“‘Eight Fivers’ is about being out of touch with modern circumstances while feeling socially limited,” singer Dara Kiely said in a statement. “Never fitting in and kind of proud of it. Stuck with what I have and happy for it. Being grateful and not fashionable, self-conscious and too aware of what is lacking. Accepting that jealousy has played a big role in my life but trying not to feed into it.”

Late last year, Gilla band made headlines after taking the socially charged decision to change their name from Girl Band. The band have highlighted their initial decision, labelling it as nothing more than an oversight, “It was chosen without much thought” and that the choice came from a place of “naivety and ignorance”. The band go on to say that the decision was not intended to be harmful to anyone; but in today’s climate, with talks of gender and sexuality being as prominent as they are, it would have been “impossible to justify or explain their choice”.   “Regardless of our intentions, the effect of the name has been damaging to individuals. To try and negate any unfortunate role we’ve played in propagating a culture of non-inclusivity in music or otherwise, we have decided to change it.”. 

We are changing our band name. We are also playing some shows in Dublin in January. pic.twitter.com/PNhZ19dL2m

— Gilla Band (@GillaBand) November 16, 2021

The announcement comes ahead of an extensive world tour the band have just begun. Hitting the European and North American festival scene for the summer, before heading back to the UK in October for 8 nights, and then heading back off to mainland Europe until the end of November. Ready for a few Christmas-themed welcome-home gigs in Ireland. You can find full tour information here. The band are yet to announce any support for the shows, but with a few months to go, it’s unlikely we’ll be left in the dark for very long.

See below the full list of Gilla Band’s UK and Ireland Tour:

09/17 – Leicester – Wide Eyed Festival
10/15 – Birmingham – Future Days Festival
10/16 – Bristol – Trinity
10/18 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
10/19 – Glasgow – SWG3
10/20 – Manchester – O2 The Ritz
10/22 – London – O2 Forum
10/23 – Brighton – CHALK
12/09 – Dublin – National Stadium
12/15 – Belfast – The Empire