NEWS: Sigur Ros Play Biggest Gigs Yet

Cunning linguists Sigur Ros have announced that they are to play their biggest UK shows ever in November.

The Icelandic quartet have only just touched down on earth again after playing to the biggest crowd ever assembled for a Latitude festival headline act on Saturday 19th July.

Now they’re celebrating the success of that show by returning to these shores for five more dates towards the end of 2008.

The venues and dates are as follows:

• 4th November – Wolvehampton Civic
• 5th November – Blackpool Empress Ballroom
• 7th November – Bristol Colston Hall
• 20th November – London Alexandra Palace
• 21st November – London Alexandra Palace

The band’s latest album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly) went into the Top 5 upon release earlier this month.

A special deluxe edition of the album is available to pre-order from the the Sigur Ros website now. It is officially released in September.

Have a look at the much talked video for 'Svefn-g-englar' by clicking below:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus

NEWS: Sigur Ros fight Flood

Icelandic ambience mongers Sigur Ros have revealed that a barny with legendary producer Flood "kicked us up the arse" during the recording of their tongue-melting new album Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

Flood, best known for his work with U2 and Depeche Mode, didn't immediately see eye-to-eye with his charges. "There was a clash," lead warbler Jonsí Birgisson told The Sun of the Canute-like standoff. "Flood came to Iceland and we were already in the middle of writing songs. But Flood doesn't work like that - he usually works with a band from scratch and writes with them until the end. We had been writing for 14 years so his methods were a bit hard to take on board. He kept butting in, saying, 'Oh, why don't you put a guitar here or there?' and we'd reply with a firm, 'No!'"

"So we sent Flood home and finished writing our songs - and after that he was perfect. He did help. He has this great focus and works hard. He kicked us up the arse."

As well as a beef with the famous desk jockey, Birgisson told the popular daily that single 'Gobbledigook', was written after the band survived the tedium of this year’s Eurovision camp-off.

Birgisson said "We wrote ['Gobbledigook'] on the night of the Eurovision song contest. We were in a rented farmhouse, it was a long evening, we watched the whole contest, and afterwards our brains were so fried we had to write 'Gobbledigook'."

The song’s title may appear to poke fun at the song contest but there’s actually an entirely different meaning behind it. "It translates badly into English. [In Icelandic it] means some sort of prank. Something like things going wrong, like roofs falling down on to your head."

Watch 'Gobbledigook' performed by Sigur Ros with Bjork at the Naturra festival below. It's gold for the eyes:

This news story can be found on the Quietus with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: the Quietus