For Northern Ireland-originating rockers Therapy? resilience and survival have become watchwords.
Enduring over three decades as the musical, cultural and social landscapes have shifted around them, the trio have forged and retained a powerful and lasting connection with a dedicated fan base around the world, doing so by putting their emphasis on the music, solidifying a hard-won reputation as forward-thinking writers and a fierce live proposition in the process.
Never ones to rest on their laurels Therapy? are set to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their Platinum awarded album TROUBLEGUM with a series of concerts in Australia, Ireland, UK and Mainland Europe later this year. As Andy Cairns of the band said recently:
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of our album Troublegum we’ll be heading out on tour this year to celebrate with a set (not just a perfunctory play through), based on Therapy? in 1994 and featuring songs from that era alongside the TG tunes.
When we started out in County Antrim in 1989 we could never have foreseen this beast of punk metal noise being such a landmark record.
Come along and celebrate with us as we play banger after banger!
Released by A&M Records on February 7th 1994 Troublegum quickly established itself as one of the ‘Albums of the Year’, winning Album of the Year in Kerrang, # 2 in Metal Hammer and scoring highly in NME and Melody Maker End of Year charts. It garnered a Mercury Prize nomination and also led to 2 MTV nominations that year. It featured 5 Hit Singles and 5 appearances on TOTP!!
As Therapy?’s fourth decade finally gets underway in earnest, sixteenth album ‘Hard Cold Fire’, written and pre-produced during an unprecedented time for music, is hefty, compact, and accessible, a distillation of everything that has made them what they are - hewn from County Antrim basalt, still possessed of their stoicism, but casting a renewed focus on catharsis and healing.
Coming together in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1989, rock three-piece Therapy? have, over the course of three decades and sixteen studio albums, resolutely carved their own path, from the 'thrown' noise-rock clang of their early mini-albums 'Babyteeth' and 'Pleasure Death'; to genre-defying mainstream success in the 1990s with Gold-certified albums 'Troublegum' and 'Infernal Love'; to enduring, cult-hero status in the post-millennial climate.
Building on an eclectic range of influences and an unending desire to push their sound forward, the band developed a reputation as a hard-gigging outfit early on, catching the ear of A&M Records in 1992, and racking up a dozen UK Top 40 singles during their time on the major label, including signature tunes like 'Teethgrinder', 'Screamager', 'Nowhere', and 'Stories' - newly-recorded versions of which formed the basis of their 'Greatest Hits - 2020 Versions' release, via current label home Marshall Records.
Resolving to endure the broader alternative-rock fads of the turn of the millennium, Therapy? have continued to confound critical and commercial expectations, from the filth and fury of 2004 fan favourite 'Never Apologise Never Explain', and the Krautrock-inflected explorations of 2009's critically acclaimed 'Crooked Timber', to the sludgy riffage and social commentary of 2018's 'Cleave', the band's Marshall Records debut.
In doing so, they've won and maintained the trust of a loyal and dedicated fanbase, keeping on the road with consistent annual touring - finally getting to share their long-delayed 30th anniversary celebrations with their fans in a post-Covid Greatest Hits-themed excursion around Europe, the UK and Ireland in late 2022, and ‘Love Your Early Stuff’, a short UK tour that placed the spotlight on deep-cuts from the band’s catalogue.
Not content with the stage and studio, the band collaborated with UK music journalist Simon Young on their official print biography ‘So Much for the 30 Year Plan’, sharing a story that ranges from the realities of Troubles-era Northern Ireland, to travelling the world on a wave of commercial success, to putting the foundations in place for a lasting musical legacy.
