the b-52s
Beehives & Ballyhoo: Our 1990 The B-52’s Feature
A version of this article originally appeared in the March 1990 issue of SPIN. In honor of The B-52’s announcing their farewell tour, we’re republishing it here. December 29, 10:15 pm. The stage lights are all the colors in the B-52’s rainbow: housedress orange, linoleum yellow, jellybean green, oxygen blue, posey purple. Three microphones stand at the lip of the stage, in front of which the dance floor of San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium throbs with fans screaming and stomping for an encore. The crowd is a mixture of old-fashioned B-52’s fans—girls in 1950s dresses and beehives, shy-looking guys in polka-dot shirts buttoned up to the top, the occasional lobster brooch or pickle handbag—plus new fans picked up since the release of album Cosmic Thing, and a few skinheads and thugs...
The B-52s Are Hitting the Road for the Last Time
The love shack is closing down. The B-52s have announced that their upcoming tour will be their last. Hitting 11 U.S. cities (for now), The B-52s will kick off the tour in late August in Seattle before ending in their home state of Georgia in November. “Who knew what started as a way to have some fun and play music for our friends’ at house parties in Athens in 1977 would evolve into over 45 years of making music and touring the world,” co-founder Kate Pierson said in a statement. “It’s been cosmic.” The tour’s pre-sale begins at 12 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 27. The general ticket sale begins at 12 pm EST on Friday, April 29. The Tubes and KC & The Sunshine Band are set to support on various dates. “No one likes to throw a party more than we do,” frontman Fred Schneider says, “but a...
