Mike Skinner is bringing The Streets out of retirement with a greatest hits tour
It was recently announced that The Streets would be embarking on a greatest hits UK tour next year, named The Darker The Shadow The Brighter The light. Now, the tour has been extended with a show scheduled for London’s O2 Brixton Academy on 27 April.
“I’ve missed tour buses very much. Which is the least of the reasons why I have decided to tour The Streets again. The other thing I’ve missed is trying to think up what I’m going to say in the gap between the songs,” Skinner said via a press release. “When you DJ they tell you that you don’t need a tour bus and you don’t need to think up things to say between the songs. But seriously, it’s been long enough.”
“With my Tonga parties, the new rap and grime MC’s I have been producing and the DJing, I have been living with music since making The Streets for nearly as long as I made The Streets. I’m not the guy smoking in the car anymore though, I have become the guy in the club, so I hope I will be excused for putting on after parties in nightclubs after every show”.
Other tour dates include Birmingham’s O2 Academy (19 April), Glasgow’s O2 (20 April), Manchester’s O2 Apollo (21 April) and Leeds O2 Academy (23 April), followed by two shows at London’s O2 Academy Brixton (25-26 April).
Skinner released a total of six studio albums under the alias and famously retired the project in 2011. The project’s debut, Original Pirate Material, was released in 2002 to critical acclaim. Before he killed off the project, Skinner released the free mixtape Cyberspace And Reds and followed it up with the final album Computers And Blues. In 2016, he re-invented himself as a DJ and told The Guardian, “The way I see it, it’s like I’ve retired, and now I’m just doing what I want.”
Tickets will be made available to purchase from 13 October at 9am (BST). Head here for tickets.
Revisit Crack’s feature on 15 years of The Streets’ Original Pirate Material.
