Pop heroes Scissor Sisters are back in action.
The move was teased with some viral moments this week, including their iconic symbol being beamed on arenas around the land. As it turns out, eagle-eyed fans were right – the pop legends are set to hit the road shortly.
The occasion? Well, Scissor Sisters’ debut album turns 20, and that’s something to be celebrated. The record sold three million copies worldwide, of which a staggering two million were in the UK – it was our best-selling album in 2004, and spawned numerous colossal singles.
Lead singer Jake Shears returns to the fold, plus multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy and guitarist Del Marquis – the upcoming live shows will toast the debut album, while also drawing on 2006’s ‘Ta-Dah’, 2010’s ‘Night Work’ and 2012’s ‘Magic Hour’.
The album ‘Scissor Sisters’ was the best-selling album in the UK of 2004, selling over 3 million copies globally (a staggering 2 million of these were UK sales).
The tour opens in May 2025, hitting Nottingham, Glasgow, Bournemouth, Cardiff, and more. Playing London’s O2 Arena on May 23rd, the run closes with two Irish shows – Belfast and Dublin – on May 27th and 28th.
As if that wasn’t enough, debut album ‘Scissor Sisters’ will be re-released on vinyl on November 22nd.
So, a collection of quotes:
Jake says: “It’s the 20th anniversary of our debut album, so it really feels like the right time to revisit all the intense excitement of that moment. I think the impetus for this reunion was really a YouTube screening of Scissor Sisters: Live at The O2 that happened during lockdown. I don’t think I’d seen that show since it was filmed in 2007, but we were all kind of surprised by how great it was. And chatting with fans during the screening really brought back what a special moment it was for all of us.”
Babydaddy adds: “There’s something really special about us being a gay band, a queer band, who really pushed into the mainstream with that album. We want to revisit that because there weren’t as many queer acts breaking through in that way 20 years ago. We do acknowledge that we did something pretty unique back then just by putting ourselves out there as queer people. We put queer culture in the mainstream at a time when there wasn’t much of it there.”
Del says: ” There will always be a little bit of anarchy and chaos in our live shows. That’s the magic ingredient of the Scissor Sisters, and we’re definitely going to bring that ‘anything can happen’ energy back again. This time I want to be really present on stage and celebrate how lucky we are to have achieved what we achieved. I don’t think I was mature enough to deal with everything the first time around because it happened so fast.”
And finally, the full list of dates:
May
16 Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
17 Glasgow OVO Hydro
19 Bournemouth International Centre
20 Cardiff Utilita Arena
21 Manchester Co-Op Live
23 London The O2 Arena
24 Leeds First Direct Arena
25 Birmingham Utilita Arena
27 Belfast SSE Arena
28 Dublin 3Arena
In the archive: Scissor Sisters Interviewed
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Photo Credit: Kevin Tachman