Malcolm Middleton & David Shrigley

Malcolm Middleton is a guitarist and songwriter who shot to relative success in the late 1990s as one half of the Scottish alternative rock band Arab Strap. Over the course of 10 years they released 6 studio albums and toured most of the toilet-sized venues of the world, even playing some mid-sized bathrooms latterly during their well-in-advance-announced farewell tour in the winter of 2006.

David Shrigley was born in 1968 and grew up in Leicester. He first came to Scotland in 1988 to study at Glasgow School of Art. He has lived and worked in Glasgow ever since. Shrigley has exhibited widely in Europe and North America and his drawings have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines and is also the author of over 30 books of drawings. In 2012 he had a retrospective exhibition at Hayward Gallery in London. In 2013 he was shortlisted for both the Turner Prize and was awarded the 2016  Fourth Plinth commission for Trafalgar Square. He has produced animated pop promos and record covers for artists such as Blur, Bonnie Prince Billy and Deerhoof. In 2006 he made his first spoken word record ‘Forced To Speak With Others’ and in 2007 wrote the lyrics for a compilation album ‘Worried Noodles’ including 39 tracks by the likes of David Byrne and Franz Ferdinand.

The two come together to release ‘Music and Words’ with Melodic. Blending the words and wisdom of Shrigley with the whipsmart musicianship of Middleton, the pair’s absurd wit and stark delivery is perfectly captured on ‘Music And Words’ – a special collaboration album that started out wrong but ended up just right.