Dropkick Murphys

When: 5th February 2025
Location: O2 Academy

Dropkick Murphys are the Boston outfit melding hardcore, punk and Celtic trad. Coming to Glasgow’s O2 Academy on 5th February 2025.

Boston Celtic punk outfit Dropkick Murphys were founded in Boston in the mid 90s by guitarist Rick Barton and bassist Ken Casey along with original frontman Mike McColgan. Following the addition of drummer Matt Kelly and a few well-received EPs, the band released their debut album Do Or Die ­­– produced by Rancid’s Lars Frederickson – in 1998.

McColgan departed to start the band Street Dogs and was replaced as the Dropkick Murphys’ singer by Al Barr in time for the band’s 1999 second album, The Gang’s All Here.

The early ’00s found the Murphys undergoing an overhaul, with Barton leaving and a whole host of new faces joining an expanded line-up, which now included Mark Orrell and James Lynch (both guitar), Spicy McHaggis (bagpipes), and Ryan Foltz (mandolin).

The new-look band’s first album together was 2001’s Sing Loud, Sing Proud, their first without producer Lars Frederickson. The next year, they released the incendiary live album Live On St Patrick’s Day From Boston, MA. Further line-up changes followed, with Foltz and McHaggis leaving and Scruffy Wallace (bagpipes) and Tim Brennan (accordion, tin whistle and mandolin) joining.

Blackout arrived in 2003, followed two years later by Warrior’s Code, which was given a boost when the song I’m Shipping Up To Boston was featured in Martin Scorsese’s Boston-set crime film The Departed.

Friends of the band

The Pogues’ Spider Stacey and Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners added a dose of Irish authenticity to the band’s 2007 album The Meanest Of Times. Mark Orrell departed the following year and the band didn’t release another studio album until 2011’s concept album Going Out In Style.

A third live album, recorded at Boston’s hallowed Fenway Park, preceded the band’s eighth album, 2013’s Signed And Sealed In Blood. A four-year gap followed before The Dropkick Murphys returned with 11 Short Stories Of Pain & Glory in 2017.

Following an extensive tour, they headed straight back to the studio for their tenth album, but the sessions were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Turn Up That Dial was eventually released in early 2021. To support the new album, Dropkick Murphys announced a UK tour for February 2022 with dates in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham, Brighton, Cardiff, Belfast and London. The Interrupters were announced as support on all Dropkick Murphys UK dates.