Flaming Lips Tickets

In many ways The Flaming Lips’ chaotic but nevertheless unwavering devotion to bold, artistic expression can be traced to their formation in 1983, when brothers Wayne and Mark Coyne invited Michael Ivins to join a new musical project as their bassist – despite their friend having no apparent experience playing the instrument.

Punk-rock looks and left-field ideas were more important to these youthful, self-proclaimed “Fearless Freaks” from Oklahoma City, but decades on and many line-up changes later, the band have become one of the most influential and respected experimental rock acts of their generation. 

After Mark’s early departure, Wayne stepped forward on vocal duties and became the band’s de facto ringleader – his salt and pepper curls have since become synonymous with the band – and, with drummer Richard English, released their debut studio album Hear It Is in 1986. Their debut was followed by a string of releases that had a raw and reckless punk edge to them, although no Lips album can ever really be easily pigeon-holed. 

The early 90s saw more coming-and-goings of members as the band signed to Warner for their major label debut Hit To Death In The Future Head, which ushered in a new era of sound for the band, defined by a tapestry of textures, Beatles-esque string orchestration and expansive, oddball noise-pop that culminated in their turn-of-the-millenium breakthrough, The Soft Bulletin. Nothing short of a pop wonderland, the record was their most melodic and accessible to date, but also their most ambitious in production, propelling them into the cosmos for the sci-fi psychedelia of 2002’s Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, which would become their first Gold-certified album.

In 2009, Yoshimi's grand, existential peak “Do You Realize??” became the official rock song of their home state, Oklahoma, but it was the double-album Embryonic that stole the attention that year, with its scuzzy, head-nodding grit and looming ominous tone. At the end of the year, together with Henry Rollins(Opens in new tab) and Peaches, they released a cover album of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon. In this period, Coyne and co. developed a newfound taste for collaboration, working with the likes of Miley Cyrus(Opens in new tab), Moby, Foxygen(Opens in new tab) and Bon Iver(Opens in new tab). 2019’s dreamlike King’s Mouth even included spoken passages from The Clash’s Mick Jones.

Just like their surreal and esoteric song titles (and indeed band name), the Lips developed a striking visual identity alongside their music that came to life on their cover art, music videos and live tours, all swathed in kaleidoscopic colours and punctuated by on-stage U.F.Os, giant, laser-shooting hands and neon unicorns. In 2020, to promote their new album American Head and in their own typically playful take on social distancing, the Lips took to performing in inflatable plastic bubbles.  

American Head, the band’s sixteenth studio album, was released in September 2020 to critical acclaim, appropriately featuring the cosmic country star Kacey Musgraves(Opens in new tab) as its heady Americana underpinned Coyne’s reflections on growing up in Oklahoma.