Holiday Greetings!
It’s been a creatively busy year for Ready, Steady, Die! We’ve launched our second album alongside a year of ‘respair’ (a word I’ve heard only today, which means coming out of despair into a state of repair).
2020 was shocking and stifling for most people, and ’21 was supposed to be different. You could say it has been a little ‘better’… but this pandemic seems to be far from over and frankly like a lot of others we are feeling a little weary from it.
But I think it’s fitting to feel like this. Our first single, ‘Settle’ from our sophomore album ACCIDENTS, which was released in October in line with Domestic Violence Awareness Month, was a message about not settling for negativity and indeed destruction. Breaking free. And there is a ring of reference to this virus and our current way of life. It won’t be forever (or if it is, we’ll learn to deal with it as if it’s insignificant with a bit of luck)… But whilst it’s still out to dominate our lives and relationships, I think we have to make the absolute best we can out of a challenging situation. We can’t just press pause on life and wait for a better time. In my opinion. We must continue to cut through the mass inertia and realise we are still here, alive, breathing, and hopeful. It’s kind of all we have.
And so, we have decided to raise our middle finger to the virus and release a stonking celebratory cover song for single number 2, which will kick 2022 off for us.
Which one? Well…
When you’re young, you collect a handful of bands who stay with you and get wheeled out every now and again for the sake of nostalgia. And then there are bands who actively have a hand in defining who you are. It’s like they bear witness to your transition from youth to adulthood and they are important. They are family.
As 80s kids, both of us have an enduring love for the synth pop new wave movement that arrived at that time. Marc Almond and David Ball, in their creation of Soft Cell, pioneered the scene with the arrival of their debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret and it’s a piece of work that parked up alongside our lives and has been there ever since.
Say Hello Wave Goodbye has been covered by some great artists and we wanted to be a part of that gang to pay homage to one of Ready, Steady, Die!’s most powerful influencers. It is also unquestionably one of the most beautiful breakup ballads ever written.
We are so excited to release this cover on 6th January 2022. Morgan, under his directing moniker, WeekendClass, has created an epic video to accompany the single and features our new band members, Gladys and Leonard. Gladys & Leonard are CGI created mannequins and have already shown their faces through some of our social posts. We’ve had fun. And to top it all off, Marc Almond himself has not just signed the single and video off but has posted the positive announcement for the single himself on his own Instagram page
Morgan Visconti @readysteadydie has recorded a very cool electronic version and clip of Say Hello Wave Goodbye. Will be available 6th Jan. L💖ve the minimal electro simplicity“
What a true star.
So, as we enter the tail end of 2021, we would like to thank you so much for your support. Thank you for listening, thank you for watching and thank you for telling your friends about us. Please continue to do that. And from the bottom of our hearts we wish you and your loved ones good health, peace, strength and a very merry Christmas and New Year.
Much love, Sam and Morgan.
Buy or stream Say Hello Wave Goodbye
