Primal Gig Promises to Be a Real Scream at St George’s

By MAUREEN COLEMAN

FESTIVAL favourites Primal Scream are set to raise the roof of St George’s Market later this year.

The Scottish indie rockers will play the venue on Sunday, November 16, to promote their ninth album Beautiful Future.

The band formed in the early 1980s but their career did not really take off until Bobby Gillespie left his position as drummer of the Jesus and Mary Chain to be the full-time frontman for Primal Scream.

After being introduced to the rave scene by Creation Records’ Alan McGee in 1988, the band went on to have their first taste of chart success with the massive indie dance anthem Loaded. This was followed by another single, Come Together, which went top 10.

Primal Scream then released the album Screamadelica, which was a huge commercial success and also won the first Mercury Music Prize. It’s a classic album and regularly appears in the top 100 albums of all time polls.

Despite multiple line-up changes the band has remained commercially successful and continues to tour and record.

Their last album Riot City Blues spawned the single Country Girl, which charted at number five, their highest ever. The band’s ninth album, Beautiful Future, produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John, is a move away from the old school rock and is being billed as their “pop” album. A number of collaborations appear on the album, including I Love To Hurt with CSS, Lovefoxx and a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Over and Over with folk legend Linda Thompson. Over the past 25 years Primal Scream have built up a loyal following and count supermodel Kate Moss and Oasis among their fans.

The Primal Scream gig is the latest in a list of performances at St George’s Market. Already this year US alt rockers Jimmy Eat World and singer/songwriter Newton Faulkner have performed in the last of Belfast’s thriving Victorian market places.

And only last week, Grammy-award winning producer and DJ Mark Ronson brought his Version Players to the city centre venue. Despite the heat – Ronson told the crowd he had never sweated so much in his life – the DJ and his crew loved St George’s and its atmosphere.

Pop act Scouting For Girls have also been lined up to play there later this year. Its popularity as a live music venue has risen in the last 12 months and the venue is plugging a gap left vacant by the closure of the Ulster Hall for refurbishment.

Dino Cafolla of CDC Leisure, promoters of Primal Scream, described St George’s as ‘a fantastic venue’.

“It’s a Victorian style market – halfway between Covent Garden and Smithfield Market in London,” he said.

Concert tickets cost Pounds 25.50 and go on sale this Friday from 111.geturticket.com and www.ticketmaster.ie

Originally published by MAUREEN COLEMAN SHOWBIZ CORRESPONDENT mcoleman@belfasttelegraph.co.uk.

(c) 2008 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.