Reef have announced details of their first UK tour this year and their new album, provisionally titled ‘Reef On A Fresh Tip’. The band fly to Los Angeles next month to record the LP with George Drakoulias, who worked with the band on ‘Place Your Hands’. A single is due in November with the album following early next year.
Singer Gary Stringer told NME the band had been writing songs for the past few months following a lengthy break after virtual nonstop touring in 1997.
“We’ve got about 22 or 23 songs and a few more ideas,” he said. “We can still be a rock’n’roll band, we still have the big tunes and that but now there’s another side to us. I think it’s become a bit more sensitive. Some of the new songs are pop, there’s two with rhythms and one of them almost sounds Latin. We’re mixing it up quite a bit too, I’m playing guitar on some songs, Jack’s singing on others, that sort of thing. It feels really fresh and we’re really excited by it.”
The first chance to hear new Reef material will be on the band’s tour, which calls at Birmingham Que Club (November 11), Glasgow Barrowlands (12), Preston Guildhall (13), Leeds Town And Country Club (15), Reading Hexagon (16), Cambridge Corn Exchange (17), Southampton Guildhall (18), Liverpool University Mountford Hall (20), Sheffield Octagon (21), Nottingham Rock City (22), Norwich UEA (23), London Brixton Academy (25), Torquay Riviera Centre (26), Newport Centre (28) and Cornwall Truro Hall (29).
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