Green Day
When: 25th June 2024
Location: Bellahouston Park
Green Day are the Californian punks who scored huge hits with the albums Dookie and American Idiot. Coming to Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park on 25th June 2024.
Green Day sprang out of the west coast hardcore punk scene in the late 80s and early 90s. The initial trio of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass) and Al Sobrante (drums) grew their reputation via energetic live shows and the promise of their 1989 debut EP 1000 Hours. Sobrante was replaced by John Kiftmeyer for Green Day’s debut album 39/Smooth and the EP Slappy, but he was soon replaced by Tré Cool just before the band signed to Lookout Records.
The band’s first move on their new home was to reissue their debut album and two EPs as 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. This was followed by the album Kerplunk!, which represented a notable leap forward in songwriting, paving the way for the band to sign to Reprise Records for their third album, Dookie.
Released in 1994
Released in 1994, Dookie found Green Day coming of age at exactly the right moment, seizing upon the shift effected by Nirvana in order to jump right to the top of the charts. But where Nirvana tapped into a generation fuelled by alienation and angst, Green Day had an energy and self-effacing sense of humour that was more in keeping with punk heroes such as The Buzzcocks, The Ramones and Stiff Little Fingers.
Mainstream radio and MTV jumped behind singles Longview, Basket Case and When I Come Around, propelling Dookie to the upper echelons of album charts around the world. The band returned in 1995 with Insomniac, which was less instantly catchy than Dookie but hit harder.
The band cancelled a planned European tour, citing impending burnout and instead spending the time working on their fourth album. Released in 1997, Nimrod was a more diverse, textured album that Green Day’s previous efforts, most notably on the fan-favourite acoustic ballad Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).
Nimrod
It took Green Day three years to follow Nimrod, but the wait resulted in their most sonically adventurous album yet. Warning owed as much to The Kinks as The Buzzcocks as the band was clearly maturing beyond their trademark three-chord breakneck punk.
If the band’s popularity had waned since their Dookie heyday, American Idiot soon righted the ship. Conceived as a rock opera about young suburban Americans disillusioned in the wake of the Gulf War and 9/11, it showcased Green Day at height of their ambition, matched by some of their catchiest songs since Dookie. The album was a huge success and won Grammys for Best Rock Album and Record Of The Year (for the song Boulevard Of Broken Dreams).
Green Day’s seventh studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, saw the band return to the concept album format, this time following a couple through the American urban wilderness. Around the same time, the band had returned to their garage punk roots under the alias The Foxboro Hot Tubs.
That dalliance seemed to take hold, as when Green Day returned to the studio, they’d cast off the pomp of their rock operas and once again embraced their wilder side on a trio of albums released across 2012: ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tre!. However, in the midst of the release schedule for the trilogy, Billie Joe Armstrong checked himself into rehab to address his substance abuse issues, leaving the band’s immediate future in limbo.
Revolution Radio
Green Day finally returned in 2016 with Revolution Radio, a stinging, angry record that addressed political issues such as gun control with a fervour reminiscent of their heroes The Clash. This was followed in 2020 by the glammed-up dance punk of Father Of All…
Throughout 2020, Billie Joe Armstrong kept his social media followers entertained with his “No Fun Mondays” series of covers. These were released as the album No Fun Mondays in late 2020. That year also saw the release – after a 17-year wait – of the second album by Green Day’s new wave side project The Network.
Green Day had originally planned to tour in 2020 with Weezer and Fall Out Boy on the Hella Mega Tour but the tour was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2021, Green Day confirmed that the UK tour dates on the Hella Mega tour were moving to June 2022.
October 2023
In October 2023, Green Day released ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’, the first single from the new album, Saviors, due for release on 19 January 2024. The new album will release in the same year Green Day celebrate 30 years of Dookie – the album that changed everything.
