2012 01 30
All good things must come
Minny Pops' UK tour concluded on 23 January, Upstairs at the Garage, with welcome faces familiar and new, warm applause and a surprising finale.
The adventure was made all the more memorable by the musical talents of Rats on Rafts, Jack and the Beanstalks, Womb and Viv Albertine, the inspired DJing of Tim Burgess and Nik Void, and the divine guest vocals of Dee Plume.
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2012 01 23
Live in London tonight
There are still a very few tickets left for the fourth and final show in Minny Pops' first UK tour in 30 years.
Get your advance tickets online (until about 1pm) at the wonderful Music Glue for just a £1 fee. Alternatively you can buy tickets fee-free at the Jazz Cafe box office in Camden today until 5.30 pm, at HMV Oxford Street for the usual booking fee, or on the door tonight.
Advance tickets are £6 and tickets on the door are £9.
Honest-to-goodness set times for tonight are:
Doors 7pm
James Nice, LTM Recordings, DJ set 7pm - 7.45pm
Rats on Rafts 7.45 - 8.15pm
Tim Burgess first DJ set 8.15 - 8.45pm
Viv Albertine 8.45 - 9.30pm
Tim Burgess second DJ set 9.30 - 10pm
Minny Pops 10pm sharp until 11pm on the dot.
Expect the unexpected!
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2012 01 19
Things people say (John Robb, Gold Blade and LouderThanWar.com)
"There would have been no Dutch New Wave scene without Minny Pops."
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2012 01 17
Things people say (Time Out, 19-25 January 2012)
"Forgotten but not gone: unfairly sidelined 80s Dutch synth-punks return to show modern darkwave bands the way.
"Fine Dutch minimalist eletro noiseniks MP, who were signed to Factory as a kind of European Joy Division and hint compellingly at Kraftwerk, head out for some of their first shows in 30 years in support of their live CD/DVD 'Standstill to Motion', recorded in New York and Amsterdam in 1981. In support, impossibly cool former Slits guitarist [Viv] Albertine digs out her floral-print guitar to showcase Gang of Four-tinted riffs paired with ethereal vocals."
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2012 01 16
Things people say (Clash magazine, February 2012 issue)
"This Dutch band were part of the scene that took punk into new wave...Disbanding in 1985, they are now reforming to play some live sets and so it seems fitting to release a live CD from back then. It is well produced and captures a startling performance, suggesting their role in swaying rock towards electronic should have been more prominent. In these days of hackneyed Eighties revivalists, one recommends a serious listen to some forgotten pioneers!" - TC
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2012 01 15
Things people say (Matt Heafy, Trivium)
"I am always intensely stoked when someone who works in the music industry makes music. When that is coupled with the person also being a friend and fellow food-freak like myself, I consider it a necessity to make all aware. Wally from the Minny Pops has been working with Trivium since the beginning - and does that band ever deliver a unique sound and look. Think...if David Lynch did 80s electro-pop with the look of the 50s? Enjoy this art."
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2012 01 14
Things people say (Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree)
"It seems to me that the early 80s was a time (not so long ago) when musicians were still interested in finding a new and inspiring language in pop music, and I think few bands from the era explored the possibilities of the form with as much style and wit as Minny Pops."
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2012 01 13
Believe you me
Tim Burgess has very kindly agreed to man the decks in aid of Minny Pops' first London show in over 30 years.
Tim will contribute a DJ set to the evening as Minny Pops play Upstairs at the Garage on 23 January 2012. Advance tickets are just £6 and available here.
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2012 01 12
Things people say (Tim Burgess, author, DJ, recording artist, Charlatan)
"I first heard Minny Pops as a collector of all things Factory-related. The first record of theirs I got was 'Dolphin's Spurt' in 1982 - I loved the cover, and loved everything about it. 'Secret Story' is absolute genius.
"When I was getting a tatto on my collarbone, I couldn't decide which tattoo to get - FAC 73 or FAC 57. It's a great song to DJ...really modern. Sadly, in the end I went for a tattoo of FAC 33 to represent both JD and NO, but the Minny Pops song is one that has a special place in my record collection."
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2012 01 11
Things people say (Rolf Hermsen, The Tapes)
"I think of Minny Pops more as a concept than as a band. Seeing them play live is witnessing an art performance, and quite a strong one at that. The performance compensates for the headache factor inherent in their uncompromising man-machine sound."
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2012 01 10
Reel to real
Minny Pops' Wim Dekker presents the Standstill to Motion tour 2012 video trailer here.
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2012 01 08
Ultraboek
Auteur Harold Schellinx vertelt over en leest voor uit zijn op 1 maart te verschijnen ''Ultra'' boek tijdens het Noorderslag seminar. Wat zal hij over de Minny Pops te vertellen hebben?
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2012 01 07
Het einde wordt een niew begin
Hester Carvalho schrijft over Minny Pops reformatie in het NRC van 29/12/2011.
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2012 01 07
Things people say (in the press)
Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian highlights a favourite Minny Pops track.
Paul Pledger of AllGigs has kind words for Standstill to Motion: Live at the Melkweg, 19-03-1981.
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2012 01 05
Starry starry night
On 7 April 2012, Minny Pops join a host of performers to elebrate ULTRA2012-EINDE at Amsterdam's Melkweg.
The band will share a bill with The Tapes, Truus de Groot & Liesbeth Esselink (Plus Instruments) and Toon Bressers (ex-Nasmak).
You can order tickets here.
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2012 01 04
Things people say (Arnoud Verheul, Rats on Rafts)
"ULTRA cold, dark and abstract music. In a very minimalistic way, Minny Pops managed to draw sounds from their instruments that even those instruments didn't know they had in them."
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2012 01 02
Tempus fugit
Minny Pops' two-disc set Standstill to Motion: Live at the Melkweg, 19-03-1981, is out this month.
Listen to "Time", taken from that recording, here.
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2011 12 30
More Ultranieuws
Minny Pops will perform at one of the ULTRA2012 events in March 2012.
Find out more here.
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2011 12 29
Our friends from Rotterdam
Rats on Rafts look back on 2011 and ahead to early 2012, when they will support Minny Pops on four UK dates.
Read what they have to say to VPRO here.
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2011 12 28
Photographic evidence
On 20 December 2011, Minny Pops played a mini-set as special guests of Peter Hook and the Light at the Effenaar in Eindhoven.
Photographers Marco Smeets and Patrick Joosten both documented the event.
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2011 12 27
Things people say (a correspondent enquires)
Dear Minny Pops,
A friend is trying to convince me to come and see you play in Leeds in January. I'd like to go, but I don't want to see a show where a band plays music from 30 years ago.
Could you let me know if your set will be completely new? It would help me make up my mind.
Many thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris,
Well, we might play one or two new tracks, and we will play "now" versions of our old songs. We only reformed two months ago and this has not allowed us to play a set of all new songs... and we are not sure if fans want to hear all new songs.
Hey, our ticket price of £6.00 is very much in line with ticket prices of 30 years ago, so for £6.00 I would take the risk and attend our show in Leeds.
Best,
Wally
Nice one!
I shall be there!
Chris
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2011 12 21
Very special Viv
Minny Pops are pleased to announce that their forthcoming London bill will be graced by Viv Albertine.
The singer/songwriter, guitarist and member of punk icons The Slits will join openers Rats on Rafts and Minny Pops, Upstairs at the Garage on 23 January 2012.
Viv's bracingly frank 2012 Christmas single, "It's a Christmas, Single", can be admired here.
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2011 12 11
Live in the Lichtstad
Op 20 december 2011 zal Minny Pops als very special guest optreden in de Lichtstad.
Thirty-one years after supporting Joy Division at the Effenaar in Eindhoven, on 20 December 2011 Minny Pops return to the venue as very special guests of Peter Hook and the Light, who will perform Closer (A Joy Division tribute).
http://www.effenaar.nl/agenda/6937
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2011 12 03
Ultranieuwe as it was
Dertig jaar minus eenentwintig dagen na het laatste Minny Pops optreden in Paradiso op 24/12/1981 staan de Minny Pops weer op het podium tijdens de Ultranieuwe avond in Roodkapje, Rotterdam. Een introductie, een hernieuwde kennismaking.
Thirty years (less 21 days) since Minny Pops last performed live, at the Paradiso on 24 December 1981, the band take to the stage during an Ultranieuwe evening at Rotterdam's Roodkapje. An introduction; a renewed acquaintance.
Hear Wally van Middendorp's introduction to the set here via SoundCloud.
Read Incendiary Magazine's review of the show here.
Cafe Sonore ran a short news item about the evening, which you can listen to here.
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2011 11 30
Ultranieuwe
The secret is out. Minny Pops play their first gig in nearly 30 years at Roodkapje in Rotterdam on Saturday 3 December. It's a small warmup show comprising just 5 numbers - but it will offer performances of tracks they’ve never played live before, drawn from their 1983 LP Poste Restante.
Tickets (available only on the door) are €6.00 and places are limited. Catch Minny Pops alongside a host of other performances: Rats on Rafts, Spoelstra, Danny Ramirez, screenprints, action art, film and live poetry.
http://www.ultra2012.nl/rotterdam/ultranieuwe
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2011 11 08
Standstill to Motion: forthcoming CD/DVD release
16 January 2012 will see the release, via LTM Recordings, of Minny Pops' Standstill to Motion: Live at the Melkweg, 19-03-1981. You can read more about it here.
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2011 10 17
Standstill to Motion tour 2012: UK dates
Sheffield / The Plug / 19 January
Leeds / The Brudenell Social Club / 20 January
Manchester / Gulliver's / 21 January
London / Upstairs at the Garage / 23 January
Advance tickets for all four dates are available via Music Glue.
More information about Minny Pops' first UK dates in 30 years is available on this site's new Live page.
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2011 10 08
Things people say (Kevin Bacon, Comsat Angels)
"The first gig The Comsat Angels played with Minny Pops (and Ze Popes) was in Amstelveen.
I sat in the bar between soundcheck and stage time having a beer. Someone threw a bottle
through the window and smashed glass all over my back. During our set, a rookie Dutch punk threw
a glass and its contents at Steve. We got back to the flat that night and thought about
what a violent place Holland was. We'd have to be on our guard here! Minny Pops, on stage,
scared me with their considered static violence. In the six-week period we were in
Holland on that first tour, we only took one photograph - and it was in b&w. How sad is that?
Also, during that period, apart from gigs, Steve only left the flat for a night out once."
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2011 09 16
Standstill to motion; waking from hibernation
NL December 2011 / UK January 2012 / NL+BE March 2012
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2011 01 18
Collective minds connecting on a cold winter night in Amsterdam to kick-start the engine.