New album from Big Boy Bloater & The LiMiTs
Big Boy Bloater & The LiMiTs will be releasing their brand new album Pills on 15th June 2018 via Provogue/Mascot Label Group.
Following on from 2016βs Luxury Hobo, Surrey born Bloater re-focusses himself and Pills is a reflection of him having a clearer head. βI guess a lot of stuff happened on the Luxury Hobo tour. Maybe after the depression, my minds a bit more open and turned on to things, so I have observed more.β
Recorded in December 2017 with producer Adam Whalley, the band trimmed down to a power trio of Big Boy Bloater (Vocals/Guitar), Matt Cowley (Drums) and Steven Oates (Bass) for the new album and it kicks off with the rip-roaring title track Pills, an extension from the previous album and highlights the constant need for pills today but has a sinister edge. Β βI think the sinister side to it is the pharmaceutical companies want you to take these drugs and they want you to keep on thinking youβre ill so they can sell you tablets. Itβs gonna get to the point where youβre taking anti-biotics for everything, eventually they wonβt work and weβre all gonna die from a super flu.β
The album continues with the autobiographical Friday Nightβs Alright For Drinking and into the bleakly observant feet-moving Saturday Night Desperation Shuffle gliding seamlessly on to the gloriously poppy Stop Stringing Me Along which tells the tale of cigar-smoking scoundrels who promise the moon and to make you a million dollars, but ultimately, nothing happens. The angry undertones are masked by the candy coated exterior. βIβll either write autobiographical or invent these characters, and because you can do so much more with them, anythingβs possible.Β You can make them as outrageous as you want, I like to blur the line between the twoβ he explains.
A lover of all things horror, especially Amicus and Hammer Horror, there are always nods towards the ominous or outlandish. If Luxury Hoboβs, It Came Outta the Swamp was B-Movie then Unnaturally Charming is more Hitchcock.Β More sinister tales weave themselves into place on the beautifully juxtaposed Oops Sorry and the Tom Waits-esque Mouse Organ
She Didnβt Even Buy A Ticket follows a real incident. βIt happened at a gig,β he remembers. βSomeone actually gate-crashed looking for her husband, who was out on a date with another woman.β The story didnβt end there, at a later show he was talking to the audience about his new songs when, at the end of the night, two people came up to him and said, βthat couple you talked about, that was usβ. βDid I feel red faced that nightβ he laughs.
In the finale, we find out about what happened to our friend the Swamp Monster from Luxury Hobo on the beautifully poignant Ukulele strummed album closer A Life Full of Debt.
More than ever, the band effortlessly flit through styles and pace creating an album full of depth, emotion, humour, anger and sheer fun, all the time keeping the thread that makes Big Boy Bloater & The LiMiTs such a unique proposition. βI always used to like the Portmanteau horror films where they have 3 or 4 different stories in the film. So youβve always got this constant change and you never really got bored of one story and then there this theme tying it all together.β
Over the last two years the band have toured the UK to packed shows, headlined Wychwood Festival, pulled in new fans at Camden Rocks Festival, supported Joanne Shaw Taylor, performed on the back of a pickup truck for a charity chili night, played with The Quireboys at a brewery and enjoyed βone of the most enjoyableβ gigs theyβve ever done at Ramblinβ Man Fair in 2017.Β βWhen we got on stage, the marquee was absolutely rammed, there were people in the front row singing along and I was like βhow do you know that.ββ The response to the show was incredible, it seems as if every show they have done since, theyβve had someone come up to them and say they saw them at Ramblinβ Man.
Buoyed by the incredible shows, the fan reaction and the momentum that was building, another memorable moment came playing The West End Centre in Aldershot for the first time, his hometown venue, and selling it out. βThatβs the place where I grew up and saw loads of guys when I was only about 8-10 years old – Big Joe Duskin, Slim Gaillard and more contemporary actsβ.
He counts fans in the shape of Imelda May, Mark Lamarr, Craig Charles, Paul Jones and Jools Holland.Β Following the release of Luxury Hobo Classic Rock Magazine, called him the βThe gravel-throated don of R&Bβ,Β whilst Vive le Rock said βThis stomping album of swamp R&B and gritty rock βnβ roll holds nothing backβ and it was #25 in their albums of the year list β this then earned the band a nomination for βBest Roots Bandβ at the 2018 Vive le Rock Awards keeping impressive company with other nominees including Madness and The Selecter..
Pills marks an even more ambitious direction for The LiMiTs, combining a melting pot of ideas beyond its blues roots and entwines Bloaterβs dark humour and personal experiences. βIβm probably never quite serious enough, but I couldnβt do it any other way really,β he says.
Itβs the anthology style that makes this album such an engaging proposition, the twists and turns always find you revealing something new, hidden beneath the surface. Pills will be released on 15th June 2018 via Provogue/Mascot Label Group.
BigΒ Boy Bloater and The LiMiTs are:
Big Boy Bloater β Vocals/Guitar
Matt Cowley – Drums
Steven Oates – Bass