Black Grape will release the brand new album Orange Head on DGAFF Recordings on 19th January 2024. Today, they share “Dirt”, which follows previous singles”Milk” and “Pimp Wars.”
On “Dirt” which sees the duo time travelling back to their youth, Shaun spits the lyric ‘Razor Blades stuck on the slide with chewing gum’. Talking about the track, he says, “Parts of it are about childhood memories that disturbed me. Not really at the time, but years later.” Kermit adds, “Basically it’s a tale of trying to survive in the neighbourhood where you were born and how you keep getting dragged into other people’s bullshit…”
Black Grape could only have been made in Manchester. The swagger, fun, and cryptic humour seem hewn from a city historian, AJP Taylor, who once described it as offering an archetypally different way of English urban life to London. Both Shaun Ryder and Paul Leveridge, known as Kermit, came from edgy but cool parts of the city. In Shaun’s case, Salford, with Kermit originating from Moss Side. For those unfamiliar, ‘the Moss’ lay in the shadow of Manchester City’s old stadium at Maine Road, and was one of the first multi-ethnic areas in Manchester.
So we have two restlessly creative men, both from the wrong side of the tracks, neither inclined to go to art school or enrol on an MFA programme, yet loaded with street smarts and musical talent, and wanting the world. Good old punk had told every scally they could have it, and a generation went for it in their own ways.
Black Grape are widely regarded as one of the most innovative and iconic bands of the last twenty five years. Black Grape have had 4 Top 10 singles and their debut album It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah shot straight to No.1 in the UK charts upon its release in 1995 and went Platinum. Follow up album Stupid Stupid Stupid went Gold in 1997.
Listen to ‘Dirt’ – BELOW:
Nearly 20 years after the release of Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Black Grape recorded “England Till I Die” for the European nations in 2016. This was the catalyst for another Black Grape collaboration. Pop Voodoo was released in 2017, Ryder’s wordplay was deployed to devastating effect, and it received critical acclaim.
Ryder’s triumphs, struggles and diversions have been well documented. The usual contract and money hassles, a best-selling account of life in the Mondays, a stunning electropunk album from nowhere in Amateur Night in the Big Top, a serious and informative investigation of UFOs as an author and broadcaster, a reality TV bon vivant and finally, a life as a clean-living family man, which has supplanted his old ways. In 2005, he sang lyrics on the Gorillaz track “Dare”, which delivered the band their only No.1 single off their debut album.
Ryder has grown from a wild young tearaway into a British National Treasure. Black Grape always was a grimily cosmic musical jigsaw, melding rock, hip-hop, acid house, psychedelic pop and reggae with Ryder’s gutter poetry, delivered in his inimitable shyster’s bark.
They spent 2021/22 playing UK festivals and are currently touring the UK – details below.
Track Listing
Dirt
Pimp Wars
Button Eyes
Quincy
In The Ground
Loser
Milk
Panda
Self Harm
Sex On The Beach
UK Tour Dates
30th November – Tramshed – Cardiff
1st December – Electric Ballroom – London
2nd December – Engine Rooms – Southampton
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