New York's Reverend Billy Returns to the UK for a Radical Mix of Music, Passion, and Politics

Hallelujah! Your saviour is at hand. If you're concerned about a world rife with global advertising, multinational control, climate change, the threat of nuclear war, supermarket domination, and all the constant controversy caused by the US President's inane outpourings, this is for you. If you're not, this is REALLY for you!

Award-winning wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth-loving urban activists Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir return to the UK for a whistlestop tour of the country. They'll be spreading the word of Earthelujah and encouraging us all to join the struggle to avert the threatened Shopacolypse. Expect humour, great music and an unshakeable belief.

The Church of Stop Shopping is a New York based secular political religion founded in 1999. Their performances in concert halls (and the Tesco cash tills exorcisms) are directed by Savitri D, who co-founded the 'church' with Talen in the months after 9/11. To date they have performed in, and exorcised cash registers in, over a dozen countries and four continents.

Since Trump, the Frankenstein of shopping culture, won - or stole - the election, the church and choir have been a repository of community anguish. They have opened for Neil Young, been produced by Laurie Anderson, and hosted a Black Lives Matter benefit with Joan Baez as well as hosting their own parades, boycotts, and protests - all whilst singing multiple harmonies.

The Rev has an advice column in a New York newspaper called 'Trump Depression Hotline' - and this effort to bring mindfulness and hilarity to these dark times became the name of the UK tour. 'We gotta love everybody and show them we care 'til they can't Trump anymore' he said.

Savitri D and Reverend Billy have taken to spending time in the public garden of Trump Tower, 'We walk past the submachine guns and dogs, the body armour and the golden name of the white supremacist president that hovers in space above the door' said Rev Billy 'We travel up gold-plated escalators to legally protected privately owned public space then we write together for 45 minutes. At the end we stand with our writing and recite or shout or sing our words at the 700 foot tall gold-tinted monstrosity' added Savitri D.

Reverend Billy Talen is an actor, performance artist and activist who began his experimental preaching in Times Square in 1994. Soon singers were accompanying his 'retail Interventions' inside chain stores, principal targets being Disney, GAP, Nike, and Starbucks. He is legally banned from every branch of Starbucks in the USA and the coffee giant has issued a memo to its managers 'What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store?'

The Church of Stop Shopping hold 'services' wherever they can, in theatres, churches, community centres, forests, parking lots, shopping malls, and perhaps most importantly, inside stores, as close to the cash register as they can get, within spitting distance of the point of purchase. Their feature film 'What Would Jesus Buy' was produced by Morgan Spurlock and their earlier film Preacher With an Unknown God won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Listings information:

Trump Depression Hotline Tour

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir

October 2017

Sat 21 Birmingham

Fierce Festival, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH

6pm FREE 0121 348 8032 www.wearefierce.org

Sun 22 Newcastle

The Blackfriars Ouseburn Cinema @ St Vincent De Paul Society, Newcastle, NE1 2TQ

7.30pm £9.50, £7, £4.50 concessions, under 12's free http://wunderbar.org.uk/revbilly

Mon 23 Liverpool

The Cornerstone Theatre, Creative Campus, Shaw Street, L6 1HP

7.30pm £Pay what you can 0844 8000 410 www.ticketquarter.co.uk

Tue 24 Brighton

Marlborough Theatre 4 Princes Street, Brighton BN2 1RD

7.30pm £9.50/£7.50 concessions 01273 273 870 http://www.marlboroughtheatre.org.uk

Wed 25 Colchester

Colchester Arts Centre, Church St, Colchester CO1 1NF

7.30pm £Pay what you can 01206 500900 www.colchesterartscentre.com

Thurs 26 Chelmsford

The Cramphorn Theatre, Fairfield Road CM1 1JG

7.30pm £pay what you can 01245 606 505 www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres

Sat 28 London

Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London, E1 6AB

7.30pm £12/£10 020 7650 2350 www.artsadmin.co.uk

Sun 29 Norwich

Norwich Arts Centre St Benedicts Street, Norwich NR2 4PG

7.30pm £pay what you can, 01603 660352 www.norwichartscentre.co.uk ?

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir' Trump Depression tour is produced by Colchester Arts Centre and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

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