Arab Strap have shared details of an upcoming tour which will see them play their 1998 album Philophobia in its entirety.
The run of eight shows in June will see Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton celebrate 25 years since the album’s original release. They will play the shows as a duo, armed, they said in a statement, with "a guitar or two, some drum machines and probably a digital Mellotron." Having initially picked out venues for a series of full-band shows, they ultimately decided to strip back their plans and settled on playing the album at intimate venues across England, in cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, London and Manchester.
In a statement, Moffat and Middleton said: "With a new album about halfway ready for release next year, we thought we could easily ignore our second album’s 25th birthday. But we find it hard to say no to Philophobia. If our first album was a ramshackle oddity filled with in-jokes and formerly private tape moments that we never expected to bother many ears, it was Philophobia where everything started to come together, when we began to realise making music might have a future for us, and the Arab Strap sounds and themes began to take shape.
"If you’ve seen us play in the past few years, you’ll know we still include quite a few of its songs in our set lists. These tunes seem to have endured, and it’s probably the only album we’d ever consider performing all the way through."
Tickets for the tour will go on sale this Friday (March 31) at 10am BST via Arab Strap’s website.
