Arab Strap Tickets

Get the album As Days Get Dark here

Arab Strap were a major part of the Glasgow music scene in the late ’90s and early ’00s, when they helped define the sadcore genre of indie rock.

Comprised primarily of longtime school friends Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, the band formed in Falkirk in 1995. Their debut album, The Week Never Starts Round Here, arrived in 1996 on the cool Chemikal Underground label. With an electro-acoustic sound, their music focused on topics like drinking, drugs, jealousy and casual sex.

Five more albums followed over the coming decade featuring Arab Strap’s signature frank, colloquial songwriting: 1998’s Philophobia, 1999’s Elephant Shoe, 2001’s The Red Thread, 2003’s Monday At The Hug & Pint and 2005’s The Last Romance.

In 2006, shortly after the release of their sixth record, the duo called it quits. Although they reformed a decade later for a series of UK festival appearances and live shows, it was 15 years before Arab Strap reunited and released new music.

When the single The Turning Of Our Bones came out on 1 September 2020, it was named Record Of The Week on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show. That was followed in November by another track, Compersion Pt. 1., along with the announcement their seventh album As Days Get Dark would arrive on 5 March 2021. To support it, Arab Strap also confirmed a UK tour for September 2021.

“We’ve had enough distance from our earlier work to reappraise and dissect the good and bad elements of what we did,” said Middleton about their new material. “Not many bands get to do this, so it’s great to split up.”