2017 has been a phenomenally successful year for Southampton sextet Creeper. Their debut album, Eternity, In Your Arms received a rapturous critical reception across the board when it was released earlier this year. The album fired straight into the Top 20, and in the process elevated these black-clad outsiders into a mainstream proposition with the potential for an even bigger future.

Now Creeper put the finishing touches on the year by sharing their take on The Pogues’ Christmas classic, ‘Fairytale of New York’. It’s a faithful adaptation which adds some raw Creeper energy to the original, as Will Gould and Hannah Greenwood add some of their own flourishes to their reprisal of Shane MacGowan and Kirstie MacColl’s duet.

‘Fairytale of New York’ will feature on the band’s new Christmas EP which will be released on Friday. It will also feature brand new original song ‘Same Time Next Year?’ which contrasts the dark romance of Gould’s festive-themed lyrics with a towering holler-along hook. The EP closes with a stripped-back version of ‘Blue Christmas’, the enduring seasonal favourite that was made famous by Elvis Presley.

Of the Christmas EP Gould comments, “Ever since we were kids ‘Fairytale of New York’ has always been our favourite Christmas song. Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl trading insults in the lyrics and the overall sad tone of the song always appealed to us - we’ve wanted to cover it for some time. Alongside this we covered ‘Blue Christmas’ and our own original Christmas song too. The three songs form something of a miserable Christmas EP. We are really pleased by how it all came out and hope our fans will be too." This week sees Creeper embark upon the Theatre of Fear tour which will take their theatrical presentation to a whole new live level.

DECEMBER

4th – Birmingham, O2 Institute

5th – Bristol, Trinity (SOLD OUT)

7th – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

9th – Manchester, Albert Hall

10th – Southampton, Guildhall

Having just made their triumphant main stage debut at Download this year, Creeper build on the success of their Top 20 debut album Eternity, In Your Arms with the announcement of their biggest UK headline tour to date. Featuring an ambitious new stage production which will elevate the band’s renowned theatrical presentation to a whole new level, the ‘Theatre of Fear’ tour includes their biggest London show to date at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire and concludes with a homecoming show at Southampton’s Guildhall.

A statement from the band reads, “This Winter, we invite you to the Creeper ‘Theatre Of Fear’ tour, a one of a kind production being brought to six theatres across the country. Not only will they be our biggest ever headline shows, they will also be the most significant in the scale of ideas surrounding them. After a year travelling the world, we are excited to bring home our most ambitious project to date. Two years after James Scythe’s disappearance, this December we invite you to shake hands with the stranger of tomorrow.”

Tickets are on general sale now from Livenation.co.uk and Ticketmaster.co.uk.  In addition to the UK shows, Creeper have been confirmed to play all 41 dates of this summer’s North American leg of the Vans Warped Tour. The band have also released the single ‘Misery’ (out July 7) which is a mainstay of the band’s fervent live shows. Will Gould’s stripped back emotion-packed vocal delivery on ‘Misery’ demonstrates a side to Creeper that contrasts their usual visceral punk attack.

The video for ‘Misery’ represents the conclusion of Creeper’s Eternity, In Your Arms trilogy.  Set over the course of a Christmas week, the two previous videos – ‘Hiding With Boys’ and ‘Black Rain’ – followed the adventures of James Scythe, a private investigator who travels to the South Coast to debunk the legend of ‘The Stranger’ whilst also seeking to put his own demons to rest. In ‘Misery’, the story comes to a surprise denouement as Scythe comes to a final confrontation – yet, as is the way with Creeper, this conclusion continues to pose further questions.

Eternity, In Your Arms finds the sextet pushing hard against the boundaries a ‘punk’ band can be expected to produce in 2017. The album is the third installment in a trilogy of records (after the highly acclaimed EPs The Callous Heart and The Stranger) loosely based around J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan. Eternity, In Your Arms sees the band wrestling with existential crises, personal failures and emotional desolation via the kaleidoscope of a richly drawn narrative tapestry.

THE ‘THEATRE OF FEAR’ TOUR

DECEMBER

3rd - Glasgow ABC

4th - Birmingham Institute

5th - Bristol Trinity

7th - London Shepherds Bush Empire

9th - Manchester Albert Hall

10th - Southampton Guildhall