In August 2017, the Star Shaped Festival brought a line up of classic Britpop to four cities. The events were much loved by fans, not least of all because the festival featured the unexpected return of Sleeper.
Tag Archives: sleeper
Real Gone’s End of Year Round Up, 2017
As always, it’s been an interesting year for music, but unlike a few previous years, there have been no clear winners or stand-outs. There has been a lot of great music, of course…and this year, we’ve found it very hard to pick favourites.
Our top ten albums, as always, has been restricted to things that actually got reviewed at Real Gone and very much represent our broad musical scope. Hopefully, a couple of our choices will align with yours, but more importantly, we hope our top picks will open your ears to something new.
Sleeper announce a string of tour dates for 2018
Following their four much celebrated appearances at the Star Shaped Festival, the recently reformed Sleeper announced a headline show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire scheduled for December.
Very much gathering momentum, Sleeper have now confirmed a run of live dates for next year. Details of dates and venues can be found on the poster below.
REAL GONE GOES OUT: Sleeper – Star Shaped Festival 2017, Kentish Town Forum, London, 5/8/2017
It’s approximately 8:30pm. The house lights are wavering and there’s a growing feeling of tense excitement in the venue. Spent in the company of various bands from Britpop’s peak, the Star Shaped Festival has already provided a very enjoyable afternoon, but there’s also been a definite feeling throughout most of the day that a reformed Sleeper are the biggest draw, so perhaps this tense and nervous feeling is more than justified. There’s a lot riding on their return and this next hour.
Sleeper – London Astoria, April 1994
The Britpop years between 1993-97 brought wave after wave of great music. From the well documented – Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp – to those lesser talked about years later – Gene, Marion, Menswear – each act brought their own slant to classic retro styles, often centering around guitar driven pop-rock.
Among the big players were Sleeper. Sleeper were special. With a musical grounding that mixed the pop hooks of Blondie and the proto punk-pop of The Undertones with lyrical narratives that were often interesting, their first two albums (‘Smart’, 1995 and ‘The It Girl’, 1996) have really stood the test of time.