My guess, below, based on absolutely no inside knowledge, or any connections, or rumors or anything of any substance is that Shields is making an effort to hold himself to account to a firm date to get the albums out by scheduling the concert. In theory, he's hoping that in the year laid out before us (2025) he'll finish the albums, and the Dublin show will kick off a last world tour. Simply a random guess, like I said. He has at least two albums in the works, and possibly an EP or two, if we can trust what he last told the press when interviewed by the New York Times in March of 2021. I think he wants to go out with a bang and seal his legacy with these last major releases and this world tour. Both elements are so important. This last world tour will feature them at the peak of the powers, which I like to think of as the second time they were as good as they could get.
The other tour that showed them at the peak of their powers - assuming you caught the band at a good venue with a decent PA on a good night was for 'Isn't Anything' in 1989. They can only pull off their 1988 Creation catalog as it should sound when it's unmediated with all that additional equipment they have today. 'You Made Me Realise,' '(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream' along with 'Emptiness inside,' and really everything from 1988 was presented in a way by Shields can't recreate today, IMHO. It's still really great but the songs just can't have the immediacy of a four piece with a handful of pedals in a small venue, that they'll have in the huge venues they play today with so much to equipment to get in synch and room between them. (Mr. Shields, please release a soundboard from that tour.)
At the risk of sounding pretentious, understand Shields doesn't tour to just regurgitate their records, but to expand your concepts of sound, language, reality, our shared consciousness and so forth. That is my most hopeful guess as to what this last tour is about, but on a scale never seen before. When he does what may be their last world tour, their live sound will be dialed in as never before. Everyone around today who attends this next tour can say they saw MBV at their height of their powers, at the end of their career.
If you've heard recent acceptable quality bootlegs, you'll know 'Honey Power' sounds better than ever. But in person, I promise you, what you'll hear live will take you places you didn't know existed. Or substitute 'Soon' or ' Who Sees You.' Just imagine if the Beatles could have played
'Tomorrow Never Knows' live back in '66 if the technology existed then. Maybe a better analogy is to imagine seeing Hendrix in 1969 with Mitchell and Redding. But louder and with a better light show, and more sophisticated harmonics that will interact with your mind in ways you probably never experienced before.
I believe with his lifetime of knowledge about sound, his constant improvement of his PA, his many years of learning to dial it in to each venue, and the monetary resources at his disposal, that this tour will take MBV even higher into the stratosphere. To paraphrase someone, those bootlegs are Diet Coke. You'll only get the real thing on this tour, as never before (and the improved light show will only make it that much better.)
I believe that all to be true. Alternately, don't be shocked if the show doesn't kick off the tour should be be unable to get the records done in time. Since this is the hometown of Shields and Colm (and Debbie and Bilinda are close by in London), if he falls behind in terms of getting the records ready, it can be viewed as just a one off show for their hometown crowd. Plus it probably will still speed up the process even if he doesn't get it all finished in time. So these amazing shows will come eventually. But can Shields stick to whatever date he has planned? He's said that if there's one thing he's sure of it's that he doesn't think he can trust himself when things will get done. No matter his intention or effort, he just doesn't have the control to make things happen when planned. And that's fine. Of the many problems people have in life this is not so bad.
(Word to the wise, specifically younger fans seeing MBV for the first time whether in Dublin or when their world tour kicks off: don't take acid, speed or meth for this concert. [Actually, don't ever touch the meth they make these days.] Stick with pot or something way less intense than acid or it's analogues.)
Some of you may have noticed the book was pushed back to October by my publisher. They saw a way to improve the book although we only needed a few extra months. Unfortunately it just happened to work out that October 2025 was the next slot available. I sincerely apologize for the delay but I genuinely think it will be worth the extra few months. I really don't want to let anyone down if they spend their hard earned money on my book.
Best,
Andrew