FEATURE:
First Band on the Moon
Why a New U.K. Show from The Cardigans Is Especially Pleasing
__________
EVEN if there have been…
a couple of departures from the original line-up of 1992, The Cardigans are a band that I feel have a lot more life in them. This ties in to an announcement that they will play their first U.K. show in eight years. Lars-Olof Johansson, Bengt Lagerberg, Nina Persson and Magnus Sveningsson could well record another album. That is the hope at least. Their most recent album is 2005’s Super Extra Gravity. Nina Persson has recorded solo and collaborative music since then, but it has been more than twenty years since we received an album from the band. Their amazing debut, Emmerdale, was released in 1994. This year is a big anniversary year. Their 1996 album, First Band on the Moon, was released on 6th September that year. I will focus on it closer to the time. On 6th August, it will be thirty years since Lovefool was released. The best-known and adored song from The Cardigans, it was one that scored high school days. One of those songs that sticks in the mind and brings back happy memories. I shall end with a mixtape of The Cardigans’ best tracks and some deep cuts. However, NME reported on some very pleasing news for fans of the Swedish band:
“The Cardigans have announced their first UK show in eight years will take place this summer in London.
The Swedish pop veterans last played in the country in December 2018 when they performed a string of shows to mark the 20th anniversary of their landmark fourth album ‘Gran Turismo’.
That run of dates concluded with a show at London’s Eventim Apollo, and now the band have confirmed that they will be playing a one-off show at the same venue on June 27. It will be their only UK show of 2026.
The special early doors show will have a 9pm curfew and a pre-sale for tickets begins at 10am on Wednesday (January 28) for fans who sign up here. They will then go on general sale at the same time on Friday (January 30) and you will be able to find yours here.
The band formed in 1992 and made their debut with 1994’s ‘Emmerdale’. The single ‘Lovefool’ served as a major international breakthrough in 1996, reaching Number Two in the UK and being included in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.
Further hits followed, including ‘My Favourite Game’, ‘Erase/Rewind’ and ‘Hanging Around’, but they went on hiatus after the release of their sixth studio album ‘Super Extra Gravity’ in 2005.
Since then, frontwoman Nina Persson has released albums under her solo side project A Camp and memorably provided guest vocals on Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, from 2007’s ‘Send Away The Tigers’.
The Cardigans have continued to tour in recent years, after ending their hiatus in 2012, and have played sporadically around Europe and Japan, including a pair of shows in the latter country last October.
As for the possibility of new music, Persson said in 2014 that “if we continue having this much fun [on tour] we would like to make another record, because we like to create new things.”
The closest we have come to that happening, however, was a clip of the band playing apparently new music that was posted on social media in 2022”.
It is a perfect year for the band to come back to the stage. I think they are following bands like Oasis and tying touring and live work to a big anniversary. Oasis reformed last year when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? turned thirty. Not the only reason they reunited for live work. However, it did seem like a perfect moment. The same with Cardigans and thirty years of Last Band on the Moon. Maybe them playing Lovefool thirty years after it was released and became this huge chart success.
I am not sure whether we will get many other incredible bands from the 1990s doing a reunion or, in the case of The Cardigans, coming out of hibernation. The band have not broken up, so it is more to do with them embarking on this new stage of their career. You wonder whether Spice Girls will come back to the stage to mark thirty years of Wannabe in the summer. Celebrate the same anniversary for their debut album, Spice. That would be something fans would love to see! I did not know that The Cardigans were in communication and there were any plans, so this announcement was quite a surprise! However, you wonder whether there will be new material or it is just this sort of brief moment of reunion. However, I do feel like there could be some new material. Nina Persson is one of the greatest band leads ever. One of the coolest women of the 1990s, I was a huge fan of The Cardigans. I remember when Lovefool came out and it was played all over the radio. I think the song still sound completely wonderful and unique. Its video is so charming and utterly spellbinding. I bought Gran Turismo in 1998 and that was off of the strength of its leads single, My Favourite Game. It is a terrific album that I hope gets an outing when The Cardigans come to London. The band will bring together fans who have been following them since the start and those new to their music. This year more than ever is depressing and bleak. Live music cannot banish that blackness, through great news like The Cardigans performing live is a welcome relief and treat! Nearly thirty years after their released their third studio album, they will be gracing the stage. There will be a lot of demand, as the 27th June gig at the Eventim Apollo is their only performance here. Tickets will sell out very quickly. I would like to think that their first album in over two decads will come. Given the love still out there for them, many would embrace a follow-up to Super Extra Gravity. Rather than this show being a celebration of Lovefool/First Band on the Moon turning thirty, it might be more than that. At the moment nothing is confirmed though, given the huge anniversaries later in the year and the excitement around that, who knows…
WHAT could happen.