News

Crime and The City Solution are set to embark on their “History of Crime” European tour this summer, and along with the announcement the band’s longtime label Mute is preparing a reissue campaign of their entire catalogue on vinyl and CD, beginning in January of 2023.

With their European tour that begins next month, Simon Bonney and Bronwyn Adams are launching their new Berlin-based incarnation of Crime & the City Solution, the band’s first following a ten-year hiatus.

During the “History of Crime” tour, the band will be playing tracks from all their albums, including Just South of Heaven (1985), Room of Lights (1986), Shine (1988), The Bride Ship (1989), Paradise Discotheque (1990), The Adversary (1993) and American Twilight (2013)

Dubbed Crime & the City Solution VI, this latest incarnation of the band includes Simon Bonney on vocals, Bronwyn Adams on violin, backing vocals, loops and found sound, highly respected Berlin-based Australian drummer Chris Hughes, Floridian synth and guitar maestro Georgio Valentino, Berlin-based bass player Baron Anastis and long-time collaborator and friend, Melbourne guitarist and pianist Donald Baldie.

Crime & the City Solution was formed in 1977 in Sydney, Australia by musician Simon Bonney at the age of 16. The band’s early performances between 1977 d 1979 made a huge impact on key figures of the burgeoning Melbourne art-punk/post-punk scene.

In 1984, with the help of Bad Seed Mick Harvey, Bonney relocated to England to form the London-based version of the group with legendary ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S Howard, his brother Harry Howard on bass, and Epic Soundtracks on drums.

After two years of touring in support of EPs and a full-length album, this lineup reached its peak with a performance in Wim Wenders’ cinematic masterpiece Wings of Desire aka Der Himmel über Berlin.

Relying less on the band’s Australian post-punk roots for a more experimental approach, Bonney would form the first Berlin-based incarnation of Crime & the City Solution, which would release three studio albums and a live CD between 1986 and 1991.

This lineup was comprised of Einstürzende Neubauten’s Alexander Hacke on guitar, ex-DAF/Liaisons Dangereuses Chrislo Haas on vintage Korg patchbay synth, and free jazz bassist Thomas Stern. The lineup was rounded out with two Australians, including Mick Harvey on drums and Bonney’s longtime lyrical collaborator Bronwyn Adams on violin.

In 2012, the band relocated to Detroit, and released their fifth studio album, American Twilight the following year.

Here are some poetic words from Simon Bonney that accompany the announcement of the band’s return:

“Crime & the City Solution: children of the Ice Storm, participant observers, the spirit of Gonzo rising, witnesses and chroniclers of histories, appearing, when the siren calls, at key moments in time and then disappearing back into the ether. From the walled city, the Glasnost East, Chernobyl strawberries and soldiers on the night train, burning cities and the fragility of civility, tear gas and bush knives in the rainforest, a boat snaking its way through the jungle into the hidden outback, Vienna and the Third Man, an atoll sinking, the hands of the sea stretching out to engulf her, two lovers in an empty park surrounded by an army, the faces of the ‘others’ pressed against the invisible barrier, two worlds separated, two strangers with a citizen child cross a continent – Sunday lunch in the Ozark.

The siren called last in 2012 and Crime put down its sexton and maps to paint a portrait of the present as it careened towards the future – from their Detroit home they constructed the cartoon villains and division that informed American Twilight. In 2022 it is time for Crime to be again – rock and anti-rock, Hegel’s thesis and antithesis, Rumi’s footsteps disappearing at the water’s edge, art and documentary, a conversation between the past and the present, the space that fills the empty cup, an invisible essence full of experimentation and joy – to be with their people once more, to play again, no two shows the same because they belong to the moment of their creation, an interplay between band and audience – between friends old and new.”