Peter Perrett

In the organizer's words:

"Something inside me would like to make my best album," Peter Perrett said in 2007. "When I see Johnny Cash doing his best work at the very end, I feel that just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm useless. The lead single and opening track from his new album "The Cleansing", out November 1st on Domino, is called "I Wanna Go With Dignity", is just under three minutes and 25 seconds long and is peppered with Perrett's dry wit and alarming honesty. Alongside his established team of sons Jamie (guitar/production) and Peter Jr. (bass) and members of his live band, Perrett is joined by a number of high profile guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie, Carlos O'Connell of Fontaines DC and Dream Wife guitarist Alice Go. Perrett's uniquely narcotic and seductive melodies, ravishing South London dialect and entrancing rock dynamics now combine with a wider range of musical arrangements and lyrical concerns - including themes of art, addiction, ageing, social media and witch trials. "I know some of the themes are death, suicide and depression," Perrett notes, "but I feel like the album has an uplifting vibe because I obviously enjoy recognizing what's going on around me." "I Wanna Go With Dignity" is dedicated to the late Fiona H. Stevenson (aka Fay Wolftree), and the lyrics were inspired in part by the late David Cavanagh, both of whom interviewed Perrett. "Gillespie" is one of eight tracks on the album featuring Bobby Gillespie and Carlos O'Connell. Gillespie also appears in the video for "I Wanna Go With Dignity", which was directed by Douglas Hart. Hart can also be heard on the album's title track. It's the first time since the days of The Jesus & Mary Chain that Gillespie (backing vocals) and Hart (synthesizer / drum programming) are featured on the same track. "I feel like the older you get, the more thoughtful you get," says Perrett. "I've always approached life lightly, just living in the moment, but then you start to look back on the choices you've made. I wanted to focus more on what I wanted to say. I still write about love and the human condition, but perhaps a little more sentimental and less cynical than usual. I've also become more focused with the music. I used to put down two guitars, bass and drums and that was the song: I didn't think much about the process. But then we started to open things up."
With "The Cleansing", Peter Perrett's story can finally and irrefutably continue after his first appearance with The Only Ones, one of the most distinctive and charismatic new wave bands with a rousing live reputation. The band flourished from 1976 to 1981 - almost in spite of themselves, given the drug use of the time, and when they finally imploded, Perrett had to go into hiding due to his increasing drug addiction. Perrett re-emerged in the mid-90s as frontman of The One, a valiant but short-lived attempt to recapture former glory, and again in 2007 when The Only Ones reformed, although the band only played live and never recorded a new album. With the band never taking it easy, it almost seemed like fate when the pandemic hit the year after the release of 'Humanworld', and given Perrett's precarious health, it was only reasonable to expect that he wouldn't record again, and indeed it was touch and go for a while.
"The Cleansing" features Perrett's observations of the outside world, written from the perspective of a man who has realized how much has changed (not least himself). Cleansed, revitalized, survived: one of rock's great nonconformists is in the shape of his life, and one of rock's great comebacks is ready to move on.

Price information:

VVK: 23€ plus fees