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Funeral For A Friend reunite for 2019 charity shows

The band will play gigs in Cardiff and London in October.

Find tickets here

Welsh rock pioneers Funeral For A Friend will reunite for two special shows in October.

Taking place at The Globe, Cardiff on 28 October 2019 and at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town on 29 October 2019, the band will be raising funds for the family of Stuart Brothers, a huge fan of the rockers who has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

From Bridgend, Wales, Funeral For A Friend first broke through with their debut album Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation in 2003. The record, widely considered to be a classic of the post-hardcore genre spawned the top-20 singles Juneau, She Drove Me To Daytime Television and Escape Artists Never Die. 

Funeral For A Friend - Escape Artists Never Die

The debut earned the band a Kerrang! Award for Best British Newcomer, and a year after its release was certified gold in the UK.

The band followed up the release with six more studio albums; 2005’s Hours, 2007’s Tales Don’t Tell Themselves, 2008’s Memory and Humanity, 2011’s Welcome Home Armageddon, 2013’s Conduit and 2015’s Chapter and Verse.

Some of their most well-known tracks from the latter six albums include Streetcar, History, Walk Away, Kicking and Screaming and Into Oblivion (Reunion) 

Funeral For A Friend - Into Oblivion (Reunion) [Official Video]

After nearly 15 years of solid touring, Funeral For A Friend announced their breakup in 2015, setting off on a farewell headline tour which included two sold out shows at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, London.

The band will now reunite, for two very special shows this October.

Read the full statement from the band below:

“FFAF Family,

When we left the stage on May 21st 2016 at London’s Kentish Town Forum, we all agreed that it was the perfect way to end Funeral For A Friend. We’d toured the UK one last time, playing some of the biggest shows we’d performed in years, in front of our friends and families. It was the perfect ending. Since then, we’ve been asked many times – “do you think you’ll ever come back”? and the answer has always been a resounding “no”, because there was never any reason to.

Until now.

Recently, a man who can quite legitimately lay claim to being the world’s biggest FFAF fan (both literally and figuratively!), our friend Stuart ‘Big Stu’ Brothers, has been stricken with a terrible illness which has ultimately led to a terminal prognosis. Last month, Stu was given a few short weeks to live by his Doctors.

As Stu’s friends, we wanted to do something to help; particularly for his family and 3 young sons, who are going through unspeakable trauma right now. We discussed the possibility of auctioning off some FFAF memorabilia (which we’ll still do), but it became apparent that the way in which we could best help Stu was to perform some fundraising shows, with the proceeds going directly to his family.

So, on October 28th and 29th, at the Cardiff Globe and London Shepherd’s Bush Empire respectively, Funeral for a Friend will be performing two more shows to benefit the Brothers’ family.

Being that Stu was an old-school fan right from the very start, we will mainly be performing material from the early part of our career, circa 2002-2007. Joining Matt, Kris, Gav and Rich for the shows will be guitarist Darran Smith (who left the band in 2010) and drummer/vocalist Ryan Richards, who left in 2012.

Additionally, a fundraising page has been set up for Stu’s family here. If you can, please give generously to a great man and a great cause. 

Thank you, and we’ll see you in October.

Matt, Kris, Gav, Rich, Darran and Ryan. 

FFAF.”

Here are the dates:

28 October 2019 – The Globe, Cardiff
29 October 2019 – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

Tickets for these special shows will be available from 10:00 Friday 9 August 2019 through Ticketmaster.co.uk