The Beta Band have today announced details of U.K. & North American tours in the autumn of this year. The shows will feature the classic line up of Steve Mason (guitar / vocals), Richard Greentree (bass), John Maclean (samples / keyboard) & Robin Jones (drums).
Talking about getting back together for the tour, the band said:
The Beta Band, as everyone knows, is an institution, like Bedlam, or the RSPCA, and as such has its own indelible stain on the bedsheet of Western culture. It was the great John Noakes who said “you have to shake it out at least once every couple of decades, if you want to know what the moths did”. So with both those facts in mind, we realise the time has come to show the wall the Luminol, kill the lights and hit the UV.
The tour will be the first time the band have played together since they split in late 2004 following a tour which ended with a show at Edinburgh’s Liquid Room on 4th December.
The full list of tour dates is as follows:
25.09.25 – Barrowland – GLASGOW
27.09.25 – O2 Academy – LEEDS
29.09.25 – O2 Academy – BRISTOL
30.09.25 – Rock City – NOTTINGHAM
02.10.25 – Roundhouse – LONDON
04.10.25 – Albert Hall – MANCHESTER
12.10.25 – Commodore Ballroom – VANCOUVER, CA
14.10.25 – The Showbox – SEATTLE
15.10.25 – Crystal Ballroom – PORTLAND
17.10.25 – Regency Ballroom – SAN FRANCISCO
18.10.25 – The Fonda Theatre – LOS ANGELES
20.10.25 – Metro Music Hall – SALT LAKE CITY
21.10.25 – Ogden Theatre – DENVER
23.10.25 – Metro – CHICAGO
24.10.25 – St. Andrew’s Hall – DETROIT
25.10.25 – Danforth Music Hall – TORONTO
28.10.25 – 9.30 Club – WASHINGTON
29.10.25 – Royale Boston – BOSTON
30.10.25 – Union Transfer – PHILADELPHIA
01.11.25 – Brooklyn Steel – NEW YORK
Tickets for the shows go on pre-sale at 10am 5th March. Fans can sign up to the Beta Band mailing list to access pre-sale tickets.
General sale starts at 10am on 7th March.
Tickets for the U.K. dates will be available HERE.
Tickets for the North American dates will be available HERE.
I discovered the Beta Band, like I discovered a lot of great music, basically through eventually surrendering to the enthused urgings of a mate who was cooler than me. He continually evangelized about the EP’s. I was lost to the concert hall and firmly ensconced on the dancefloor by then and highly resistant but quite taken by the idea that a band would bring out extended plays rather than singles. When I did check them out, I was instantly smitten by their originality and power.
The band, therefore, were pivotal for me in terms of my own musical journey, in that they represented a gateway back into indie guitar music, which I’d basically given up since becoming obsessed with rave and acid house.
The Beta Band were definitely a band for the cool cognoscenti- like my buddy- the ones you make a bit of a tit of yourself trying to convert quite straight boring people to.
The emotions they induced were a kind of throwback to school days when you were very pompous and prescriptive about what you liked, and derisive towards non-believers. It’s a testimony to the power of the music that they could take me to the raw state of the younger man.
I took it personally that they didn’t hit the mainstream commercial base. At least two of the three albums they made deserved quadruple platinum status. Hot Shots II and Heroes to Zeros are permanently lodged very high in my top one hundred albums of all time.
So, the return of the Beta Band has me moving into the same mode of immature, adolescent anticipation. Everyone should have the Beta Band albums and EPs in their collection. It still kind of annoys me – in fact it bugs the shit out of me – that most of them don’t.
And that really is something.
Irvine Welsh – February 2025.
Additionally, Because Music have announced details of a deluxe double vinyl reissue of the band’s classic The Three E.P.’s which will be released on Friday 11th July 2025.
Originally released in September 1998 on Regal, The Three E.P.’s collected the band’s first 3 E.P. releases, Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound & Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos.
Previously reissued by Because in 2018, this new vinyl re-press will be available on 2 x 12” 180g heavyweight black vinyl with inner sleeves featuring the original cover artwork of the 3 EP releases.
The track listings are as follows:
A1. Dry The Rain %
A2. I Know %
A3 B + A %
B1 Dog’s Got A Bone %
B2. Inner Meet Me $
B3 The House Song $
C1 Monolith $
C2 She’s The One $
D1 Push It Out £
D2 It’s Over £
D3 Dr. Baker £
D4 Needles In My Eyes £
% – Champion Versions
$ – The Patty Patty Sound
£ – Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos
Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the time, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in 1996.
Innovative and singular, The Beta Band’s unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, their three albums, The Beta Band (1999), Hot Shots II (2001) & Heroes To Zeroes (2004), would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.
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