The Almighty to get career-spanning box set, but Ricky Warwick rules out reunion gigs

(Image credit: Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty Images)

Black Star Riders’ frontman Ricky Warwick has delivered an early Christmas gift to fans of his former band The Almighty, by revealing that a career-spanning box set from the Scottish biker rockers will emerge in 2021.

Warwick made the revelation in an exclusive interview with the eonmusic website to promote his forthcoming solo album, When Life Was Hard and Fast, which is set for release via Nuclear Blast on February 19.

Warwick, the driving force behind the Glasgow band, fronted The Almighty from 1988 until 2002, with varying line ups that included mainstays Stumpy Monroe [drums], and bassist Floyd London. The band released seven albums, including their acclaimed debut Blood Fire and Love, and the grungy Powertrippin’, which breached the UK Top 10 in 1993.

Although the band’s debut and its follow up, 1991’s Soul Destruction, were given deluxe reissues via Spinefarm Records in 2015, the rest of the quartet’s catalogue has remained out of print.

Telling writer Eamon O’Neill that he was serving up an exclusive for the site, Warwick revealed the existence of the forthcoming box set, “with everything and more; demos, you name it. Everything that was ever recorded by The Almighty will be available next year.”

“It’s something we’ve been working on for years, just trying to get the licences and all that,” Warwick reveals. “We finally got it all together, so I’m excited about that. We’re still working on all the logistics of it, and a release date, but we’re almost there! With things being on so many different labels and all that stuff, the clearances take a while. But it’s there, and it’s going to happen, and more information will be revealed as soon as we get it.”

Last year Warwick told Planet Rock that he still gets offers from promoters to book The Almighty for reunion shows.

“We still get offers to play festivals, good offers,” he said. “But I don’t feel like I need to go back. I love that people remember us fondly, and I love that we have a legacy. There’s still some people who’ll see me as ‘Ricky from The Almighty’ and that’s okay with me.”

Asked by Eamon O’Neill if the other former members of the band had contributed to the set, Warwick revealed divisions in the camp.

“I’m in fairly regular contact with Stumpy,” he says. “Him and I are still very close, and myself and Stumpy and my management have put the whole thing together. I talk to Tantrum [original guitarist] now and again; there's no problems there.”

“[Guitarist] Pete [Friesen] and Floyd [London] sort of removed themselves from the equation a few years ago, and sort of decided they didn’t want any more contact with us, for whatever reason. I’ve no idea why, because everything seemed to be fine one day, and didn’t seem to be fine the next!”

“It’s mind-boggling,” Warwick concluded. “It’s very sad, but, I’ll state for the record; they’ve made their stance clear, and we have to respect that. So sadly there’s been no contact at all. I haven’t spoken to them in six years maybe, which is terrible, in my opinion, but that’s how it goes.”

The full interview with Ricky Warwick is available now.

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