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Someone great is coming to London. Time Out can breathlessly reveal that LCD Soundsystem will be headlining Lovebox Festival in Victoria Park on July 16. It’ll be their only London gig. Tell all your friends – this is happening.
It’s been an exhilarating and unexpected time for fans of James Murphy’s decade-defining band. Until a few weeks ago, LCD only existed in the past tense – having retired in 2011 with a farewell concert at Madison Square Gardens (captured on essential live album ‘Shut Up and Play the Hits’). But on Christmas Day, a new LCD song appeared, followed by the news that they were reuniting to play Coachella.
Best of all is that Lovebox won’t be a lazy greatest hits set. Murphy has revealed that the band have a new album dropping this year, and are believed to be working on it right now.
It’s a good look for LCD, whose drive to authentically convey a love of analogue dance music and patient, grooved-out rock would sit badly with a cheap, tacky sell-out tour. As part of a recent letter of reintroduction, the ever-witty Murphy wrote that he was: ‘Lucky to start this band [when I was] kind of fat and old’, as he’d never be compared to pictures of him looking younger, fresher or thinner. James Murphy could look like a sack of spuds, and it wouldn’t matter. LCD rock. Period. It’s great to have them back.
PLUS: Major Lazer headline on Friday!
The day before LCD take the stage, Diplo’s dancehall-dipping bangerologists Major Lazer will be setting Friday night at Lovebox alight. Need reasons to get excited? Well first of all, they’re responsible for the most streamed song on Spotify of all time: last year’s soulful single ‘Lean On’, which will make Vicky Park erupt in about 0.3 seconds. Secondly, they’re mates with Craig David: he did ‘Fill Me In’ at Major Lazer’s Ally Pally gig last year. And thirdly, they’ve got massive balls. As in, Diplo is now the proud owner of a Flaming Lips-style human hamster ball that allows him to float out over the crowd without getting covered in the sweat of 10,000 furiously daggering Londoners. Major!