Somehow, considering the 90s happened, Bobby Gillespie is still stalking the stage, around Europe and for the third (and fourth) time this year – foggy old London toon. Such recent gigs give us a good idea of what to expect – even more so the release of their third compilation of singles – Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Single (Remastered). 

“Sony wanted bangers. The tracks we gave them were good, but Sony went ‘That’s not what we were expecting.’ They wanted ‘Rocks 2’, I guess, but we gave them ‘Broken’ – a beautiful folk-rock track with 12-string guitars.” (NME)

If the label don’t want ‘new stuff’, recent gigs show Primal Scream still have no problem stomping out the sausages. ‘Rocks’, ‘Country Girl’, ‘Movin’ On Up’, ‘Loaded’ all feature in recent sets. And why not? Gillespie is the last standing (someone correct me?) frontman as a priest. Fittingly Bobby knows:

“Rock is a dying language. It’s like Latin, it’s old, it’s finished, it really has nothing more to say.” He instead praised the vitality of grime and hip-hop, saying; “It’s like they’re talking in an occult language, and that’s how it should be.” (NME)

We can place Bobby G and co in the same bracket as those also commonly using Latin in practice – doctors and lawyers, this new middle-class profession of rock’n’roll. Of all those young’uns who raved through the 90s to Screamadelica how many will be slipping away from the bar to come for some primal therapy?

Primal Scream have slid through the decades like the Velvet Underground; morphing into Madchester and popping painkillers like a coupla hicks. Playing two dates, 29th and 30th of November, at 02 Forum in Kentish Town, Primal Scream will be supported by Wild Daughter and The Roves on those respective dates.