Primal Scream created one of the classic dance albums of the '90s, Screamadelica a record that fused dub, techno, acid house, rock and pop into a heady dance brew.

But Bobby Gillespie did not start his musical career in the dance scene, his roots are firmly rooted in the rock world, Gillespie formed Primal Scream while drumming for noise, rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Although the band signed to Creation Records in 1985, Primal Scream only started making real progress when Gillespie left The Jesus and Mary Chain and recruited guitarists, Andrew Innes and Robert Young into the band. 

Primal Scream's debut album, Sonic Flower Groove took its marker from the '60s jangly guitar music of The Byrds and Love. Their second album, Primal Scream looked to '70s rock groups like The Rolling Stones, New York Dolls, MC5s and The Stooges to give their sound a harder edge.

But then Gillespie & Co started to get embroiled in London's underground dance scene and asked DJ Andrew Weatherall to remix a track for their last album, "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have".

Weatherall reworked the song, adding a heavy bass line, sampling lines of Pete Fonda's dialogue from The Wild Angels and a reverbed rock guitar. The new mix was titled "Loaded" and was a massive hit as it brought the worlds of rock & roll and dance together.

The songs leans heavily toward "Sympathy For The Devil" by The Rolling Stones but the infusion of contemporary dance elements gave "Loaded" and the subsequent album, Screamadelica a sound that saw Primal Scream transcend their influences.

For Screamadelica, Primal Scream worked with Andrew Weatherall, Hugo Nicholson, The Orb and The Stones producer, Jimmy Miller to create an album that dipped into nearly every aspect of English dance culture. The album was a milestone in British Rock, bringing techno and house into the mainstream and Primal Scream subsequently won the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992.

Primal Scream's follow-up to Screamadelica, Give Out But Don't Give Up saw the band retreat to their '70s rock influences and was generally view as a disappointing return from such an innovative band.

But in the last few years they have returned to dance music, albeit with a darker sound for the albums, Vanishing Point, XTRMNTR and Evil Heat and have regained their reputation as cutting edge music experimenters.

A set of rock anthem and dancefloor fillers, Primal Scream play Oxegen on Saturday, the 8th of July.

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Saturday Listings
Sunday Listings

Primal Scream 

Oxegen 2006

Buy Tickets

Tickets: €160 for a weekend ticket with camping
              €130 for a weekend ticket without camping
              €69.50 for a day tickets

Tickets are available from Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.ie

Oxegen
Punchestown Racecourse,
Kildare.
Tel: + 353 (0) 818 719 300