Charlotte Church to headline Neu! Reekie!

Charlotte Church will headline Neu! Reekie!’s latest night on 23 September, when the cultural party planners take over the National Museum of Scotland for a late night ‘Celts’-themed special.

Neu! Reekie!’s first wave of lineup announcements revealed that Church will be performing her new show The Late Night Pop Dungeon, and heading up a bill including legendary former Scots Makar poet Liz Lochhead as well as Ette – the solo project of TeenCanteen’s Carla J Easton.

Once the "voice of an angel," Welsh soprano Charlotte Church has transformed into a potty-mouthed political activist who pulled no punches in her critique of Tory austerity measures earlier this year. The Late Night Pop Dungeon offers feel-good pop antidotes to the sheer misery of the daily news cycle and holds just one, holistic goal; to pull people to the dance floor.

Assisted by a raucous ten-piece band, Church will cover disparate floor fillers from Nine Inch Nails to En Vogue… and then some. The Dungeon combines glitzy cabaret with a proper spit and polish punk ethos, and proved an unexpected show-stealer at All Tomorrow’s Parties in April, and as a secret Sunday night set at Glastonbury.

Church says: “I’m tremendously excited to be bringing my Late Night Pop Dungeon to Edinburgh to celebrate with cultural provocateurs Neu! Reekie! and National Museum of Scotland. Neu! Reekie! have assured me some of our leading female CELTS will be roaring to stage. We’re all about to bring the roof down and crescendo the night. Come and join the party.”

Neu! Reekie!’s Michael Pedersen explained to The Skinny that the evening’s performances are in reaction and response to the ‘Celts’ exhibition currently showing at the National Museum. He describes the line-up as a “formidable string of Celtic women” who show “the vibrant side to Celtic culture and performance,” with both Lochhead and Easton intending to use the exhibition as inspiration for new work.

As well as a bold step from Neu! Reekie!’s often underground leanings, Pedersen suggests that the show’s September date offers a finger to the suggestion that “culture in Scotland comes crumbling down” after August’s festivals: “Does it fuck!”

Neu! Reekie! Celts, September 23, National Museum of Scotland. Tickets are on sale now.