PLEASE NOTE THIS SHOW HAS BEEN RESCEDULED FROM SAT 5TH JULY TO SAT 19TH JULY. ORIGINAL TICKETS REMAIN VALID.

Butthole Surfers with Paul Green's School of Rock

Butthole Surfers formed in 1981 with Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but the core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been together since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second drummer between 1983 and 1985 and 1986 and 1989, and they have employed a variety of bass players, most notably Bill Jolly and Jeff Pinkus.

The Buttholes are best known for their black humour, a sound that incorporates elements of punk rock, psychedelia, heavy metal, noise rock, and electronica, as well as their use of sound manipulation and tape editing. Acclaimed for their chaotic live shows, the Buttholes have a well-reported appetite for recreational drugs, particularly psychedelics, an evident influence on their sound.

Released in March 1987, Locust Abortion Technician is one of the heaviest Butthole Surfers albums, and it is often considered their finest to date. Harnessing aspects of punk, heavy metal, and psychedelia, its unique sound produced a number of grinding, slower-paced songs, arguably making it an early precursor of grunge.

Although they were respected by their peers and attracted a devoted fan base, the Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until 1996’s Electriclarryland, their only gold record to date. The album contained the hit single “Pepper,” which climbed to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart that year.

Butthole Surfers earned a reputation for putting on particularly wild, often disturbing live performances that were both decadent and violent. As a result, they began to attract a wide range of curiosity seekers within a few years of their debut, in addition to traditional fans of punk rock who had supported them from the beginning.

Equally memorable was the band's propensity for projecting a variety of films behind them as they played, beginning with one 16-millimeter projector, before adding others. This set-up allowed them to play a number of overlapping movies at the same time which were often strangely-angled, upsidedown or played in reverse. Combined with the increasing number of strobe lights, the effect created a visually disorienting atmosphere, which occasionally caused epileptic seizures in audience members. The films' subject matter was often as disturbing as the manner in which they were played; with images of accidents, nuclear explosions, meat processing, spiders & scorpions stalking prey, gory drivers education films, and penis reconstruction surgery.

For these shows, Jeff Pinkus will be on bass and Teresa Taylor (along with King Coffey) on drums. This is the rhythm section the band had for most of the 80s and marks the first time this line up has played together since 1989.

Paul Leary has prior commitments and unfortunately can't play the European dates (he will be on stage for the New York City and Newmarket shows, possibly more stateside).

Joining Gibby and crew on stage for all shows in the US and Europe will be The Paul Green School of Rock All-Stars. This mob of teenage geniuses will blow your mind, forming a virtual Butthole Surfers Orchestra when they play with the band.

Useless fact: Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love at a Butthole Surfers/L7 gig in Olympia in 1991.