Stereo MCs drop new music hint ahead of Belfast date

Following a sell-out UK tour with Happy Mondays earlier this year, Stereo MC’s’ Rob Birch (Rob B) and Nick Hallam, Cath Coffey and Tansay Omar’s date in Belfast is the opening night of their 17-date tour of the UK & Ireland.

Fans can expect to hear tracks from across the Brit Award winner’s seven studio albums, including the smash hits singles ‘Connected’, ‘Step It Up’, ‘Creation’, ‘Ground Level’ and ‘Deep Down & Dirty’.

In addition, fans might also be the first to hear tracks from the group’s new album, touted for release in 2025.

Nick said: “There’s a lot of new music that’s being developed as we go, some club orientated in keeping with our label and recent outlook, and some more in the Stereo MCs known mould. When the two merge as one we will be there.”

Rob said: “There are many influences in the melting pot being shaped by this time we live in. In the same way as we look back for inspiration, we are charged by the present and that’s how we work: combining old methods with modern technology. The more diverse our music becomes the happier I feel.”

Stereo MCs are probably best known for their international Top 20 hit single ‘Connected’, which was released in 1992 and taken from the‘Connected’ album of the same year. The album reached #2 in the UK Album Chart and also contained the aforementioned hits ‘Step It Up’, ‘Creation’, and ‘Ground Level’, and led to the group winning two Brit Awards for Best Group and Best Album in 1994.

Being childhood friends and neighbours, Rob and Nick formed Stereo MCs in the mid-eighties, with the pair inspired to make music by their combined love of early hip-hop, funk and electronic music.

The Stereo MCs initially pressed their first 12” vinyl and started their own independent record label called G Street Records with Kiss DJ Richie Rich and budding entrepreneur Jon Baker.

When G Street attracted the attention of 4th & Broadway in 1989, the duo recorded the debut Stereo MC’s album, ‘33-45-78’.

Nick said: “When we started getting gigs around that time we thought it would be great to have live drums, even if they made the turntables bounce around. But when we went to the States, the U.S. branch of our record company said, ‘We’re not paying for a drummer to come on tour, because you don’t do that with this type of music’. There were a few barriers to cross before dance music was established as a live music force and was given equal rights in the touring and festival scene. Island Records had a good attitude to developing young acts, though, and we were given time to grow both in the studio and on the road.”

After releasing 33-45-78 the band toured with De La Soul, Living Colour and A Certain Ratio. They then headed to New York to record their second album, ‘Supernatural’ in 1990, bearing the singles ‘Elevate My Mind’ (which made it into the United States R&B Charts) and ‘Lost in Music’ which was a club hit in the UK and US. This success was further cemented when they supported Happy Mondays on a US tour.

Rob said: “If we weren’t on the road or making our own tracks we were remixing for other artists. Life didn’t have a clock, you just worked and vibed until you dropped on the sofa and woke up in your clothes six hours later.”

Stereo MCs were in demand for remix work from the likes of U2, Madonna, Tricky, Pressure Drop, David Holmes, Terranova and Mo’Wax records, as well as earlier mixes for The Jungle Brothers, Latifah and RZA.

“The summer of 1992 saw us finish our 3rd LP, Connected, which we toured solidly for about 18 months after its release. It was a big success for us and everybody involved and was a beautiful moment in our development. Navigating our way through the aftermath of over-touring fatigue and life catching up with you was challenging, and for a while the creative spark was hard to find, so we went into recluse mode and built our own studio again so we could get out of the music biz domain.”

After making a mix album for the DJ Kicks series on Studio!K7 in 1999, 2001 saw the release of the band’s fourth album ‘Deep Down & Dirty’, followed by a tour that included opening for Jane's Addiction in the US. The album’s title track became Stereo MC’s fifth consecutive Top 20 hit single in a row.

Following recordings for Pias, K7 and Graffiti they continued their long relationship with club music, starting the label ‘connected’ in 2015, initially to release their own new music, but also releasing other artists, and have since become established in the ever-popular Afro House genre. They have also collaborated with some of the biggest current names in house music via releases with Adam Port and Keinemusik and Stil Vor Talent, and have featured guest spots with Re.You , Anja Schneider, Fred Everything and many others.

Tickets for Stereo MCs date at the Empire Music Hall on 25th September are available from www.stereomcs.com.