Placebo have teased some “significant” plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut studio album.
Frontman Brian Molko looked back on the band’s early years during an interview with VRT Radio 1 in Antwerp, Belgium. The station recently hosted a special celebration gig for dEUS in the city, where Molko performed live with the Belgian rock outfit.
He was asked if he could see Placebo embarking on a retrospective run of live dates to mark three decades of their 1996 self-titled debut, where they would play the record in full.
“Well, we have a 30th anniversary coming up very soon, next year,” Molko responded. “Yeah. It’s the 30th anniversary of our first record. And yes, we will definitely be doing something quite significant to celebrate the 30 years.”
He then added: “That’s a bit of a scoop for you.” Watch at the six-minute-30-second mark in the video here:
Earlier in the new interview with VRT Radio 1, Molko recalled Placebo’s “chaotic” beginnings and their time touring with dEUS in the ’90s. “I think we were as chaotic as each other, as bands,” he said. “We were kind of kindred spirits. It was very cool. I really liked also the ambition that they had.”
Molko continued: “I was obsessed with [dEUS’ debut album] ‘Worst Case Scenario’. To me, it was so much more imaginative and daring and psychedelic and surrealist than any of the other popular guitar records of the time.
“I loved the idea that they had a violin, y’know? Then it was really pushed to the front. And if you come and see my band now – for the past 20 years, we’ve had a violin player. So, it’s definitely an influence.”
Placebo embarked on a 20th anniversary tour in 2016, where they’d revisit old classics like ‘Pure Morning’ and ‘Nancy Boy’ for the first time “in almost 10 years, and may not play again”.
1996’s ‘Placebo’ earned an 8/10 review from NME, and peaked at Number Five in the UK albums chart. The record contains the singles ‘Nancy Boy’, ‘Teenage Angst’, ’36 Degrees’ and more.
Speaking to NME in 2022, Molko reflected on Placebo’s 20th anniversary shows and their 2016 ‘best-of’ compilation, ‘A Place For Us To Dream’.
“We weren’t particularly comfortable with the prospect of doing a retrospective and retrospective tour,” the frontman admitted. “At the time we were on Universal Records, and we had the feeling that we’d lose all support from them if we didn’t embark on this hideously materialistic and mercantile endeavour.”
His bandmate Stefan Olsdal agreed: “That tour lasted for quite a long time, and we started to get this slightly unhealthy relationship with our old material. I started to feel quite disillusioned by the band and what we were doing. I had a crisis of confidence coming into this record. I felt during the last tour that the band was over and that I couldn’t continue with this.”
During a 2018 interview with NME, Olsdal said the anniversary treadmill had grown “saccharine”. He added: “We’ve always been experimentalists at heart.” At the time, Placebo were marking 20 years of their 1998 second album, ‘Without You I’m Nothing’.
In 2020, they celebrated two decades of their third full-length effort, ‘Black Market Music’, with a behind-the-scenes video series, and last year, Robbie Williams opened up about the impact Placebo‘s ‘Nancy Boy’ had on him. The song explores fluid sexuality, gender confusion and drugs.
Placebo’s eighth and latest album, ‘Never Let Me Go’, was released in 2022. In a four-star review, NME hailed it as “a renaissance rock record with an experimental edge”. The group haven’t played a live show together since August 2024, per Setlist.FM.
