As homecoming gigs go this is right up there with one of the best, and right at the time when we need a shot of live music the most.
FEEDER have announced they are heading home to perform in Newport’s Tredegar Park on Friday 9th July. The last remaining tickets are on general sale right now, check out the bottom of the page for all the details. Support for the homecoming will come from special guests The Magic Gang and Welsh bands Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and Tom Auton and the Bottle Breakers.
The latest addition to the line up is CRAIG CHARLES who is bringing his legendary Funk & Soul Club party to Feeder: The Homecoming Gig in Newport.
Yes, the legendary actor, comedian, musician, poet and presenter; Craig Charles is a man of many talents. Having played with many bands, Charles has a good ear for the best tunes and in 2012 formed The Craig Charles Funk And Soul Club. Broadcasting for 10 years on BBC 6 Music with their prime time Saturday night slot, Craig Charles has gone from strength to strength, becoming a commanding figure and DJ in the UK funk and soul scene.
Currently live every Saturday Night for 3 hours between 6pm and 9pm on one of the nation’s most loved music radio stations, has garnered Craig global support as one of the UK’s foremost Funk and Soul DJ, commentator and promoter of new music.
Event organiser Mark Hopkins told us……
“We’re delighted that this will be one of the first major outdoor events in Wales and we wanted to make the party even bigger! Craig Charles Funk and Soul Club does exactly that, big tunes to get everyone moving. The show was originally going to be extra special with Feeder playing a hometown show and it’s going to be even more special with this now being one of the first live outdoor events in Wales.”
Incredibly, FEEDER have been around since 1994 when they got together in Newport. They have a massive catalogue to their name including 10 studio albums, 12 compilations, four EPs and 40 singles, spending a combined total of 183 weeks on the singles and albums charts as of 2019, while accumulating 25 top 75 singles between 1997 and 2012.
The awards followed as well, Feeder won two Kerrang! Awards in 2001 and 2003; and they were inducted into their Hall of Fame in August 2019.
Feeder are one of the Britpop era bands to have continued success long after their peak. Their 2019 album Tallulah debuted at number four, more than two decades after the group formed, and 20 years after their first top 10 album Yesterday Went Too Soon.
As we mentioned the band was formed in 1994, but actually we can probably go back a couple more years when they were under another incarnation. “Reel” was formed in 1992 by vocalist and guitarist Grant Nicholas, drummer Jon Lee and bassist Simon Blight, three of the four members of Raindancer, after the departure of that band’s other member, guitarist John Canham. And this is where it gets complicated: Simon left Reel later in 1992, and the band played with many session bassists before hiring Taka Hirose in 1994 and re-establishing themselves as Feeder; signing with The Echo Label that year.
It all went a bit crazy for the band in 2001. Their third album, Echo Park, was a massive success, and its lead single, “Buck Rogers”, went top five here in the UK. Jon Lee sadly died at his Miami home in January 2002, after which the remaining members began to record and play with former Skunk Anansie drummer Mark Richardson.
They released their fourth album, Comfort in Sound, later that year; it touched on themes such as loss and coming to terms with death, while also exploring themes of positivity. Mark was ultimately made an official member, until he left in 2009 to rejoin Skunk Anansie.
Feeder kept it all going, and have since worked with a roster of drummers live and in the studio, including Tim Trotter, Karl Brazil and Geoff Holroyde. They guys were never far from the charts, between 2010 and 2017, they had four more top 20 albums, including The Best of Feeder which gave them their consecutive top 10 album.
In 2019, the band signed a deal with Believe UK to release their tenth studio album, Tallulah.
As ever, Grant Nicholas leads from the front, alongside bass player and comrade Taka Hirose. The homecoming gig in Newport is going to be one massive live airing of The Best Of album and of course some of the songs we love from the recent albums. We’d like to be that Tredegar Park will be ringing with some of the classic Feeder crowd anthems – ‘Just the Way I’m Feeling’, ‘Tumble and Fall’, ‘Just a Day’, ‘Feeling a Moment’ and of course, the widely loved ‘Buck Rogers’.
Since forming in 1994, Feeder have released ten studio albums, spanning early albums like Echo Park to Comfort of Sound and Renegades. The Welsh rock band’s ninth album All Bright Electric came out in 2016 and the band released their most recent album Tallulah in 2019, which was met with critical acclaim. The album peaked at No. 4 on the UK Album Charts on release and was supported with singles ‘Fear of Flying’, ‘Youth’, ‘Daily Habit’ and ‘Blue Sky Blue’
Feeder have come full circle. More than two decades after their first show the band are reinvigorated, tapping into the essential, primal energy that first inspired them.
Support for this huge event come from very special guests Brighton indie band The Magic Gang, whose second album ‘Death of a Party’ received critical and fan adoration worldwide; NME hailed it as ‘A timeless and genre-blurring record’.
The line-up also sees two Welsh artists performing, first up is retro rock outfit Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, who have received prestigious air play from BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, Jack Saunders and Huw Stephens and disco-infused blues rock from Tom Auton & the Bottle Breakers.
FEEDER will get to Tredegar Park, Newport on Friday 9th July. Tickets are available right now, and you can get yours HERE