The Cult, The Mission and Killing Joke to tour in September

Alt rockers The Cult, The Mission and Killing Joke will be hitting the road together for the first time to tour Arenas throughout the UK this September.

The tour will be hitting arenas in Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and London.

The Cult join the tour on the heels of the band releasing their brand new studio album 'Choice of Weapon' due for release via Cooking Vinyl in May this year. The album was written by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, recorded in New York City, Los Angeles, the California high desert and the band's Witch Mountain studio between July and December.

The new release features founding members Astbury on vocals and Duffy on guitars, with drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse.

Ian Astbury said of the three acts touring together, "This is a fantastic bill and these will be magical shows ,a unique occasion that we look forward to with great anticipation. The band is killing it right now and we are excited to get back to the business of playing live."

Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters Of Mercy and formed The Mission, enlisting Simon Hinkler and Mick Brown into their ranks. Having performed together in Europe before, but never on our shores, this special tour will see The Cult and The Mission performing together for the very first time ever in the UK.

Speaking on the tour, Wayne Hussey said, "It'll be great. We played a festival show in Belgium with The Cult back in October last year and it was really lovely to see Ian and Billy again, it was like no time had passed at all. We'd gone our separate ways over the years and travelled different roads but I always think of Ian and Billy as brothers in arms, kindred spirits. I'm looking forward to hearing 'Sanctuary' every night. And it'll be great to have Killing Joke along too. I've been a long time admirer of Jaz and his cohorts. I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Jaz, he is a huge personality. It'll be good to see him again."

Since the emergence of the post punk scene Killing Joke have been pioneers across multiple genres from metal, industrial to dance. They have been covered by everyone from Metallica to Foo Fighters evolving and influencing musical generations for three decades. In 2008 the original members Jaz Coleman, Geordie Walker, Youth and Big Paul Ferguson reunited for a sold out world tour which culminated in the band recording the critically acclaimed album 'Absolute Dissent'.

Speaking on the tour, Youth commented, "Killing Joke are honoured and are proud to celebrate together and play alongside The Mission and The Cult, at this great gathering of the tribes, we look forward to unleashing an apocalypse of sonic destruction and giving the crowd a good kick in the teeth."

The tour dates are:

Tue 11 September Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne
Wed 12 September Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield
Fri 14 September MEN Arena, Manchester
Sat 15 September LG Arena, Birmingham
Sun 16 September Wembley Arena, London

The Cult, The Mission and Killing Joke tickets will go on sale on Friday 23rd March at 9am priced at £35, and eGigs will have links to buy them then.

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