Gossip Tickets

Few bands can claim to have written an anthem that defined an era, but that’s exactly what Gossip achieved in the mid-noughties with soulful indie-electro stomper ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, a track which concurrently captured the zeitgeist and transformed the trio into an international indie pop powerhouse.

Though all three of Gossip’s founding members originated from Searcy, Arkansas, it wasn’t until they coalesced in Olympia, Washington, that the band came to fruition. Guitarist Nathan “Brace Paine” Howdeshell and drummer Kathy Mendonça had known each other from various bands in their hometown, and moved in with vocalist Beth Ditto; the band’s lead vocalist.

Soon after Gossip’s formation, they were noticed by K Records. The lauded independent label released the trio’s self-titled debut EP in 1999 to coincide with their support slot on Sleater Kinney’s tour that year, and were even name-dropped by TIME Magazine after a spirited performance at the 2000 edition of feminist music and arts festival Ladyfest. 

After the release of their 2001 debut album, That's Not What I Heard, and its 2003 follow-up Movement, Mendonça retired from the band to pursue a career in midwifery. Punk drummer Hannah Blilie joined thereafter, offering the band an entirely new dimension.

Radio presenter and DJ John Peel picked Movement as one of his favourite records of 2003, and invited the band to perform a live session for his show. His loyal UK audience quickly transfixed by Ditto’s raw, potent voice and her lyrical imagery which drew her southern roots, as well as her experiences as a queer person growing up in the confines of a religious community. Beth said in a 2023 interview: “When we began, so much about Gossip was about running away – that was always in the music.” But they ran in one direction, straight toward superstardom with their next release.

‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ changed everything. The ferocious dance-punk track became a defiant queer anthem that climbed the UK charts after its initial 2006 release, eventually peaking at No.1 on the indie charts. The Soulwax remix was used for the promotional advert for teen television series Skins, and meant the band became synonymous with the energy and edginess of the era, a moment which has since been lovingly dubbed ‘indie sleaze’. Sets at Glastonbury Festival followed, where Gossip closed out the John Peel Stage in 2007, paying homage to the DJ that helped them break through.

‘Heavy Cross’, the first single released from the trio’s 2009 follow-up album, Music For Men, was an international hit, with CLASH magazine calling it: “the most euphoric thing you’ll hear this year.” The guts and grittiness which defined Gossip’s was evaded in favour of polished pop-leaning production on their fifth studio album, A Joyful Noise, however which received middling reviews. 

The band’s downturn was compounded when Howdeshell relocated back to Arkansas, becoming a born-again Christian. Gossip split in 2016, with Ditto later comparing the situation to “watching your friend relapse”. 

Hatchets were buried three years later when the trio reunited to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Music For Men. The album’s producer Rick Rubin convinced Gossip to fully reform and make new music after the anniversary tour, the result of which was their 2023 single ‘Crazy Again’. Coinciding with news of a brand new album titled, Real Power, Gossip are taking their passionate and rebellious blend of soul, punk, disco and indie rock to stages once more with a 2024 tour, including dates in Liverpool, Glasgow and Leeds.