Suzie Stapleton has been invited to open for Depeche Mode this March for a run of arena dates in Spain, France, Germany, and Portugal as part of their ‘Memento Mori World Tour’. Two UK warm up shows have been announced with Stapleton and her band set to headline London’s The Grace on 24th February and Brighton Electric at 43 – 45 Coombe Terrace, Brighton on 25th February. This is a triumphant welcome back to the stage for the Brighton-based Sydney-born artist who independently released her debut album ‘We Are The Plague’ in 2020.
Though unable to tour the album, ‘We Are The Plague’ received universal praise, landing on multiple Albums of The Year lists including Louder Than War’s Top 20 Albums of 2020. LTW lauded it as “A dazzling debut album of guitar rock, fused with the primal spirit of blues and gospel. Blending the spirit of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey with the soul of Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan”.
Stapleton busied herself connecting with fans online, shooting film clips in her house, and working on new songs whilst taking long walks around the Sussex countryside. It was around this time that the self-managed artist noticed a certain Dave Gahan from New York had joined her mailing list. This Dave also purchased a vinyl copy of ‘We Are The Plague’ from her website, but Stapleton just assumed that it was not the same Dave Gahan that fronted one of the most influential synth-pop bands of the 80s and 90s.
Stapleton was also keeping occupied working on The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, a labour of love which pays tribute to the late frontman of The Gun Club. Stapleton had crossed paths with the project’s producer Cypress Grove in 2013 and he’d invited her to first record some backing vocals for the project’s third album. The pair hit it off with Grove inviting Stapleton to contribute further to the fourth album in the project series that was in the works.
Stapleton worked sporadically on the project, including arranging a track performed by Nick Cave and Debbie Harry, and recording her own aching rendition of ‘Secret Fires’ with blues instrumentalist Duke Garwood. As work on the record was coming to a close, Stapleton had the thought to check with a mutual friend if it was in fact Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode who had purchased her record. To her surprise, this was confirmed and she approached him to see if he was interested in taking part in the project.
“It was quite strange timing”, Stapleton explains, “I’d been playing around with an arrangement of ‘Mother of Earth’ in my home studio. It’s a classic Gun Club track that had never been interpreted for The JLP Project. I thought it deserved a place on the album, but didn’t know who would sing on it. When I emailed Dave, it just just so happened that the Soulsavers’ cover record Imposter was due to be released soon. He mentioned that during the making of that record him and Rich Machin had also been playing around with a version of ‘Mother of Earth’ that didn’t end up making it onto their record. So, I showed him my arrangement and he loved it and it all came together pretty quickly after that.”
Dave says of the collaboration, “We wanted to take it away from the original version and Suzie and I were very connected on how we wanted to do it. I imagined a gunslinging version of it where I played the guitar, so when Suzie and I joined forces, it really worked out and we were able to build this beautiful song. It was great to work with Suzie, she’s so good at what she does.”
Whilst performing backing vocals and piano Stapleton also produced the track with Dave recording his vocals and guitar parts in New York and Stapleton orchestrating the rest of the band back in London including James Johnston (Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey) on violin, Ian White (Gallon Drunk) on drums, and Gavin Jay (Jim Jones Revue) who also plays bass in Stapleton’s live band along with drummer Dave Collingwood.
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project ‘The Task Has Overwhelmed Us’ is out now through Glitterhouse Records and also features performances by Mark Lanegan, Warren Ellis, Mick Harvey, JP Shilo, Lydia Lunch, Mark Stewart, Jim Jones, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Hayes, Humanist, The Coathangers, and more.
See full dates below. For tickets and more information visit www.suziestapleton.com.
‘We Are The Plague’ is out now on Negative Prophet Records/Cargo Distribution. Available from www.suziestapleton.com.
Suzie Stapleton – Headline Warm Up Shows:
24th February – The Grace, London
25th February – Brighton Electric, Brighton
Tickets for these two intimate headline shows are on sale now and can be purchased from www.suziestapleton.com/tour.
Depeche Mode + Suzie Stapleton ‘Memento Mori World Tour’ March 2024:
3rd – Accor Arena, PARIS
5th – Accor Arena, PARIS
7th – Olympiahalle, MUNICH
12th – WiZink Center, MADRID
14th – WiZink Center, MADRID
16th – Palau Sant Jordi, BARCELONA
19th – Altice Arena, LISBON
21st – Bizkaia Arena, BILBAO
Tickets for these European dates are currently available HERE.
