Crime & the City Solution

Crime & The City Solution European Tour 2022

Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams will launch the new Berlin based incarnation of Crime & the City Solution on a European tour starting next month – their first after a ten-year hiatus – and Mute have announced the re-release of the band’s full catalogue on vinyl and CD, starting in January 2023.

During the History of Crime tour, the band will be playing tracks from the whole of their soon to be reissued back catalogue: Just South of Heaven (1985), Room of Lights (1986), Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989), Paradise Discotheque (1990), The Adversary (1993) and American Twilight (2013)

The newly formed line-up will tour throughout the summer, returning to the UK in September for a series of dates that will include Glasgow, Nottingham, Manchester, London and Bristol – updated details below.
 
Crime & the City Solution VI, the latest embodiment of the band Simon Bonney formed in 1977 in Sydney, includes Bonney on vocals, Bronwyn Adams on violin, backing vocals, loops and found sound, highly respected Berlin based Australian drummer Chris Hughes, Floridian synth and guitar maestro Georgio Valentino, Berlin based bass player Baron Anastis and long-time collaborator and friend, Melbourne guitarist and pianist Donald Baldie.

CRIME & THE CITY SOLUTION TOUR DATES – 2022

31 May – Odense DK – Posten – tickets
1 June – Copenhagen DK – Beta – tickets
3 June – Stockholm SE – Debaser Strand – tickets
4 June – Oslo NO – John Dee Club & Pub – tickets
7 June – Hamburg DE – LOGO – tickets

8 June – Berlin DE – Kuppelhalle – Silent Green – tickets
9 June –  Mannheim DE – Das Rind – tickets

10 June – Krefeld DE – Schlachgarten – tickets

11 June – Haacht BE – Can’t Live in a Living Room
15 June – Bologna IT – Montagnola Park 
16 June – Florence IT – Terazza Forte Belvedere
17 June – Milan IT – Torchiera Open Air – tickets
19 June – The Hague NL – Grauzone Festival
21 June – Prague CZ – Lucerna Music Bar – tickets
22 June – Vienna AT – Volkstheater – tickets
23 June – Brno CZ – Kabinet Muz – tickets
24 June – Budapest HU – A38 – tickets
25 June – Zagreb HR – Boogaloo Club – tickets
26 June – Ljubljana SI – Kino Siska Venue – tickets
9 July – Tel Aviv IL – Ozen Bar – tickets
5 Sept – Glasgow UK – King Tuts – tickets
6 Sept – Nottingham UK – Rescue Rooms – tickets
7 Sept – Manchester UK – Band on the Wall – tickets
8 Sept – London UK – The Garage – tickets

10 Sept – Nothampton UK – The Black Prince – tickets

11 Sept – Bristol UK – Thekla – tickets

12 Nov – Athens GR – Fuzz Club

Formed in Sydney by Simon Bonney at the age of 16, Crime & the City Solution’s early performances from 1977-1979 had a big impact on key figures of the early Melbourne art-punk/post punk scene. In 1984, Bad Seed Mick Harvey shipped Bonney to England to form the London based Crime with their friend the brilliant and ever influential ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard, with his brother Harry Howard on bass and Epic Soundtracks on drums. Two years on, having toured Europe, the UK and US and released several EPs and an album, this lineup reached its zenith at its finale in a historic swansong performance in Wim Wenders’ cinematic masterpiece ‘Wings of Desire’.

Bonney has said his true voice and the definitive sound he sought emerged with the next, Berlin based incarnation of Crime & the City Solution, which recorded three studio albums and a live CD between 1986 and 1991. With a more experimental sound, which drew less on Melbourne post punk scene roots and took a more explorative musical approach, this lineup was 50% Berliner and featured Einstürzende Neubauten’s Alexander Hacke on guitar, ex-DAF/Liaisons Dangereuses electronic genius Chrislo Haas on vintage Korg patchbay synth, and free jazz bassist Thomas Stern. The lineup was completed by Australians Mick Harvey on drums and Bonney’s longtime lyrical collaborator Bronwyn Adams on violin.

In 2012, now based in their new home city of Detroit, the band returned with their fifth studio album, American Twilight: “as much an elegy to the American Dream that’s turned into a global nightmare as it is a damn fine rock & roll album” -The Quietus

WORDS FROM SIMON BONNEY:

“Crime & the City Solution: children of the Ice Storm, participant observers, the spirit of Gonzo rising, witnesses and chroniclers of histories, appearing, when the siren calls, at key moments in time and then disappearing back into the ether. From the walled city, the Glasnost East, Chernobyl strawberries and soldiers on the night train, burning cities and the fragility of civility, tear gas and bush knives in the rainforest, a boat snaking its way through the jungle into the hidden outback, Vienna and the Third Man, an atoll sinking, the hands of the sea stretching out to engulf her, two lovers in an empty park surrounded by an army, the faces of the ‘others’ pressed against the invisible barrier, two worlds separated, two strangers with a citizen child cross a continent – Sunday lunch in the Ozark.

The siren called last in 2012 and Crime put down its sexton and maps to paint a portrait of the present as it careened towards the future – from their Detroit home they constructed the cartoon villains and division that informed American Twilight. In 2022 it is time for Crime to be again – rock and anti-rock, Hegel’s thesis and antithesis, Rumi’s footsteps disappearing at the water’s edge, art and documentary, a conversation between the past and the present, the space that fills the empty cup, an invisible essence full of experimentation and joy – to be with their people once more, to play again, no two shows the same because they belong to the moment of their creation, an interplay between band and audience – between friends old and new.”

“… expert at locating something holy in the rubble” – Uncut 8/10 on American Twilight

“Widescreen, complex and often breathtaking in scope and attack” – Record Collector 4/5 on American Twilight“If Crime & The City Solution wanted to show the world that they were back, loud and still willing to sprinkle a bit of magical dust onto a holy book and invoke the devil, their Friday night in London was a success.” – Music OMH live review of 2012 London performance

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