The Spook School announce Farewell Tour

Our beloved Spookies, AKA The Spook School, made the sad announcement yesterday morning that this year they are calling it a day. "This year will mark the end of the project known as The Spook School. Whilst it is incredibly sad we really want to look back with joy on this journey," they said in an extensive Facebook post.

The post has since been met with almost 1000 sad, like and love clicks and over 100 comments sharing memories and thanks to a band that have meant, and will continue to mean so much to so many. As a proud LGTBQ+ band, The Spook School have been honest and open with their following over the years; from Nye Todd coming out as transgender to Niall McCamley's struggles with mental health – a trait that makes them so endearing to so many – and through such have given a voice to so many people who felt like they didn’t fit. With songs like Binary (‘I am bigger than a hexadecimal’) and Alive (‘Fuck you I’m still alive’), it will always be an amazing feeling to scream along to their music, a feeling which will sadly soon be missed in a live setting.

Thankfully, it seems there’s been no love lost between the four bandmates, and while they’re calling time on The Spook School they’ve given hope for future projects: "We started as friends and we are ending the exact same way. We still love each other and in the future we will continue to work together on creative projects but real life has a habit of getting in the way and eating up time and energy," the Facebook post continued. "We just can’t devote ourselves to the band the way we want to anymore and we would rather go out with a fanfare than let The Spook School drift quietly away.

"It has been eight years, three albums, countless silly covers, hundreds of adventures, and one highly unofficial endorsement from Linda McCartney’s Vegetarian Sausages. We will never forget our time as The Spook School. 

"Finally, we want to say thank you to you," the post concludes. "Thank you for your support, it truly has meant so much to us. We are full of self-doubt and constantly questioning ourselves and to have such positive people coming to our shows and listening to our music is infectious. We have written about incredibly personal things and that sense of community and of having a support network has been so beautiful. If our music has made even the smallest positive contribution to anybody then we can be exceptionally proud."

It’s safe to say The Spook School will be dearly missed but we’re excited for whatever may come next from the four friends. It’s not all over yet of course, as the Spookies are going out in style with an appearance already lined up for Electric Fields this July and a farewell UK tour, kicking off on 30 August in the annoyingly small Henry’s Cellar Bar in Edinburgh – which has already sold out – and concluding in Glasgow for the final hoorah on 7 September. 

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The Spook School play their farewell tour at Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, 30 Aug; The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle, 31 Aug; Gullivers, Manchester, 1 Sept; Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 2 Sept; Exchange, Bristol, 3 Sept; The Green Door Store, Brighton, 4 Sept; Moth Club, London, 5 Sept; Rough Trade, Nottingham, 6 Sept; The Art School, Glasgow, 7 Sept