Therapy? at thirty: Better late than never with anniversary celebrations 

The Northern rockers play Cork, Limerick, and Dublin as part of a Covid-delayed tour - and they also have a new album in the pipeline 

Therapy? L-R: drummer Neil Cooper, guitarist/vocalist Andy Cairns, bassist Michael McKeegan. Picture: Tom Hoad

The arrival of Covid-19 and the suddenness of measures taken to defend against its spread make March 2020 feel like a snapshot of another time. For Northern rock trio Therapy?, their thirtieth-anniversary celebrations had to be radically altered - a live-in-studio album tracked in Abbey Road in London, documenting the squall and rage of their ‘90s singles in the present, couldn’t be toured, while promotion for an accompanying book co-written by UK journo Simon Young had to be undertaken online.

“It didn't actually hit me,’ says vocalist and guitarist Andy Cairns. ‘Two things happened - I thought, right, 'I can't let this beat me'. I'm quite a loner anyway - whenever I'm at home, I spend a lot of time in books and movies, dog walking, going for long walks and running. I actually quite enjoyed it.