Review of the Year 2012

“Back in the studio as of yesterday with the boys…”

Twenty twelve has been an awesome year for Garbage. If you think back a couple of years then there wasn’t any real noise of anything happening at all.

Garbage was dead and had been for years, there were only a few hardcore fans still posting on a few forums, then suddenly a post by Shirley in February 2011 changed everything…

“Back in the studio as of yesterday with the boys…”

The beast was awakening.

Fast forward to October 2011 and the band were in full flow, tweeting and keeping us all updated via Facebook, they also dropped their awesome cover of U2’s “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” on us.

The first time I heard this track it totally blew me away. It sounded amazing. I was now expecting big things from the band I’d wanted more from but never expected.

Then something happened in December which really blew my mind! Garbage were going to tour again, 2 Russian dates were confirmed and I started looking at flights.

2012, The year of Garbage

The year I already knew would be awesome not just because Garbage were back with a new album, but they will be back with new tour dates.

January

The year started off with more of a buzz than the previous month. New tour dates were confirmed in France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Romania, LA and my hometown London. Fans were exploding with the excitement of this. Trashers of old were re-grouping and many “Darklings” were getting excited at the prospect of seeing the band live for the first time ever.

The tour dates however wasn’t the biggest news to be announced in January. The new album would be released in May on the bands own label STUNVOLUME, and be known as Not Your Kind Of People.

February

The band started working with Matt Irwin recording the video for Blood For Poppies, which would turn out to be the first single from the album.

Butch on the other hand was rewarded for his work with the Foo Fighters at the Grammys while also scooping Producer of the Year at the MPG awards.

More dates were confirmed in Europe and America with many fans in LA missing out due to scalpers at the bands opening two shows.

March

March was a massive month with even more US and European dates announced as the tour really started to take shape. Eric Avery was also confirmed to continue his role as live bassist.

The track listing for Not Your Kind Of People was announced via YouTube along with the artwork while Blood For Poppies was confirmed as the lead single, which then leaked online so the band simply gave it away. The month ended with Battle In Me being confirmed as a UK single.

April

The month started with the video premier of Blood For Poppies.

Garbage also returned to the live stage with a “secret” sold out show at the Bootleg in LA before heading off on tour across America. Nearing the end of the month the band sadly had to postpone a number of dates due to a Dukes mother falling ill.

The first commercial releases were issued in April by STUNVOLUME as the band got involved with Record Store Day issuing Blood For Poppies in America while Battle In Me hit the shelves in the UK

May

May was pretty much the most important month for the band as they self released their fifth studio album. I was lucky to hear it before the release hit the stores and I pretty much had it on repeat for a week.

The band also headed to Europe playing 4 dates in London, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Paris, along with a couple of TV shows in Cologne and the French capital.

That show in London proved that Garbage were well and truly back. The energy they had I personally hadn’t seen since 1999 on that incredible Version 2.0 tour. I knew on that rainy night in East London that this tour was going to be special. Fan’s who I’d been seeing shows with right back in 99 were all buzzing with the same glow of delight having just witnessed something so different from the previous 2 tours. Everyone agreed that the break had done them good and that they were back in a way none of us expected.

June

The month saw the band trekking through Europe as they went from festival to festival performing in the mid afternoon sun and from time to time headlining the show itself. They played solo shows in Amsterdam and Luxembourg.

There was however something which over shadowed the whole year and that was the sad news of the passing away of Dukes mother.

July

Four UK dates in London, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Glasgow started July before heading back to mainland Europe for festival dates in Romania, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Uruguay also went crazy with the news that the first ever show in South America was confirmed.

August

Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, France, Russia, Latvia, Poland, Belarus and Slovakia all celebrated with the news that the band will be playing shows there in the near future.

Garbage returned as hometown heroes in Madison to play Pondamonium where the City of Madison made an official announcement and declared the day, Garbage Day.

The month ended with the band playing sold out shows in Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

August also saw the video premier of Big Bright World which featured a number of fans.

September

Garbage were tearing through America and into Canada. Playing more and more from the new album including I Hate Love for the first time in Seattle.

Fans in Peru however were left disappointed as Planeta Terra Festival was sadly cancelled, hopefully the band will be able to get back there in the future.

October

The band performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live before completing the dates which were cancelled back at the start of the tour.

The first ever South American tour in the bands history also kicked off with shows in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Columbia.

November

The band were back in Europe with shows in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Germany. Two shows were also confirmed for New Zealand in 2013, the first since 2002.

The final date in Berlin saw Steve’s daughter Ruby join Shirley on stage for a great performance of Not Your Kind Of People.

December

Garbage and their crew ended the year with three shows in the USA including a performance of I Hate Love on Jay Leno, before heading off for a well earned break.

With Butch Vig saying the band will be back in the studio in the new year and shows still to play in New Zealand and Australia 2013 is already shaping up to be another good one.

I end this by thanking everyone who has made this an incredible year, a year which I honestly didn’t think would ever happen, shows that were truly amazing, friends of old that are always awesome, new ones who hopefully will turn out the same and a pretty decent soundtrack to go with it, this was 2012, the year of Garbage.