Speaking to the Quietus at this year's Bloodstock festival, Orange Goblin front man Ben Ward has confirmed that the group’s now legendary Christmas show/riff-a-thon/piss-up will be taking place once again this year on December 22 at the O₂ Academy Islington, London.

“It’s become almost as much a part of Christmas as the Turkey,” said Ward. “We almost feel that pressure that we can’t not do a Christmas show now!

“We’re not sure of the full line up just yet,” he added, “there’s a few ideas floating around; we always try and guarantee a really strong line up.”

Orange Goblin returned to the scene in spectacular style in February this year with the release of their seventh studio LP A Eulogy For The Dammed which came five years after its predecessor, yet despite this extended break Ward told us that there was never any question of the band splitting up.

“Never once did we have that doubt and those thoughts that we wanted to call it a day; we all have too much doing this band!” He said. “It’s been 17 years and it’s still as much fun today’s as it was when we started and I think that’s the essence of why we’re all still here.

“I suppose what took so long was that life just got in the way really. We don’t earn a living from doing Orange Goblin; we all have day jobs, we all have families and kids and that sort of things but we did as much touring and played as many shows as we could and we were always confident that we would come back and do another album.

“If I’m honest though it was a surprise just how well the album was received” He added. “Normally taking that sort of time between albums you can have people lose interest, but we’ve definitely noticed just from the live performances we’ve done since then that our status and popularity seems to be rising. And long may that continue!”

More ticket and line-up details for this year’s Christmas show to follow as and when we have them.