Legendary hip-hop collective, Arrested Development, are about to make a lot of Brits very happy with the announcement of their 2015 UK tour dates early in the new year. It’s been a massive fifteen years since the Atlantans touched down here last for a headline tour and with an impressive six albums released in the intervening time they’ve got a lot of new ground to cover, along with their old-school hits like Every Day People and Tennesser.
The eight date tour is set to start rolling on the 17th February with its opening show at the Club Academy in Manchester, before moving on to gigs in Leeds, London, Brighton and Bristol. Tickets for the shows are just £20, with a £1.50 card handling fee, and you can see details for each of the gigs below. If you’ve managed to get this far through life without knowing who Arrested Development are, take a listen to the music video below of their amazing single,People Everyday to brush up on your musical knowledge.
The band formed back in 1988 and went on to be the flip side alternative to gansta rap, which had gained massive popularity in the early 1990s. Spinning out rhymes with more of a positivist mentality than their peers at the time, they blazed a new trail of alternative hip hop that has since become known as Conscious Rap, as it set about challenging the status quo with an insightful view on culture, society, politics and the economy with huge wedge of hope in their lyrical hearts.
You’ve only got to look at their first big hit, hit Mr. Wendal, which raised awareness for the difficulties that the homeless face, while also donating half of the band’s royalties for the song to the National coalition of the homeless, and you see exactly what they set out to achieve. This came on the back of their smash hit People Everyday (Metamorphosis mix), which went even further into the realms of deep thinking, addressing the battleground that can arrive when the jealous, angry nature of the ignorant collide with people that just want to live happy, free lives, forcing hands that don’t want to make a stake.
While the band broke up in 1996, with original member Headliner leaving the group, the rest of the band reformed in 2000 and returned to the road for a tour not too long afterwards. The reunion also saw Arrested Development back in the studio to produce new material, which started with their 2000 EP, Da Feelin’, but soon turned into a steady stream of full album releases, which consisted of Heroes Of The Harvest in 2002, Extended Revolution in 2003, Among The Trees in 2004, Since The Last Time in 2006, Strong in 2010 and their home recorded Standing At The Crossroads in 2012.
The 2015 UK tour will see the current line-up – Speech, Montsho Eshe, One Love, Tasha Larae, Rasadon (aka Don Norris), Baba Oje, JJ Boogie and Za – return to a music scene that’s always harboured a lot of love for the band. Getting to listen to a combination of their old hits and their more recent material should make for an impressive gig night, bringing a little bit of hip hop brightness to the cold, dark nights of England.
Arrested Development 2015 UK tour dates:
17th February – Manchester, Club Academy
18th February – Leeds, University Stylus
19th February – Cambridge
20th February – Leamington Spa, Assembly
21st February – Chatham, The Britannia Theatre
22nd February – London, Koko
23rd February – Brighton, Concorde
24th February – Bristol, Marble Factory
