Cult Scottish band Arab Strap have announced they are to reunite.
The duo – consisting of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton – formed in Falkirk in 1995. They released six studio albums, beginning with ‘The Week Never Starts Round Here’ in 1996 and the most recent of which, ‘The Last Romance’, came out in 2005. They announced their split in September 2006 and played their final gig to date two months later in December in Japan.
After teasing the news earlier this week, their reunion was confirmed on Wednesday (June 15) during an interview on Steve Lamacq’s BBC Radio 6 Music show.
During the interview, the band said they had always planned to reunite after 10 years and suggested that they are considering whether or not to record new music together.
“I think the day we went to the pub and split up, we made a joke about Arab Strap getting back together in 10 years’ time to celebrate,” guitarist Middleton said. “So that’s basically what this is: a chance to enjoy the music we made once more.”
Moffat continued: “We wanted to celebrate it while we’re still relatively young and don’t look too embarrassing on the stage.”
Listen to the full 6 Music interview at the 2:05:32 mark here.
The band have also shared an updated version of their first single ‘The First Big Weekend’, now called ‘The First Big Weekend of 2016’. Listen via Spotify beneath.
Arab Strap will play gigs at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, Manchester’s O2 Ritz and London’s Brixton Electric during October. See those dates in full below. Tickets go on sale this Friday (June 17) at 9am.
London, Brixton Electric (October 13)
Manchester, O2 Ritz (October 14)
Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom (October 15)
Malcolm Middleton spoke about the possibility of reforming Arab Strap back in 2013, saying at the time: “I think, with Arab Strap, it was good at the time. But we could only write songs of that ilk at a certain age. So I don’t think we’ll ever record again but it might be good to do a gig.”
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