Foggy Notions are proud to present My Bloody Valentine Live in Dublin for their first headline show in Ireland since 1992 at 3Arena on Saturday, 22 November 2025.
My Bloody Valentine cannot be neatly tethered to a specific place, time, scene, or genre. The incarnation of the band responsible for three groundbreaking studio albums and several stunning EPs first convened in London in 1987, featuring Bilinda Butcher (guitar/vocals), Colm Ó Cíosóig (drums/sampler), Debbe Googe (bass), and Kevin Shields (guitars/vocals/sampler).
A band of the same name, also featuring Ó Cíosóig and Shields, originated in Dublin in 1983, subsequently leaving Ireland and eventually settling in the English capital after stints in Holland and Germany. Their intention was to change the band’s name to usher in a radically different musical direction and present a new line up, but they were discouraged to do so by their label at the time, Creation Records.
After a series of more typically indie releases, they pursued a far more singular approach to creating unconventional and innovative music, eschewing conventional techniques, clichés, and gimmicks, while soaking up inspiration from hip-hop artists like Public Enemy and Beastie Boys and the peerless production work of The Bomb Squad.
“Hip-hop was so much more innovative and modern than any jangly-guitar, Velvet Underground wannabe, sunglasses wearing, cool types, or any so-called indie scene,” maintains Kevin Shields. “People couldn’t get their head around hip-hop for a long time, they could only hear rapping, but musically it was so innovative. It was truly modern music.” A cover of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra’s Sand as performed by Einstürzende Neubauten was another beacon of inspiration, which Kevin Shields describes as “uncompromising, but still sounding like the world was ending.”
My Bloody Valentine’s first release for Creation Records, You Made Me Realise, was the sound of a band taking a sledgehammer to their former selves and purging the musical remnants of the past. They increasingly found the contemporary English indie scene to be extremely mannered and staid, preferring the grit, volume, and texture of American guitar music by Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, and Dinosaur Jr.
Their debut album, Isn't Anything, was recorded in the summer of 1988 and went to number one in the UK Independent Albums Chart on its release the following November. Isn’t Anything is adored by musicians such as Graham Coxon from Blur and Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai. Braithwaite recalls how hearing Feed Me With Your Kiss for the very first time at the age of 13 opened up to him the powerful possibilities of music.
Isn’t Anything was loftily ordained as the Eighties rock album by one commentator, but of course, Isn’t Anything isn’t a rock album, but a band turning music on its head. "It all felt free," maintains Kevin Shields. "Then we became a band that people knew.”
In 1990, My Bloody Valentine released Glider, a four-track EP opening with Soon, a seven-minute track sounding familiar yet completely alien all at once. At a lecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Brian Eno, who would later work with Kevin Shields in 2018, claimed Soon set a new precedent for pop. "If Steve Reich or Glenn Branca had been responsible for it they would have been given an award by the classical music establishment," Eno said in tribute.
Another 4-track EP, Tremolo, followed in February 1991, featuring the swirling and kaleidoscopic track, To Here Knows When. Their second album, Loveless, is universally lauded as a stone-cold masterpiece and a landmark in musical history. Loveless was not just deemed to be the best album of 1991, but of the entire 1990s, and is frequently appraised as one of greatest of all time.
Robert Smith of The Cure reportedly discovered Loveless after a phase of exclusively listening to disco and Irish folk in a concerted effort to avoid his contemporaries. "My Bloody Valentine was the first band I heard who quite clearly pissed all over us,” Smith gushed, declaring Loveless to be one of his favourite ever albums.
My Bloody Valentine disbanded by the mid-1990s. They reformed in 2008 for a world tour beginning with a five-night London residency in the Roundhouse. After extensive touring, playing numerous festivals, and curating All Tomorrow’s Parties on both sides of the Atlantic, they self-financed the completion of their third album.
m b v was initially released online in February 2013. It crashed their website and spectacularly crushed the assumption that a successor to Loveless would never see the light of day. Despite numerous offers, m b v was a 100% independent release. My Bloody Valentine wanted to own their own music and be completely free to create and release it on their terms.
In 2020, they collaborated with the esteemed US streetwear brand Supreme for a sold out collection of clothing featuring artwork from Loveless, Glider, and Feed Me With Your Kiss. In 2022, they signed to Domino Records, made their back catalogue available on streaming services for the very first time, and reissued on physical formats Isn’t Anything, Loveless, m b v, and EPs 1988 - 1991. In November 2024, m b v was listed at number 7 in a countdown of the 500 best albums of 2010s published in a special edition of Uncut.
After redefining sound in the late 20th century, My Bloody Valentine continue to enthral listeners and new generations as the 21st century splutters towards the end of its first quarter. The world may well be going to hell in a handbasket, but their music still deeply resonates as it finds more hearts, minds, and ears than ever before.
Words - Éamon Sweeney November 2025.
