Viola Beach’s self-titled debut album will be reissued on vinyl for its 10th anniversary, and made in “celebration of what the bandmates and their manager did best together”.
On February 13, 2016, singer/guitarist Kris Leonard, guitarist River Reeves, bassist Tomas Lowe and drummer Jack Dakin of the Warrington band were killed alongside their manager Craig Tarry when their tour vehicle plunged into a canal in Sweden. An inquest into their deaths found that they did not suffer.
Last Friday marked exactly 10 years since the tragedy, and fans took to social media to pay their respects to the artists and recall how their music resonated with them.
Today (Friday February 20), it has been revealed that their self-titled debut album will be made to mark a decade since its original release.
The update was shared on Viola Beach’s official Instagram page, and it was confirmed that it will be released on June 5 via Fuller Beans Records. That label is the same that was set up by Kris, River, Tom, Jack and their manager Craig.
“The vinyl is specially designed with a rainbow coloured picture disc, paying homage to the rainbow umbrellas that the band were once photographed with and became symbolic of them in the wake of their tragic accident in 2016,” the caption read.
“This poignant vinyl edition release is a fitting celebration of what the bandmates and their manager did best together, make and perform wonderful music.” Visit here to pre-order.
In August 2016, the debut studio effort went to Number One in the UK albums chart – an achievement that came after Coldplay played their song ‘Boys That Sing’ during their headline Glastonbury set that June.
Frontman Chris Martin said on stage that the late band “reminded us of ourselves in our early days”.
Other tributes at the time came from Blossoms, who played a recording of the band during their secret set at Reading and Leeds festival that year, as well as Leeds Festival showing a heartfelt film about the band on the main stage screens.
In 2021, a cover of the band’s song ‘Swings And Waterslides’ was recorded by a collective of Warrington musicians to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, and later that year, their families reflected on the band’s careers and lives in an interview with the BBC.
In 2022, their debut album was released on vinyl for the first time to mark the fifth anniversary of the official release.
NME‘s own tribute to the band, published back in 2016, read: “Viola Beach’s legacy may now be out of their own hands, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the last word on them has been written.”
