Lucky Cat Events by arrangement with ATC Live proudly present:

The Professionals
(Featuring Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook)
+ Guests TBA

Sun 20th November 2022 - 7pm
Grand Social, Dublin
(35 Liffey Street Lower, Dublin)

 

Tickets on sale from Mon 18th July 2022 at 10am via Tickets.ie

LCP-002

Lucky Cat is very pleased to announce the return of respected English punk rockers The Professionals who are touring in support of their new album SNAFU (released via JTP records). This is the band’s first visit to Ireland since appearing as special guests to Ruts DC in 2018.

Biography:

The Professionals, originally formed by Steve Jones and Paul “Cooky” Cook in 1979 following the demise of the legendary Sex Pistols, remain a firm staple in the punk scene today. Cook and Jones had recorded a number of songs together under the Sex Pistols name such as the fan-favourite ‘Silly Thing’ – of which the version with Cook singing appears on The Great Rock N’ Roll Swindle. The pair also performed on Johnny Thunder’s iconic album ‘So Alone’ (1978).

Beyond the first phase of The Professionals (1979-1982), Cook had returned to the helm with Chiefs of Relief featuring members of BowWowWow. In the 1990s and 2000s, Cook also performed with the likes of Edwyn Collins (of Orange Juice fame), and Phil Collen (of Def Leppard and Girl fame) notably in the trio Man-Raze. He was also partly responsible for discovering the new-wave group Bananarama. Moreover, Cook has since reunited with Sex Pistols on two occasions including the Filthy Lucre tour in 1996 and for a string of shows in London celebrating the 30th anniversary of the seminal Never Mind the Bollocks.

More recently, the story of Sex Pistols and notable persons such as Malcolm McLaren and Jordan (as informed by Steve Jones’ memoir ‘Lonely Boy’) was dramatised in a high-profile and critically acclaimed TV series ‘Pistol’. The series is available now on steaming platform Disney+.

Today, The Professionals is continued by Cook with fellow songwriter and frontman Tom Spencer (The YoYos, The Loyalties) and bassist Toshi JC Ogawa (The Wildhearts, Hey! Hello!, The Sharks with Chris Spedding, and other projects). The band have been actively releasing music and touring extensively since its reformation in 2015.

In 2021, the band released their fourth studio album SNAFU to very positive press reception. Critics have portrayed the latest sonic offering from the punk rocks as “Cook and Spencer [crafting] 11 honest rock n’ roll songs that sit well in the discography and seal the legacy of the band” (SonicAbuse). Other critics have applauded The Professions as being a band that “aren’t relying on past glories with SNAFU [placing] the band in the here and now” (MidlandsRocks). Vive Le Rock labelled SNAFU as “album of the year” accompanied by a glowing 9/10 rating. Likewise, their live shows remain loud, fierce, and energetic with one reviewer reporting “[w]hether [the band’s sound is] punk, power-pop or good old rock ‘n’ roll is open to debate, but it hits all the right spots, and the hour-long set is over far too quickly” (IPA Music). Interestingly, Spencer also created the stained-glass artwork for the new album.