In joyful anticipation of Crime & the City Solution’s headline show at Dark Mofo Festival on 13 June 2025, in Hobart, Tasmania, the band have shared ‘Rivers of Blood (Acoustic)’, the newest instalment in their series of live acoustic recordings and reinterpretations.
Listen to ‘Rivers of Blood (Acoustic)’:
The Crime acoustic series, is, explains Bonney “born of a want to play the songs as they were first written – in a lounge room on an acoustic guitar – to create an intimate atmosphere that captures the simple joy of friends playing together for friends, unmediated by technology.”
The three-piece acoustic iteration of Crime features Bronwyn Adams (violin and vocals), Simon Bonney (vocals) and Joshua Murphy (acoustic guitar and vocals), and, following their performance at Dark Mofo, the trio will embark on a tour in September / October, beginning in Malmö before travelling to Denmark and then the UK with a date at St Mathias Church in London on 25 September – full details below
Talking about the festival date, Bonney has said, “For our show at Dark Mofo we will be opening with a selection of acoustic renderings and then turning up to 11 and closing out the set with a full-throttle electric set of classic Crime controlled chaos.”
CRIME & THE CITY SOLUTION
- 13 June – Dark Mofo Festival, Tasmania (AU)
- 11 Sep – Malmö, Plan B (SE)
- 12 Sep – Jönköping, The Hush Hush Club (SE)
- 13 Sep – Faaborg, Rus Og Riller (DK)
- 14 Sep – Copenhagen, Råhuset (DK)
- 25 Sep – London, St Mathais Church (UK)
- 26 Sep – Newcastle, The Cluny (UK)
- 28 Sep – Coventry, The Tin (UK)
- 29 Sep – Manchester, Night & Day (UK)
- 30 Sep – Bristol, Jam Bar (UK)
- 2 Oct – Preston, The Ferret (UK)
Crime & the City Solution recently returned after a 10-year hiatus to release their sixth studio album, the killer, on Mute. Inspired by Bonney’s work delivering aid programmes, it looks at the ways conflict manifests in everyday life, and features tracks such as ‘Rivers of Blood’, ‘Brave Hearted Woman’, ‘Peace in my Time’, and Witness, which the band recently performed live for Le Cargo.
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. The London incarnation – encapsulated by these two reissues – disbanded soon after their performance in ‘Wings of Desire’. Crime’s London alumni included the late Epic Soundtracks (co-founder of Swell Maps), Mick Harvey (who releases his sixth solo album, Five Ways to Say Goodbye in May), and brothers Rowland S. Howard and Harry Howard, who went on to form These Immortal Souls after their time with Crime (Get Lost (Don’t Lie!), I’m Never Gonna Die Again (1992) and new compilation EXTRA are out now Mute).
The first Berlin incarnation which followed is represented by three albums recently reissued on Mute – Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989) and Paradise Discotheque (1990), and the live album, The Adversary. Another 20 years would pass before the band, then based in Detroit, would return 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
Crime & the City Solution recently announced a book of selected lyrics, Love In A Time Of Violence, out now via Heartworm Press.
Listen to / buy the killer HERE
Listen to / buy Crime’s recent reissues HERE
