The Gigantic Indie All Dayer is proud to announce to you that it will exclusively host the very first live reunion show of 80s indie pop pin ups... BOB

After 20 years out of the music business and even longer since their last live gig together, 80s indie popsters and John Peel favourites BOB have announced plans of their long-awaited comeback for 2015. 

And where better to make their momentous return to the live stage than the Gigantic Indie All Dayer at Manchester Academy on the 23rd May 2015, a festival that fittingly celebrates the very best in classic indie.

With a new career spanning anthology in the works and slated for release in April ahead of the gig, the live date will be the much-loved indie band's first live performance together since 1993.  Speaking about staging their comeback BOB said:

"We are very excited to be playing Gigantic! Next year sees the release of our second re-issue double CD on 3 Loop which features all our singles remastered and a complete CD of unreleased material. We always enjoyed playing in Manchester so it will be a pleasure to come back."

Speaking about what fans can expect from the show, the band went on to hint at just what fans can expect from the show:

"We will be playing a mixture of all the old faves and are really looking forward to catching up with friends old and new."

After a chance encounter in Rough Trade records with John Peel, the band soon became championed  by the DJ throughout a career that saw them release classic singles including "Prune Your Tree", "What a Performance", "Kirsty", "Nothing for something" and more via their own House of Teeth label. In 1989, BOB's infectious and perhaps best known single 'Convenience' was released and boosted by listeners into the infamous John Peel Festive Favourites list that same year. 

BOB will play alongside other premier indie acts on the bill including headliners Echo & The Bunnymen, Pop Will Eat Itself, Gang Of Four, The Primitives and many, many more to be announced soon.

BIOGRAPHY

In 1986, BOB front man Richard Blackborow and  guitarist Simon Armstrong met Jem Morris (bass guitar) at which time they began recording three tracks for their first release. With a little help from a drum machine they recorded their first single entitled Flexi Disc, so named after the format it had been recorded on. Whilst its tracks (including "Prune (Your Tree)", "Groove" and "Brian Wilson's Bed") and its release via their own House of Teeth (HOT) label may have been understated, it was these songs that would begin the legendary John Peel's love affair with their music. 

Upon a chance encounter in the Rough Trade Record shop, the band supplied the premier DJ with a copy of Flexi Disc, a favour he repaid with innumerable plays of the record and three invitations to play his coveted Peel sessions between 1987-1989. From there the band's career sky-rocketed with a session for Radio 1s Simon Mayo show following shortly after. 

For a short while Gary Connors took up skins duties in 1987 as the band released 1987's What a Performance EP, whereas Dean Legget subsequently replaced Connors for 1988's third EP: Kirsty. The latter two EPs were released on the Sombrero label, but would be the last to do so as the band embraced their independence and self-released all of their subsequent records with their own HOT issue numbers. 

By 1989, Peel's praise for the band had won over the public  and their Convenience EP notched up to no.31 in the annual John Peel Festive Fifty that year.

Ex-Caretaker Race bassist Stephen 'Henry' Hersom, stepped in to takeover bass duties on 1990's Stride Up EP, Leave The Straight Life Behind LP and for what would be their last EP together, the tellingly titled Tired EP in 1991. 

Though the band played on until 1993 together, touring their last new material, single Nothing For Something in 1992, the band became increasingly disillusioned with the record industry, notably the infamous decline of Rough Trade's Distribution Arm and disbanded.

However, nearly twenty years after the break-up of the band, the creative embers of BOB were rekindled in 2014 as the band collaborated on a re-issue of their classic and technically only official long-player Leave the Straight Life Behind (1991) via 3 Loop Music. Lovingly restored from the original recordings and released with bonus disc that retrieved their John Peel Sessions from the darkest archival depths, the release was warmly received by the critics and fans alike. On the wave of this acclaim set in motion the impetus for the band's long anticipated reunion in 2015. 

Alongside their comeback show at the Gigantic Indie All Dayer in Manchester Academy, the band are currently restoring the remain House of Teeth archived material on a very best of the unreleased BOB recordings and the complete collected singles and EPs in a 2CD set to hit the shelves in the new year.

Gigantic Indie All Dayer: Info

Gigantic Indie All-Dayer - Vol. 2

Saturday 23rd May 2015

Manchester Academy, Oxford Road, Manchester

1.30PM - 11.30PM

Tickets £29.00 Advance

Box Office: 0161 832 1111 / www.manchesteracademy.net