Placebo have shared a brooding new single called ‘Helen Keller’ as they kick off their 30th anniversary tour today (September 28).
The new track sees the band reach back to ‘H.K. Farewell’, a hidden instrumental from the era of their self-titled 1996 debut, using its eerie keyboard melody as the foundation for an otherwise entirely new song.
Recorded in London earlier this year, ‘Helen Keller’ was produced by Placebo and Adam Noble, with the latter also handling mixing. It retains the spectral atmosphere of ‘H.K. Farewell’ but pushes the idea into a heavier, more anguished rock setting.
“This is a new rock song inspired by the piano melody from ‘H.K. Farewell’ and named after one of my favourite people from history,” Brian Molko said of the track.
Keller was the American author, disability rights advocate and political activist who became deafblind as a young child and went on to become an internationally renowned writer and campaigner.
Listen to ‘Helen Keller’ here:
The single continues Placebo’s celebrations around the 30th anniversary of their debut. In June, they released ‘Placebo RE’, for which Molko and Stefan Olsdal returned to the original master tapes and reworked all 10 songs from the 1996 record, alongside ‘Drowning By Numbers’ and ‘H.K. Farewell’.
Describing the project as a “director’s cut”, the band said it allowed them to bring three decades of performing the material back into the recordings while maintaining the spirit of the originals.
They previously previewed the project with a heavier version of ‘Bruise Pristine’ and a revamped ‘Lady Of The Flowers’.
Placebo’s anniversary tour begins at the Super Bock Arena in Porto tonight (September 28) and will see them focus exclusively on material from ‘Placebo’ and 1998’s ‘Without You I’m Nothing’, reviving some songs that have not been performed live in more than two decades.
After an extensive run across Europe, the band will reach the UK and Ireland in late November and early December, playing Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, London and Cardiff. See all the dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Earlier this month, Placebo also announced a 2027 Latin American leg, beginning in São Paulo on February 20 and running through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia before wrapping up with shows in Guadalajara and Monterrey in March.
Their most recent album of entirely new material remains 2022’s ‘Never Let Me Go’. In a four-star review, NME described it as “a renaissance rock record with an experimental edge”, adding that it found Placebo “inspired and ready for a new era”.
