Photo Credit: Derek Ridgers
Enter Shikari have released a new live album, The Last Spark (Bootleg Series Vol. 11), recorded at their sold-out show at Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique on the final date of their mammoth 2018/2019 The Spark world tour.
Available HERE as a pay-what-you-want (minimum £3 donation) download, all profits from the release will be shared out between Enter Shikari‘s road crew who would have been working across the band’s Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible album launch shows and summer 2020 festivals, which have been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of our crew have been with us since 2006. They’re our family, and make us look and sound good, often under difficult circumstances,” says vocalist Rou Reynolds. “The least we can do is try to support them during this difficult time. We would have liked to have done something for them sooner, but mixing the audio on this took us longer than expected, and they wouldn’t appreciate us rushing out shoddy art in their name. The Brussels AB is one of the best venues in the world, and one that has always been good to us on the many times we’ve played there. We’re happy to finally be able to capture a show from there on tape.”
You can also check out the full live stream below and HERE – the band are encouraging anybody streaming to also drop a donation over too, if you’re able to.
Enter Shikari have also launched a new Charity tab on their webstore. The tab, which you can check out HERE, is growing from the band’s recent t-shirt to raise money for the Black Visions Collective and Southern Poverty Law Center following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests. The page will contain merchandise, music items, and rare, one-off pieces, with profits donated to various charitable causes.
Within the new collection is a one-sided blue 7″ vinyl of the band’s 2019 single Stop The Clocks. Originally planned as a regular release, the vinyl is limited to 450 copies worldwide, and instead has been donated by the band, So Recordings and The Orchard with the full income from the sale being split between Open Door (a charity supporting the homeless in the area, currently operating from St Albans’ Pioneer Club, the youth club where Enter Shikari promoted shows as teenagers) and Fans Supporting Foodbanks (a joint initiative between Liverpool FC & Everton FC supporters clubs to benefit those most affected by devastating Tory austerity in the city of Liverpool).
“We didn’t have time to make a Stop The Clocks 7″ at the time of its original release, so it’s nice to finally have that on plastic, and especially nice that we get to use it to do something useful,” Reynolds adds. “The rise of foodbank use is an effect of shameful government policy and failure to look after the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Enter Shikari have also been recording live lockdown versions of tracks from their latest album Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible and older tracks from their discography, check out the playlist below.
