UK Hip-Hop/Electronic dance pioneers Stereo MC’s will return in 2025 for a brand new run of UK and Ireland shows.
Demand for Stereo MC’s remains at a high. Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon performing “Connected” (watch here) in January, the band also recently announced a slew of US dates – their first full US route since 2001 – leading up to an appearance at the prestigious Cruel World festival on 17th May.
The band bookend a packed 2025 schedule with an 11-date UK and Ireland stretch of shows throughout November, December and January.
Kicking-off at Glasgow St Luke’s venue on 27th November, the ‘True To Life’ UK / IE Tour will take in shows in major cities like Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and beyond, before concluding with a two-night residency at the Button Factory in the Irish capital of Dublin in January (30-31/01 2026).
Forming part of what will be Stereo MC’s’ first full European tour since 2014, the line up will feature original members Rob Birch (Rob B), Nick Hallam, and Cath Coffey, along with drummer/percussionist, Tansay Omar.
Fans can expect to hear tracks from across the Brit Award-winning act’s acclaimed seven studio albums, including Connected, Step It Up, Elevate My Mind, Lost In Music,
As Rob explains of ‘True To Life’:
“There are many influences in the melting pot being shaped by this time we live in. In the same way as we look back for inspiration, we are charged by the present and that’s how we work: combining old methods with modern technology. The more diverse our music becomes, the happier I feel.”
While Nick adds of the upcoming tour:
“There’ll be a lot of new music… some club orientated in keeping with our label and recent outlook, and some more in the Stereo MC’s known mould. When the two merge as one, we will be there.”
Tickets for the True To Life UK / IE Tour are on sale now, with the full list of dates as follows:
STEREO MC’S TRUE TO LIFE UK / IE TOUR
NOVEMBER 2025
27 – GLASGOW St Luke’s
28 – LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
29 – LIVERPOOL Arts Club
DECEMBER 2025
4 – BRISTOL Trinity
6 – MARGATE Dreamland
7 – NORWICH Epic Studios
12 – LONDON Shepherd’s Bush Empire
13 – MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
14 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy 2
JANUARY 2026
30 – DUBLIN Button Factory
31 – DUBLIN Button Factory
Tickets: www.stereomcs.com
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BIOGRAPHY
Stereo MC’s are probably best known for their international Top 20 hit single ‘Connected’, which was released in 1992 and was the title track of their album the same year, reaching #2 in the UK Album Chart. It also contained the hits ‘Step It Up’, ‘Creation’, and ‘Ground Level’, and led to the group winning two Brit Awards for Best Group and Best Album in 1994.
Being childhood friends and neighbours, Rob Birch and Nick Hallam formed Stereo MC’s in the mid-eighties, with the pair inspired to make music by their combined love of early hip-hop, funk and electronic music.
The Stereo MC’s initially pressed their first 12” vinyl and started their own independent record label called Gee Street Records, with Kiss DJ Richie Rich and budding entrepreneur, Jon Baker.
When Gee Street attracted the attention of 4th & Broadway in 1989, the duo recorded the debut Stereo MC’s album, ‘33-45-78’. As Nick remembers:
“When we started getting gigs around that time, we thought it would be great to have live drums, even if they made the turntables bounce around. But when we went to the States, the U.S. branch of our record company said, ‘We’re not paying for a drummer to come on tour, because you don’t do that with this type of music’. There were a few barriers to cross before dance music was established as a live music force and was given equal rights in the touring and festival scene. Island Records had a good attitude to developing young acts, though, and we were given time to grow both in the studio and on the road.”
After releasing 33-45-78, the band toured with De La Soul, Living Colour and A Certain Ratio. They then headed to New York to record their second album, ‘Supernatural’ in 1990, bearing the singles ‘Elevate My Mind’ (which made it into the US R&B Charts) and ‘Lost in Music’ which was a club hit in the UK and US. This success was further cemented when they supported Happy Mondays on a US tour.
Rob adds:
“If we weren’t on the road or making our own tracks we were remixing for other artists. Life didn’t have a clock, you just worked and vibed until you dropped on the sofa and woke up in your clothes six hours later… The summer of 1992 saw us finish our 3rd LP, Connected, which we toured solidly for about 18 months after its release. It was a big success for us and everybody involved and was a beautiful moment in our development. Navigating our way through the aftermath of over-touring fatigue and life catching up with you was challenging, and for a while the creative spark was hard to find, so we went into recluse mode and built our own studio again so we could get out of the music biz domain.”
Stereo MC’s were in demand for remix work from the likes of U2, Madonna, Tricky, Pressure Drop, David Holmes, Terranova and Mo’Wax records, as well as earlier mixes for The Jungle Brothers, Latifah and RZA.
After making a mix album for the DJ Kicks series on Studio!K7 in 1999, 2001 saw the release of the band’s fourth album ‘Deep Down & Dirty’, followed by a tour that included opening for Jane’s Addiction in the US. The album’s title track became Stereo MC’s fifth consecutive Top 20 hit single in a row.
Following recordings for Pias, K7 and Graffiti, they continued their long relationship with club music, starting the label ‘connected’ in 2015, initially to release their own new music, while also releasing other artists, and have since become established in the ever-popular Afro House genre. They have also collaborated with some of the biggest current names in house music via releases with Adam Port and Keinemusik and Stil Vor Talent, and have featured guest spots with Re.You, Anja Schneider, Fred Everything and many others.
‘True To Life’ sees the Stereo MC’s embarking on their first major European tour in over a decade later this year.
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