Orbital announce 2023 UK and Ireland tour, share single ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song)’

Orbital have announced a UK and Ireland tour for 2023.

The tour is in support of their upcoming album ‘Optical Delusion’ and will see the pioneering electronic duo play 13 dates in the UK and Ireland next spring.

It will kick off in Belfast on March 15 before making three stops in the Republic of Ireland. Following this, they will be playing in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, London, Leeds, Cambridge and Nottingham before wrapping things up in Brighton on April 8.

The pre-sale will begin on Wednesday (December 14) at 10am before general on-sale commences on Friday (December 16), also at 10am. You can see the full list of dates below and buy your tickets here.

MARCH 2023
15 – Belfast, Mandela Hall
16 – Dublin, National Stadium
17 – Dublin, National Stadium
18 – Limerick, The Big Top
28 – Glasgow, SWG3
29 – Newcastle, NX
30 – Manchester, Albert Hall
31 – Bristol, O2 Academy

APRIL
1 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
5 – Leeds, O2 Academy
6 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
7 – Nottingham, Rock City
8 – Brighton, Brighton Centre

Orbital have also released the second single from ‘Optical Illusion’, ‘Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song’. The song features The Mediaeval Baebes and offers something of a modern reworking of the nursery rhyme ‘Ring O’ Ring O’Roses’, which is heavily associated with the Black Death.

Listen to the track below:

The song is the second to be taken from ‘Optical Illusion’, following Sleaford Mods collaboration ‘Dirty Rat’. Per a press release, the band’s Paul Hartnoll described the track as “a giant capital letter, like in the Book of Kells, where the very first letter always gets the big treatment from the monk when he’s doing his illustrated borders.”

“It’s got that old school dance music vibe with bits of Cabaret Voltaire in there, even bits of The Shamen. It’s a little bit punk rock, nice and loud,” continued Hartnoll. A really refreshing, ‘wake up’ kind of track. And Jason is just brilliant!”

He added: “I guess it’s about telling people to take responsibility for their own actions,” added Phil Hartnoll. “You know, all these politicians don’t come from out of nowhere. Somebody keeps voting them in. So who might that be…?

“The ongoing culture of non-thought mostly exists because of a lack of education into critical thought,” said Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods. “How do you mobilise a people firmly imprisoned by a concrete system?”

‘Optical Illusion’ will be released on February 17, 2023.

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