Southampton’s Creeper come home to The Guildhall this Sunday

SOUTHAMPTON’S horror punk heroes Creeper will end their biggest year so far with a huge homecoming show on Sunday.

The Kerrang! Award winners, whose top twenty debut album Eternity, in Your Arms has just been voted one of The NME’s albums of the year, are headlining The O2 Guildhall in the last of six dates on their Theatre of Fear tour.

Front man Will Gould, lead guitarist Ian Miles, rhythm guitarist Oliver Burdett, bassist Sean Scott, keyboardist Hannah Greenwood and drummer Dan Bratton have already played Glasgow, Birmingham and Bristol. On Thursday they topped the bill at the legendary London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire before heading to the even bigger Albert Hall in Manchester.

But nothing will mean more than returning to the city where it all started and to where they made their first record with local producer Neil Kennedy at The Ranch Production House studios in Nursling.

They supported Welsh rockers Neck Deep at The Guildhall in 2016, but this time it’s their own show in their home city. Southampton’s biggest band is coming home.

Their success here and abroad – they toured Europe and the US again this year – is an incredible achievement for a band who only started at The Joiners on St Mary Street not much more than three years ago.

Fans who’ve already seen what Creeper are calling their “one-of-a-kind production” have been raving about the performance on social media. One called it the best spectacle they’d seen since Michael Jackson at Wembley more than 25 years ago.

Though a world away from songs like Black Rain and Misery, this week the band released a Christmas themed EP including a cover of Elvis’ Blue Christmas and Will and Hannah singing The Pogues & Kirsty McColl’s Fairy Tale of New York.

They’ve also just published their first book, The Last Days of James Scythe, which carries on the story of the band’s mysterious character who’s featured in their work for some time.

Creeper at O2 Guildhall Southampton, Sunday December 10 with support from Cant Swim, Microwave and Nervus. Tickets at academymusicgroup.com.

Richard Derbyshire