Teesside band's silver celebration

TWENTY-TWO years after supporting multi-million-selling band Big Country, at Middlesbrough Arena, Hartlepool’s The White Negroes will be opening for them once again, this time at Billingham Forum Theatre on May 6.

The Negroes are celebrate 25 years together and started out during The Gulf War , the end of Apartheid and the death of Freddie Mercury. Taking their name from Norman Mailer's seminal Beat essay, The White Negroes quickly formed a formidable live reputation with their celebratory shows.

They pretty much became the house band at the legendary Cactus club nights, at Middlesbrough Arena, in the mid 1990s, appearing on the same stage as the likes of Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene and the Stereophonics in the golden Brit pop era.

The band enjoyed several European tours, but after ten years of pills, thrill and bellyaches the boys took a much needed rest.

The Negroes got back on stage in the mid-2000s, and appeared at Middlesbrough Music Live, Stockton Weekend, Willowman Festival, as well as their best show ever in front of 5,000 people at the Hartlepool Tall Ships festival.

Described as "stadium rock in a working men's club", the band have infamously broke into the set of children's TV show The Teletubbies, drunk all of The Stranglers alcohol backstage and lead singer, Ish, even ended up in a novel called The Giro Playboys.

https://soundcloud.com/the-white-negroes/one-of-these-days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2dd4XvJMtM

* Box Office: forumtheatrebillingham.co.uk or 01642-552663