My Bloody Valentine‘s Kevin Shields reunited with Primal Scream this week, joining them on stage in Ireland.
Shields was a semi-permanent member of the Scottish indie rock band between 1998 and 2006 – helping shift them towards a heavier electronic-industrial sound on albums including 2000’s ‘XTRMNTR’ and 2002’s ‘Evil Heat’ (2002).
His distinctive mixing, production style and guitar sound were first introduced on the track ‘If They Move, Kill ‘Em’ from fifth album ‘Vanishing Point’, and he was a member of the touring line-up throughout 2005, including for their slot at Glastonbury that year.
While his main stint with the group ended in the mid ‘00s, Shields did collaborate with Bobby Gillespie and co. one more time on their nine-minute lead single ‘2013’, which featured on Primal Scream’s 10th album ‘More Light’.
Now, Shields has taken to the stage with Primal Scream again, joining them as a surprise guest for their show at Beyond The Pale festival in Ireland.
Held at the Glendalough Estate in County Wicklow on Saturday (June 13), Shields took to the stage midway through the set, joining for renditions of ‘Accelerator’ and ‘Shoot Speed/Kill Light’ – which both featured on ‘XTRMNTR’.
He joined the Scottish indie heroes again at the end of their 12-song set, helping them perform ‘Rocks’ – their Top 10 track which was the lead single for their 1994 fourth studio album ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’.
Check out more footage from the night and the full setlist below.
Primal Scream’s setlist was:
‘Movin’ on Up’
‘Don’t Fight It, Feel It’
‘Jailbird’
‘Love Insurrection’
‘Kill All Hippies’
‘Accelerator’ (with Kevin Shields)
‘Shoot Speed/Kill Light’ (with Kevin Shields)
‘Swastika Eyes’
‘Loaded’
‘Come Together’
‘Country Girl’
‘Rocks’ (with Kevin Shields)
Earlier this spring, Primal Scream announced a full UK anniversary tour to celebrate over 25 years of ‘XTRMNTR’, and those shows will see them play that sixth studio album in its entirety.
Dates kick off in Glasgow in September, and come following the band holding a 25th anniversary performance of the record at London’s Roundhouse back in December. Visit here for tickets.
As well as the live shows, Bobby Gillsepie and co. are also releasing a ‘The Bunker Trilogy’ – a special collection of expanded reissues of some of the band’s most beloved and experimental albums, namely ‘Vanishing Point’, ‘XTRMNTR’ and ‘Evil Heat’.
Upon the original release of ‘XTRMNTR’, NME rated the album 9/10 and wrote: “ The music scene’s not so hot, either. That we could do with a fully plugged-in, turned-on, fucked-off Primal Scream at this point is hardly front-page news; for ‘Exterminator’ to pulverise the senses with quite such righteous, incendiary beauty most definitely is.”
The album went on to be named by NME as the second-best record of 2000, picked up the Best Album award at the 2001 NME Awards, and later landed at Number Three in our Albums of the Decade list.
Primal Scream’s last release was 2024’s acclaimed album ‘Come Ahead‘.
For My Bloody Valentine, the shoegaze pioneers played as part of Robert Smith’s Teenage Cancer Trust gigs at Royal Albert Hall earlier this year – joining the likes of Garbage, Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers, Chvrches, and more on the bill.
That show followed on from them playing their first tour in seven years last year, where they dedicated their opening Dublin show to late Stone Roses bassist Mani, who was in Primal Scream at the same time as Shields.