Columbia Records / Music With A Twist is set to release 'Gossip - Live In Liverpool,' a deluxe live CD/DVD combination package from Gossip, America's premier indie pop/soul/experimental trio, on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 in the US (UK - 31st March, 2008).
Recorded live in concert on July 9, 2007, 'Gossip - Live In Liverpool' brilliantly captures and focuses the stunning ferocity, energy and intensity at the heart of Gossip's groundbreaking meld of sound and politics.
This incendiary concert showcase breaks out definitive performances of Gossip signature tunes including the band's UK #1 Indie chart-topping smash, "Standing In The Way Of Control"; the UK Top 40 hit, "Listen Up"; and the #3 UK Indie track, "Jealous Girls" in addition to delightfully provocative covers of Wham!'s "Careless Whisper" and Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody?"
'Gossip - Live In Liverpool' includes a DVD of the concert, lensed by documentary filmmaker and music video director Lance Bangs (Sonic Youth, Green Day, R.E.M., Death Cab For Cutie, Kanye West, Pavement, Mike Watt and more).
Gossip will celebrate the release of 'Gossip - Live In Liverpool' with a mini-tour of select US cities including New York (Webster Hall, April 15, 2008), San Francisco (Bimbo's, April 18) and Los Angeles (Henry Fonda Theatre, April 18).
The band has been selected as a featured artist in MTV's "52/52" campaign in conjunction with the release of 'Gossip - Live In Liverpool.' "52/52" is a brand new way for the channel to give unprecedented exposure to unsigned artists, indie bands, and established acts on major labels in a completely new and innovative way. MTV handpicks one band/artist per week for the entire year and gives them the equivalent of roughly 11 hours of on-air commercial time per week on the channel. Performances, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage with Gossip will air throughout the group's "52/52" spots.
Gossip is: Beth Ditto (vocals), Brace Paine (guitar, bass) and Hannah Blilie (drums).
Formed in Searcy, Arkansas, in 1999, the radical feminism-infused punk rock trio relocated to Olympia, Washington that same year where the group released its eponymous debut EP, 'The Gossip.' Fronted by the brash and unapologetic Beth Ditto, Gossip is simultaneously iconic and iconoclastic, forging new visual and musical templates, uncompromising, even by rock & roll convention, and utterly refreshing, by anybody's standards.
Gossip released their first full-length collection of songs, 'That's Not What I Heard,' in January 2001 and its successor, the EP 'Arkansas Heat,' in 2002 after touring with the White Stripes and Sleater-Kinney. The group's second full-length collection, 'Movement,' was released in May 2003.
Gossip reached a threshold of transcendence with its last studio album, 2006's 'Standing In The Way Of Control,' which reached #22 on the UK album chart while the album's title track became a UK smash in its own right after becoming the unofficial theme music for the popular British television teen drama, "Skins," and eventually rocketing to #1 on the UK indie chart.
'Standing In The Way Of Control' charted on Billboard's European Top 100 Albums with the single hitting the European Hot 100 Singles charts. The single has sold more than 150,000 copies in the UK.
The band appeared on the cover of the UK's prestigious music bible NME no less than three times in 2007, with the June 2nd issue notoriously featuring Beth Ditto proudly flaunting her "birthday suit." The NME declared Beth as its #1 choice for its "Coolest Of 2007" list while, back in the States, Spin featured Beth in a six-page spread.
Now based in Portland, Oregon, Gossip has opened for Le Tigre, Mates of State and Scissor Sisters, among others. During the summer of 2007, Gossip was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour 2007, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour, sponsored by the Logo Channel, also included Debbie Harry, Erasure, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, The Cliks and other special guests. Profits from the tour went to benefit the Human Rights Campaign.
On June 24, 2007, Gossip closed the Glastonbury Festival, with Beth Ditto paying tribute to legendary DJ John Peel during the group's set.
More than 50,000 copies of Gossip's independent releases have been sold in the United States to-date.
'Gossip - Live In Liverpool' CD tracklisting:
Eyes Open
Yr Mangled Heart
Swing Low
Are You That Somebody?
Fire / Sign
Coal To Diamonds
Jealous Girls
Keeping You Alive
Don't Make Waves
Yesterday's News
Standing In The Way Of Control
Listen Up
Careless Whisper
'Gossip - Live In Liverpool' DVD tracklisting
Eyes Open
Yr Mangled Heart
Fire / Sign
Careless Whisper
Coal To Diamonds
Jealous Girls
Swing Low
Are You That Somebody?
Keeping You Alive
Don't Make Waves
Yesterday's News
Standing In The Way Of Control
Listen Up
Gossip - Live in Liverpool
Gossip - Live in Liverpool
