Newcastle, Oxford, London… pic.twitter.com/9ErCBrE0mn

— goldie lookin chain (@theGLC) January 8, 2021

The comedy hip-hop troupe burst into the charts in 2004 with four UK Top 40 singles, Half Man Half Machine; Your Mother’s Got A Penis; You Knows I Loves You; and the most successful of the set, Guns Don’t Kill People Rappers Do, a crudely Newportonian critique of US hip hop which reached number #3 in the Official UK Singles Chart. Their memorably-titled 2004 album Greatest Hits, released in America as Straight Outta Newport, was also a surprise hit in the Official UK Albums Chart, reaching #5. They would go on to secure another top 20 single the following year with Your Missus Is A Nutter, which featured an unexpected sample from French composer Serge Gainsbourg.

The GLC were already an underground sensation in Newport prior to their rise to national prominence, thanks in no small part to their ingeniously labyrinthine website. The site includes a bespoke dictionary and reference guide, and a print-out Top Trumps page ranking celebrities and public figures (including the late Paul Flynn MP, who was once dubbed the group’s ‘spiritual leader’ by fellow Newport MP Jessica Morden) according to how ‘safe’ they are.

While the band may never have fully replicated the commercial success they enjoyed in the mid-noughties, they have been reliably prolific: since 2005’s number #16 charting LP Safe As Fuck, they have produced some 16 albums, EPs and mixtapes; including a triple bill in 2019 (Greatest Hits 3, The Adam Hussain Show and Original Pyrite Material).

Last year the group also released a topical festive track, Covid Christmas, which Wales Online described as a “dark but hilarious” take on Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody. The song received an unexpected plug on social media from Flavor Flav, formerly the definitive hype-man for rap legends Public Enemy (who Goldie Lookin Chain had themselves had paid homage to with their 2017 release Fear of a Welsh Planet.)

Flavor Flav knows it! pic.twitter.com/jHUEZb12qo

— goldie lookin chain (@theGLC) December 4, 2020

Later this year GLC stalwart Adam Hussain will also be taking on judging duties for Gwent’s Got Talent, an online talent competition in aid of St David’s Hospice. Speaking about his new role to the South Wales Argus, Hussain threw down a light-hearted gauntlet to another well-known talent show judge, saying: “I’m always interested in what local talent we have in Gwent and believe in supporting our home-grown future stars. Amanda Holden does it regularly and I don’t really know what she did to qualify for the position apart from going out with Les Dennis.”

The full list of dates for Goldie Lookin Chain’s 2021 Tour Is As Follows:

09/04 – Aberystwyth – Aberystwyth Arts Centre
10/04 – Porthcawl – Grand Pavilion
16/04 – Llandudno – The Arena, Venue Cymru
07/05 – Leeds – The Warehouse
08/05 – Birmingham – The Mill
15/05 – Narberth – Queens Hall
28/05 – Swansea – Sin City
29/05 – Cardiff – Tramshed
26/06 – Newport – Newport Centre
14/08 – Newcastle – O2 Academy2
20/08 – Oxford – O2 Academy2
21/08 – London – O2 Academy, Islington

Over 30 acts are set to take the stage at the Somerset extravaganza, which festival organisers have promised will be “a long-weekend escape of music and mayhem“. The running order has yet to be finalised, but attendees can expect sets from much-loved Newport rap iconoclasts Goldie Lookin’ Chain; Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook with his band The Light; Liverpool outfit Cast; Leeds indie five-piece The Pigeon Detectives; Hounslow Britpoppers The Bluetones; and shoegaze favourites The Boo Radleys (performing as Sice Boo and the Radleys).

The Boo Radleys will effectively be reuniting for the gig – albeit without original guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr – having split in 1999. The Wirral band, whose third LP Wake Up! topped the UK albums charts in 1995, will be led under their new moniker by singer Simon ‘Sice’ Rowbottom.

Goldie Lookin Chain (GLC)’s appearance will follow the Welsh hip-hop troupe’s delayed 20th anniversary tour, which finishes with a homecoming gig at Newport Centre on Saturday 21st June 2021. The group have kept busy during lockdown, recently recording a pandemic-related Christmas song and taking aim at conspiracists who deny the existence of the virus with the Green Day-inspired diss track Covidiot.

In an unexpected turn, GLC stalwart Adam Hussain is also taking on judging duties for Gwent’s Got Talent, an online talent competition in aid of St David’s Hospice. Speaking about his new role to the South Wales Argus, Hussain took a light-hearted swipe at another well-known talent show judge, saying:  “I’m always interested in what local talent we have in Gwent and believe in supporting our home-grown future stars. Amanda Holden does it regularly and I don’t really know what she did to qualify for the position apart from going out with Les Dennis.”

GLC’s compatriots Feeder will also be relishing an opportunity to return to the stage in 2021, having been forced to postpone the remaining tour dates to showcase their acclaimed 2019 album Tallulah. During the lockdown the band released a new video to accompany the now-iconic homemade promo for their 2001 hit Just A Day; with Just A Day 2 raising funds for PPE equipment for the NHS.

Fellow Shiine On headliners Glasvegas’ set should feature songs from their upcoming fourth album Godspeed, which is due out next April. Band frontman James Allan has suggested that the new record, their first in seven years, follows a narrative outline.

He recently told NME “The picture I imagined was that all the songs were set on one night. I wrote a couple of songs and then thought that’s maybe the way this album is supposed to be. The character basically leaves the house at the beginning of the album and starts to drive somewhere. The character’s always inside the car but there’s parts of that drive that are like a daydream, not reminiscent but the way you are when you’re out driving somewhere, your thoughts can jump from one place to the next, and then you’ll maybe notice something that has a memory in real time.”

Tickets for the 2021 Shiiine On Weekender are available now on the festival website.

The track listing contains the usual tounge-in-cheek, fist-in-mouth gibes ‘Baneswell Express’, ‘Newport Bouncers’ and ‘What Would Biggie Do’,  to yet again prove that observational, self-analytical comedy never gets old. Their music video for ‘At The Drive-Thru’ could be seen as weight-hatred or a senseless indictment of poverty (the chorus’s Country infused South Park impersonations either echo America’s obesity issues or just the general irritation and sense of stereotype stupidity one gleans from the cut-out characters squealing accents) but the ‘humour’ of grown men stuffing their sports-wear with pillows dispels all gravity.

The band still look like they are enjoying themselves, after all their ethos is drenched in ‘piss-take’ and this continues to makes it fun. Due to their cult success the members may have since germinated from the light brown chequered caps, nylon track-suits and chunky chains that they portray to town-houses in the centre of London, but the spirit is still very much tangible.

AUGUST

17 / 18 ‘ V Festival

OCTOBER 2013

2 ‘ Bournemouth Old Fire Station
3 ‘ Bristol Thekla
4 ‘ Newcastle Northumbria Uni SU Reds Bar
5 ‘ Swansea The Garage
10 ‘ Birmingham 02 Academy
11 ‘ Leeds University Mine
12 ‘ Gloucester Guildhall
17 ‘ York Fibbers
18 – Leicester 02 Academy
19 ‘ Coventry Kasbah
23 ‘ Luton Charlie Browns
24 ‘ London Scala
25 ‘ Cardiff Globe

NOVEMBER 2013

1 ‘ Cumbria Barrow The Nines
7 ‘ Sheffield The Corporation
8- Glasgow Audio
9 ‘ Frome Cheese & Grain

Full ticket details at http://www.youknowsit.co.uk/