Singular Artists proudly presents
THE ORB (LIVE)
plus support
MARREE MEN (feat Gaudi and Alex Paterson)
Opium Live • Thur 16 Oct 2025 • 7:00pm
hirty-five years since Alex Paterson lit the multi-coloured touch paper on The Orb’s interstellar space odyssey, he continues to swerve, becoming his own tribute act by never standing still and preparing a cluster of fresh new projects. 2023 saw the release of Prism, the eighteenth Orb studio album and being hailed as their most towering set for years, followed by extensive tours of the UK, Europe and the USA.
Towards the end of 2023, The Orb reunited with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour to follow 2010’s Metallic Spheres with Metallic Spheres In Colour (sleeve again by Ghahary). What’s more, 2024 will be graced by an up-to-date Best of The Orb set. With Alex Paterson always setting the controls for the perfect ambient flight, dance groove or exploring previously unknown vistas, The Orb initially manifested as visionary mischief-makers in 1988’s acid house revolution, taking “ambient house” to number one in the album charts accompanied by his parallel devotion to the art of DJing and very British sense of humour.
Always working with telepathic sonic lieutenants, Alex’s latest forays have been achieved with the brilliant Michael Rendall. Battersea-born Alex started roadying (sometimes singing with) Killing Joke in 1979 before joining EG Records as an A&R man in 1982. His life was set on its subsequent path by the onset of acid house around 1987 when he injected chillout calm DJing at Paul Oakenfold’s Land Of Oz club with Jimmy Cauty, playing ambient sounds and dub. After starting the WAU! Label with Youth, Alex launched The Orb with Jimmy Cauty, releasing 1988’s The Kiss EP in tribute to New York’s ground-breaking eighties radio stations that still influence his musical attitude today. He then hijacked Minnie Riperton’s ‘Loving You’ for ’89’s epic breakthrough ‘A Huge Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’.
After Cauty left to concentrate on KLF, Alex and Youth collaborated on the Rickie Lee Jones-heisting ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’. It was followed by 1990’s landmark debut album The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, guests including German electronic luminary Thomas Fehlmann, guitarist Steve Hillage, bassist Guy Pratt and Youth, promoted by Alex turning The Orb into a mind-blowing live experience at the same time as working on U.F. Orb. The Orb had also become in-demand remixers, including booting Primal Scream’s ‘Higher Than The Sun’ into the cosmos for 1991’s Screamadelica. After the epic single ‘The Blue Room’ disturbed the charts and Top Of The Pops with the infamous chess-playing appearance, the second album U.F. Orb was launched at the Planetarium and entered the UK album charts at number one in July 1992.
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TICKETS
€35 available online from Whelanslive.com
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.