Smashing Pumpkins have announced plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, ‘Gish’, with a livestream event this weekend.
Set to take place this Sunday May 30 at 1AM BST, the virtual event will feature a live vinyl listening party, a Q&A segment and an exclusive preview of some unreleased music. While the band won’t be performing, frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin will host the two-hour event from Corgan’s teashop, Madame Zuzu’s.
Tickets will go on sale this Friday May 28 at 5PM BST, with a portion of the proceeds going to PAWS no-kill animal shelter in Chicago. Ticketholders will be able to rewatch the livestream for 24 hours after its broadcast.
Last year, the Pumpkins celebrated another milestone – the 25th anniversary of 1995’s ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’. The band teamed up with skatewear brand HUF for a line of apparel inspired by the seminal double-album.
Back in 2018, Corgan discussed his hopes to embark on a 25th anniversary live tour for ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’, plans which were presumably halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Smashing Pumpkins’ latest album, ‘Cyr’, arrived back in November of last year. In a three-star review, NME said the return of original members Chamberlin and guitarist James Iha in 2015 and 2018 respectively had “clearly brought back some of that Pumpkins chemistry of old”.
“In ‘CYR’ Corgan has undoubtedly created the “contemporary record” he so craved; it’s far better than anything Corgan produced when he was running with the Pumpkins name on his own.”
Back in March, Corgan revealed the band had begun recording a new 33-track album that will serve as a joint sequel to both ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ along with their two ‘Machina’ records from 2000.
Corgan had previously announced the project in October of last year, describing it as “kind of a rock opera”.
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