Deritend

Cult Figures release their second album Deritend on Gare Du Nord Records on March 26th 2021. Their 2018 debut, The 166 Ploughs A Lonely Furrow, was comprised of tracks written in their earlier incarnation between 1977 and 1980, and recorded in the 21st century. Deritend draws a line under the past – all eleven tracks composed and recorded since their 2016 comeback – simultaneously reflecting a maturity gained in 40 years of life experience whilst still embracing the accessible three P's of the early days – punk, pop and psychedelia.

Deritend was recorded at London's Toerag Studios (White Stripes, Billy Childish) with Liam Watson, and Woodbine Street Studios in Leamington Spa (The Specials, Paul Weller, Felt) with John Rivers, who subsequently mixed all the tracks from both sessions. The final mixes were completed less than a fortnight before the first 2020 lockdown. In these adverse times, Cult Figures managed to release 3 Eps to their appreciative fan base (amongst those the comedian Stewart Lee) and all three have received adulation and radio plays in the UK, Europe and USA. Spizz Energi – a fellow art student with the band in the late 70's – has championed them on his Spizz FM broadcast on Resonance FM many times – and WFMU in the US have cited their singles as faves.

Deritend owes its title to a historic industrial area of central Birmingham first mentioned in 1276, near where Jon and Gary grew up, but as Jon explains it conveys so much more: "Deritend is an album that reflects on the past (Silver Blades, Concrete & Glass), speculates on the future (Exile, The Omen), but for the most part is fairly and squarely a comment on the lives we are living now (Chicken Bones, Donut Life, Lights Out). The ominous pile of rubble featured on the album cover could be a metaphor for a long gone, mythical Deritend, a long lost youth, but also renewal, acknowledging the past, but clearing the way for a brighter (or not so bright) future. On our last visit to Birmingham, Gary and I both saw this huge, monolithic rubble pile on the approach to Deritend and it spoke to us somehow. It's a powerful and intriguing image that does somehow encapsulate the past, present and future."