Music: The Cleansing: New Album and Tour from Peter Perrett

Songwriter Peter Perrett will release a new album The Cleansing in November and has announced a European tour beginning February 2025.

The Only Ones singer has created an ambitious double album of 20 songs, with musical collaborators Bobby Gillespie, Carlos O’Connell, Alice Go and his two sons Jamie and Peter Jnr.

He has already sold out an October gig in London and will tour cities including Glasgow, Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid early next year.

“I feel that, the older you get, the more reflective you get,” Perrett says. “I’d always been flippant about the way I approached life, only living in the moment, but then you start to look back at the choices made. I wanted to be more focused about what I wanted to say. I’m still writing about love and the human condition, but perhaps more sentimental, and less abject cynicism, than usual. I also am more focused about the music. Before, I’d put down two guitars, bass and drums, and that was the song: I didn’t give the process much thought. But then we started opening things up.”

The Only Ones, creator of the perfect punk pop song ‘Another Girl Another Planet’, were wildly popular from 1976 – 1981. Perrett resurfaced in the nineties as The One, then reformed The Only Ones in 2007. A solo album Humanworld was released in 2019.

Perrett met Carlos O’Connell at a Fontaines D.C. Aftershow the two musicians jammed along to the track Disinfectant at Pathway Studios. “I really liked what Carlos played,” says Perrett. “We went back into the studio, and he ended up playing on eight tracks.”

He says the new album reflects his current perspective on life. “I know some of the subject matter is death, suicide and depression,” Perrett notes, “but I feel there is an uplifting atmosphere to the album, because I’m obviously enjoying recognising what is going on around me.”

You can listen to the single: ‘I Wanna Go With Dignity’ here: