Rough Trade

Fresh from supporting Blur at Wembley Stadium this summer, Sleaford Mods are getting set for some of their biggest ever UK and Europe dates this autumn with the release of new six track EP, More UK GRIM, on 20 October.

Recorded at the same time as their acclaimed 2023 album, UK GRIM, the freshly released songs not only continue Andrew Fearn and Jason Williamson’s current dancefloor dominance, but with a mix of insight and wit, outrage and compassion, they critique and celebrate our turbulent times.

Lead single Big Pharma, shares a ‘take no prisoners’ lyrical approach with the band’s recent album as it casts a doubtful eye down the ‘truther’ wormhole, although entwined around a slinky bass riff the track confirms the two-piece at their most dexterous musically.

Big Pharma, which sets the tone for the More UK GRIM EP, is accompanied by a sharply satirical animated video directed by Sean Sears, who has applied his distinctive, stylised 2D vision to examining the consequences of a health ‘philosophy’ that prizes drinking urine over carefully researched medical treatments.

“Big Pharma was written in the opening chapters of autumn 2022 when Covid kicked in again. It carries a lot of the normal Sleaford Mods absurdism but also looks at the ongoing fascination with trying to find truths in information wholly pushed by very questionable people,” explains Jason Williamson.

“The term ‘Big Pharma’ has been uprooted from its original place, one that rightly threw critique at the pharmaceutical industry as it produced more and more products that would ruin lives on a mass scale. Instead now, Big Pharma is more familiar as a term used by right wing and industrial groups trying to mask the financial aims of their arguments with some kind of critical thinking panache-type legitimacy. It just feels wrong. It feeds on hopelessness, widespread fear and generations of unfettered misinformation linked to the limited critical perception we as the masses are burdened with.”

Williamson adds that Sleaford Mods’ song does not excuse those peddling the terms as part of some sort of faceless political/industrial complex, as it also pokes fun at keyboard warriors who really should engage their own brains before posting.

“There has to be lots of personal responsibility held to account too,” he suggests. “Recently Big Pharma has been adopted by the anti trans movement, so you can see that high performance bigotry and personal financial interest are never too far away. Much like the next version of the latest smart phone, the features are largely the same.”

Alongside the lead single, the More UK GRIM EP also features Under The Rules, Old Nottz, PO Crazeh and My 18hr Girdle, all previously unavailable.

“Old Nottz carries on from tunes like DIY, and centres more on local resentment for Sleaford Mods and my own perceived, helpless fall into material conformity,” explains Williamson. “Under The Rules, carries some of this sentiment, while the title of 18 Hr Girdle was taken from an old 70s advert for women’s girdles and it looks at how male identity, although hard pressed currently under this cloud of Alpha Male dominance, is changing. PO Crazeh is a mesh of absurdist, political one-liners and daft shit, basically – enjoy!”

The EP comes as Fearn and Williamson hit the road next month, kicking off a continent-wide set of European dates in Utrecht on 14 October. After letting our closest neighbours experience UK GRIM firsthand, the band will then return to Britain for some of their biggest gigs yet. These include a night at London’s Alexander Palace on 2 December, which boasts on the undercard the duo’s acclaimed label-mates Special Interest, the extremely suave John Grant and “the world’s greatest living stand-up comedian”, Stewart Lee. Electronic titans, Hot Chip, will also DJ at the show.