UK Shoegazers Chapterhouse Share Opening Acts for Whirlpool35th Anniversary Tour of North America

Apr 08, 2026 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

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Reading, UK’s Chapterhouse has confirmed openers for their upcoming North American tour dates which were first announced back in Feb. The Asteroid No. 4 will open the West Coast dates, while She’s Green will open the East Coast dates, outside of the dates that are part of the multi-city shoegaze festival Slide Away. Those shows will all feature Hum and Nothing and a rotating undercard. She’s Green will also perform at Slide Away one night in NYC and one in Chicago. For more info. on Slide Away: slideaway.co

Bio
Chapterhouse always managed to be in the right place at the wrong time. They were acid-
rockers as acid house hit; they were shoegazers when grunge germinated; they were
experimental dance-rockers as Britpop broke. It’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we
can see they have always been a band ahead of their time.

Formed over the summer of 1987 by a bunch of school friends from Reading, they started
out jamming on Stooges covers and songs from the Pebbles compilations for fun, which
initially led to them being taken under the wing of Spacemen 3.

After a couple EPs, the band dropped the classic “Pearl,” with its mix of guitars and beats
borrowed from John Bonham and Schoolly D. It still sounds daring and audacious to this day
and is rightfully revered alongside My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon” as one of those significant
moments that pushed indie music into uncharted new waters.

It also features backing vocals by Rachel Goswell from their Reading contemporaries
Slowdive, whose guitarist Christian Savill fondly remembers the early Chapterhouse gigs as
“some of the best I’ve ever seen.”

Chapterhouse’s 1991 debut album Whirlpool is a shoegaze touchstone. A wonderful record
that manages to be both weird and accessible at the same time and saw them collaborating
with Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Record company politics clouded the creation of
the follow-up a couple years later, but Blood Music is a brilliant album and one that has
aged remarkably gracefully. Its synthesis of dance and rock has frequently been cited as an
influence by electronica artists such as Ulrich Schnauss, helped by the Pentamorous
Metamorphosis reworking by Global Communication.

However, as the Britpop battles raged, the band struggled to find a way forward when
everyone else was busy looking backwards and decided to call it a day in 1995. But it wasn’t
the end, a one-off festival performance in 2008 blossomed into a full-blown reunion the
following year, with tours in the UK, US and Japan. Even when they reformed, Chapterhouse
managed to be ahead of their time – their reunion pre-dating the reformation of their
contemporaries from the shoegaze scene.

And now they are back to do it all over again; 35 years on from the release of their classic
debut– which proudly sits at number 17 in Pitchfork’s list of the best shoegaze albums ever
– this is finally the right place and the right time for Chapterhouse.

TOUR DATES:

May 22 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom (Slide Away Festival)
May 23 Chicago, IL AragonBallroom (Slide Away Festival)

May 25 Seattle, WA The Crocodile w/ The Asteroid No. 4
May 26 Portland, OR Aladdin Theatre w/ The Asteroid No. 4
May 28 San Francisco, CA August Hall w/ The Asteroid No. 4
May 29 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium (Slide Away Festival)
May 30 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium (Slide Away Festival)

Get tickets HERE

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• 2026, aragon ballroom, Chapterhouse, Chicago, live, Shoegaze, Whirlpool

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