NEWS: Richard Dawson and Circle @ Boiler Shop

Image: Circle with Richard Dawson by Antti Uusimäki

I never understood the narrative of surprise from much of the coverage surrounding the release of last year’s Henki. Certainly, from droning masterpiece The Vile Stuff to Masseuse’s pounding proto-metal and the fire-and-brimstone flamboyance of Civil Servant, the Richard Dawson catalogue has never shied from flaunting heavier influences. Factor in his penchant for the absurd and mastery in grand design, and an hour-long “flora-themed hypno-folk-metal” epic – created in collaboration with Finland’s maverick experimentalists Circle – begins to feel like a pretty logical step!

Likely or otherwise, Dawson’s exploits alongside his favourite band in the world date back to summer 2019, when he was invited to perform with them at Sideways Festival in Helsinki – an experience he’s since described as “like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden.” Now, their audacious alchemy (which they’d originally planned to debut during a doomed March 2020 show at Sage Gateshead) is finally primed for a North East stage, with the ensemble set to be unleashed in all its glory at Newcastle’s Boiler Shop on Tuesday 12^th July.

Clear your social calendar; book a babysitter; ask somebody to cover that pesky nightshift. After all, what kind of square wouldn’t want to spend their Tuesday evening engrossed in 10-minute wig-outs about 20^th Century botanist Isabel Clifton Cookson, or 32,000-year-old seeds buried in permafrost?

Richard Dawson and Circle play Boiler Shop, Newcastle on Tuesday 12^th July.