Kirk Brandon’s legendary post-punk guise – SPEAR OF DESTINY – will unveil a brand new project, plus embark on an epic UK tour this Spring.

Having spent the tail end of 2024 revisiting classic 80s works on tour with The Skids; for their next act Spear of Destiny will be offering something both familiar, but entirely new, with ‘JANUS’.

The follow-up to 2022’s ‘Ghost Population’, ‘JANUS’ is the forthcoming new album from Spear of Destiny. Two years in the making, it will feature re-recorded and rejuvenated versions of 1987’s ‘Outland’ and 1988’s ‘The Price You Pay’. Partnered for the first time, as two very distinct halves in a double album package christened ‘JANUS’, these freshly revamped cuts will be available as Vinyl, CD, and Digital.

‘JANUS’ owes its name to the Ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings, of transitions and time, passages and dualities. And aptly for this project, is usually depicted as having two faces.

“Janus, as I’m sure you all know, is the Roman god who looked in two directions…” Kirk Brandon explains. “At the time of making, ‘The Price You Pay’ often in its lyrics, had a backwards looking take on my previous life experiences, several being very personal. Whereas ‘Outland’ with its dystopian lyrics, looked forward. Being done on what was at the time state-of-the-art programming, Fairlight 3. Lyrically it faced the ever increasing out of phase reality we are now firmly in.”

Despite both ‘Outland’ and ‘The Price You Pay’ proving to be Top 40 UK hits (No.16 and No.37 respectively) at the time of their release in the 80s, Kirk was never fully satisfied with the finished products.

As Kirk explains:

“Some may say why re-record, and in a definite sense that is a good question, the reason is that I wanted them to sound as close to what I originally thought they should have sounded like. Which is way different from what both albums did in fact end up sounding like. In particular ‘Outland’ which was principally recorded on a Fairlight 3 program. In fact some of the ‘Outland’ songs like “Land of Shame” were originally scheduled to have been in contention for the earlier ‘World Service’ album but never made it to the selection. Criminal in reality. Record companies shy away from controversial lyrics…”

Having spent much of the interim years performing with a tight band of musicians (Steve Allen Jones, Phil Martini, Craig Adams, Adrian Portas, and Clive Osborne), who have become like brothers and toured doggedly together, Kirk now feels bolstered in confidence to correct the missteps of the past. As he adds:

“I have to gratefully thank, as ever, my band for bringing these songs back to life from a major record company cemetery… With the musicians I have largely been playing with for the last 20+ years, we went back, as we have done with ‘Grapes of Wrath’ ‘One Eyed Jacks’ and ‘World Service’, and done an interesting, I hope, re-interpretation of my original ideas. ”

Amongst some of the structural changes made, fans will detect an additional verse on “Soldier Soldier”, missing for years and now rightfully returned. The track selection too is now truly reflective of Kirk’s own personal choices each album’s time period, including B Sides/12 inch songs that Kirk really felt should have been on these two albums but were omitted by the respective record companies of the period for presumably not meeting their commercial criteria.

Fans can pre-order ‘JANUS’ now here and hear a teaser track for the project, “The Jungle”.

Taking the new project to live stages around the UK with an extensive run of shows, Spear of Destiny will be embarking on the ‘JANUS’ 2025 Tour in April, May, and June. Catch the band at these venues as follows:

SPEAR OF DESTINY – ‘JANUS’ UK TOUR DATES

APRIL

23 – LEEDS Brudenell

24 – NEWCASTLE – The Grove

25 – ABERDEEN Drummonds

26 – GLASGOW Scotland Calling

27 – DUNFERMLINE PJ Molloys

29 – NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms

30 – BRISTOL Fleece

MAY

1 – STOWMARKET John Peel Centre

2 – BARNSLEY Birdwell

3 – LIVERPOOL Rough Trade

4 – LANCASTER Kanteena

8 – DERBY Hairy Dog

9 – HULL Polar Bear

10 – SCARBOROUGH Spa

11 – LONDON 100 Club

16 – WOLVERHAMPTON WW-XXI17 – WOLVERHAMPTON WW-XXI

21 – CARDIFF The Globe

22 – BLACKPOOL Waterloo

23 – STOKE Underground

24 – WORCESTER Marrs Bar

25 – MANCHESTER Strummercamp

27 – CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms

28 – HITCHIN Club 85

29 – OXFORD Bullingdon

30 – BIRMINGHAM Castle & Falcon

31 – MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms

JUNE

1 – BRIGHTON Chalk