Punks tackle NHS crisis and Mary Berry

Bristol punkers Idles must love being by the seaside '“ they're playing two dates in Blackpool in the next few months.
IdlesIdles
Idles

Promoting their debut album Brutalism, the politically-charged band will be appearing at Bootleg Social on April 15 and have been added to the bill of August’s Rebellion festival on August 2.

Brutalism captures the intensity of the band’s live sound.

The abrasive lyrics of Joseph Talbot are delivered spiced with wry humour and plenty of bile.

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Dedicated to the loss of his mother, the record also tackles subjects like the crisis faced by the NHS as well as referencing baking queen Mary Berry.

The November 2016 release of single Well Done saw the band rise to the top spot on Spotify’s Viral Charts.

Idles have also received plenty of national radio show from the likes of Huw Stephens, Annie Mac and Steve Lamacq.

Steve said: “They are very much their own incarnation of uncompromising rhythmical punk rock.

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“Lyrically, a mixture of dry obsessional humour and poetic slogans. But, best of all, they really get the adrenalin pumping.”

Idles has its roots in the Batcave club night in Bristol, ran by singer Joe Talbot and bassist Adam Devonshire, who met while at college in Exeter.

According to Talbot, “It took us a long time to get productive because we didn’t know what we were doing at all, we were terrible for a long time.”

The band’s first release was the Welcome EP in 2012. By 2014 the band comprised Talbot, Devonshire, guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, and drummer Jon Beavis.

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They released a second EP, Meat, and Meta, an EP of remixes, in 2015, and then started writing songs for their debut album.

Often described as post-punk, Talbot rejects the label, saying in June 2017: “We’re not a post punk band.

“I guess we have that motorik, engine-like drive in the rhythm section that some post punk bands have but we have plenty of songs that aren’t like that at all.”