International Teachers Of Pop have shared a new EP, Drive All Night, and details of a UK tour this summer.
The EP comprises new single ‘Drive All Night (WE LOVE E.U.)’, which you can watch a video for above, and a recorded version of long-time live fixture ‘Miss Lollipop’. Speaking about the video, the band’s Adrian Flanagan says: "We were giving a nod to Heaven 17’s Penthouse & Pavement album – and all them bloody awful modern day yuppies.. but it’s all come true though hasn’t it?
"Everywhere you look now on the trains – in bars and restaurants it;s people with these portable offices strapped to their noses and ears – twenty-something males checking their crypto currency graphs – or talking to eight mini-squares on zoom to people who look like the bleedin’ Manson Family, all of whom have these IKEA bookcases behind them to convince you that they aren’t all serial killers but are in fact – highly qualified academics!"
Of the track itself, vocalist Leonore Wheatley says: "’Drive All Night (We Love E.U)’ tries to encapsulate the glamour of going on tour and how you spend the days. A lot of the time you’re asleep, using up phone data you don’t have, needing a pee, walking aimlessly around a town you don’t know and buying souvenirs to add to that magnet collection you’ve tried to keep going."
The band’s run of UK tour dates will take them to cities such as Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and London, among others, through August and into September. Find the full list of dates here.
The dates come after shows in support of their 2020 album Pop Gossip were postponed four times due to the coronavirus pandemic. The album’s release itself was also postponed due to the pandemic.
"I’m really looking forward to playing the new album live – rehearsals have been sounding wicked – we have this new eccentric electronic percussion and beats player in the live group called Dimitri who’s just bringing a real cool fresh euro vibe to it all," Flanagan says. "However, this will probably be the last ITOP tour for a good while, we may do the odd standalone show for fun if something comes up and we are all available, but we won’t be writing another album for a while and going through that whole album and tour process!"
Drive All Night is out now on Desolate Spools.
