Groove Armada are one of those all too rare dance acts that have taken on the stadium rock acts at their own game. But Andy Cato, Tom Findlay and their 9-piece band nearly called it a day at the peak of their power.
“A couple of years back we felt we’d pretty much done all we could with Groove Armada,” Tom tells us. “We thought we’d bring out a ‘Best Of...’ album and go quietly, I mean, that’s what you do isn’t it?”
But that wasn’t taking account of the wildly popular annual festival that is synonymous with GA, even down to sharing the title of one of their most successful LPs, namely Lovebox.
People think it’s ‘our’ festival, but it’s really not,” admits Tom. “Year on year, our place in it gets smaller. I mean, Andy lives in Barcelona now. It used to just be a bit of a laugh too, but it’s got a really great proper team behind it these days.”
Still, Lovebox just wouldn’t be Lovebox without its favourite headliners, so after a year apart, last summer’s 2-day event in London’s Victoria Park brought the band out of any plans for early retirement.
“It costs a lot of time and money to put the band together,” continues Tom, “and seeing as we still had such a big international fanbase, it just made sense to carry on after that.”
Lucky for us all that they did, as Groove Armada are very much back, with a stonking new LP, Soundboy Rock, and a summer of touring that sees them headline new Lovebox events held around the UK for the first time.
The city festival vibe touches down in Birmingham for a Bank Holiday bonanza on May 27th, with Calvin Harris, Dubfire, Jazzy Jeff, Plump DJs, Tim Deluxe, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso among the many other acts.
For a chance to win 2 tickets to the all-day event, plus free drinks, click here.
Lovebox also takes place in London and Dublin in July, (and may even reach Brazil and Australia before the year is out), with GA brining a totally updated sound and visual show with them.
“It’s a completely new live show,” says Tom. “Most of the band are new too. We’ve only played 7 gigs together so far over the last 3-weeks in Australia. It’s great to be working with young enthusiasts. Our bass player has been christened the Milky Bar Kid he’s so fresh faced, but it’s given us a new energy.”
The LP features some amazing collaborators, including London MC Stush on Get Down, who joins them on stage, the soulful Angie Stone, former Sugarbabe Mutya and rapper Rhymefest.
The sold out launch for the album takes place tomorrow night at the Hammersmith Palais just hours before the bulldozers move in to flatten the legendary venue.
“Yeah, that’s pretty mad actually to be playing the last ever gig there,” says Tom. “Hopefully we can help tear the place down!”
With an album that captures the wild carnival energy of their live performance, and a summer of Lovebox action to follow, there’s little doubt about that.