are so friendly.
“Ever since I started playing there I have found that Aberdeen is completely different and unique, it is great.
“I have had memorable gigs at The Lemon Tree but the one up there I really remember is playing the venue down by the waterfront (Krakatoa).
“It was a great show.
“There is an alleyway to the side of the venue.
“I remember pushing my gear out in the freezing cold and pouring rain with all the big fishing boats close by.”
Spear of Destiny refuse to become a ‘karaoke band’
Kirk’s music career began amidst the punk explosion when forming The Pack in London in 1978.
After the band split he then formed post-punk, new wave Theatre of Hate in 1980.
When Theatre of Hate disband two years later after just one studio album the ever evolving Kirk set up Spear of Destiny.
It is now 40 years since Spear of Destiny’s acclaimed debut album was released in 1983.
Kirk continues to record new material with Spear of Destiny having released album Ghost Population last year.
He is working on new material and insists Spear of Destiny will never become a “karaoke band” playing only the old hits because creativity and artistic progression are Kirk’s “lifeblood”.
Kirk said: “I don’t just want to trot out an album from 1988, that way you would be your own karaoke band.
“We won’t do that.
“I have to write new material. It is the lifeblood and why I do this.”
Revisiting the past… but moving forward
Spear of Destiny have released 15 albums and Kirk admits it can be difficult to whittle down the mass of tracks for a set-list.
The performance in Aberdeen will span the band’s long career from their debut album to recent release.
He said: “If is hard because people want songs from One Eyed Jacks, World Service and Outlands.
“But they also want stuff from our first album Grapes of Wrath and we are doing several songs from that.
“In between there are tracks from the other albums we have released over the years, and of course the new one Ghost Population.
“It’s more fun to play when you mix it up, it makes it more interesting.
“And the guys who play with me have been doing so for decades.
“They want to play newer tracks they appear on so you have to cater for everything.
“You can’t just say ‘no’ we are going to play this 1987 album called Outland and that is the end of that.
“We try not to do that because it excludes everything else.
“When you do a tour you put as many tracks in it as you can to make it varied then someone will come up and say you didn’t play something from Morning Star.
“And I’m like ‘oh come on man’.
“I apologize profusely,” he laughed.
Fantastic start to the tour, the first set of shows have been amazing!
We have been working hard in the studio this week and can’t wait to share the music with you in 2024
Upcoming shows from-
Sunday 3rd December – Nottingham – https://t.co/nwZbDpzmM1 pic.twitter.com/cQCB2h9848— KIRK BRANDON (@kirkbrandon) November 30, 2023
Ghost Population for the alienated
Released last year album Ghost Population reaches the high bar set by Spear of Destiny’s back catalogue.
Kirk explains how the album’s title, and many of the songs, tackle an increasingly alienated and disenfranchised counter-culture.
He said: “The original idea came from something I read on the internet on research into the history of mankind.
“They looked at the DNA and there are these people in the background who they don’t know who they are.
“So they called them the Ghost Population.
“There are no physical records of them so far, all they have is what is in our DNA.
“I thought that applied to today where all us alternative people are like the Ghost Population on the periphery of mainstream society.
“That mainstream society marches over everybody and everything.
“And we just get pushed further out from the centre and become non-existent most of the time.
“When you go to gig to see a band like New Model army you have thousands of people.
“But these gigs are the only place you actually see these people, it is like they are edited out.
“Instead all you see is people walking around in track-suits being oafs.
“Then everything on the television is a 1984 scenario where you watch this stuff but don’t recognise anything or anyone.
“It is like looking at another planet.
“You see people walking in the street looking at their Iphones, it is like they are praying to them.
“Says the person talking to you on a phone. The hypocrisy”, he laughs.
Conversation