Music stars unite for Hillsborough
Members of the Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream are scheduled to perform at a series of concerts in support of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign.
The concerts, which kick off in Cardiff on December 1 before taking in Manchester, Sheffield, London, Liverpool and Glasgow, are going under the banner of the 'Justice Tonight' tour, a spin-off of the 'Don't Buy The Sun' gig which took place at the Olympia in Liverpool back in September.
On that night, local heroes The Farm took to the stage with the former Clash and Big Audio Dynamite star Mick Jones to perform a set of Clash songs in front of a sold-out audience of football supporters from both Liverpool and Everton as well as many music fans.
Alongside Pete Wylie, formerly of Liverpool band The Mighty Wah!, The Farm and Jones stormed through a set of Clash songs to a rapturous response. It was the first time Jones had performed a whole set of Clash songs live on stage in almost 30 years and such was the positive reaction to the night, he's agreed to play at every one of the gigs on the 'Justice Tonight' tour alongside Wylie and The Farm.
The 'super group' will be joined by special guests on each night of the tour with Manic Street preachers front man James Dean Bradfield appearing in Cardiff, Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie appearing at the London gig, James Allan from Glasvegas appearing in Glasgow and former Pulp member Richard Hawley taking the stage with Jon McClure in Sheffield. Further special guests are scheduled to be announced shortly.
"It was just a fantastic, fantastic thing," claims Mick Jones of the 'Don't Buy The Sun' gig earlier this year. "I was very pleased to be asked and it went so well, so we thought we'd might try and do some more. I'm totally honoured to be part of something so meaningful and I hope that we can do some good."
The Farm's Peter Hooton, who has helped organise the gigs, believes that taking the 'Justice Tonight' tour nationwide can only help raise awareness of what happened on April 15 1989.
"After the 'Don't Buy The Sun' gig in September, Mick Jones was saying it was one of the best nights of his life and it had reminded him of why he picked up a guitar in the first place to protest about injustice," he said.
"He really pushed the idea of taking the idea of the concerts to other cities and with the backing of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, the help of SJM promotions and Unite, it has been able to happen. This time there will lots more Clash and very special guests at each venue. Everyone is really excited but some of the guests we can't announce yet but will be a big surprise on the night."
The full dates for the 'Justice Tonight' tour are as follows:
December 1: Cardif University Solus
December 2: Manchester HMV Ritz
December 3: Sheffield Leadmill
December 8: London Scala
December 9: Liverpool University
December 10: Glasgow O2 ABC
To buy tickets, please click here to visit www.gigsandtours.com or ring the 24hour credit card hotline on: 0844 811 0051