The excitement and sheer delight shown by the fans and the rock community as whole when The Almighty returned for live shows in 2023 was incredible to witness. For the first time since 1992, the original line up of Ricky Warwick (vocals & guitar), Floyd London (bass), Andy ‘Tantrum’ McCafferty and Stump Munroe (drums) would be together on stage. As you would expect those Three ‘n’ Easy run of shows were incendiary and understandably the fans wanted more. And the band delivered, bringing more shows over the following 2 years and now even returning to the studio to record a cover of Metallica’s The Four Horsemen. But they appear to have taken their time and to have carefully considered each step they’ve taken. One decision they made was to accept the very prestigious offer to headline the 2025 Stonedead Festival. We catch up with Ricky ahead of the show to chat about the band’s incredible return. As you would expect, he greets us with a big smile and the warmest of welcomes, and looking incredibly healthy. With the festival in full flow in the background, we grab a chair and our conversation begins…

Well I would like to start by just reflecting on 2023 when the original line up of The Almighty came back together. As someone who was actually there at the start back in 1988 and who’s followed the band’s journey since, one thing that was absolutely wonderful to observe is that the love for the band and the commitment from the fans is just as great, if not greater, than at any point in the band’s career. And when we look at who’s attending your shows, it’s multi-generational and I’d like to give you one example. This is Uriel (shows photo) who’s 13 and he heard one of your songs on Planet Rock and quite simply he said “I just connected with the music”, and now he’s here today to see The Almighty at Stonedead – and what a fantastic young man he is. So your fans are the old guard but also teenagers. How does it feel to see this incredible demand and support from The Almighty and also to see how your music continues to be relevant to a whole new generation?

It’s a great question. Well, we are very honoured and it’s obviously lovely that we have people like Uriel coming to the show, being a father myself - and my kids hate my music! (Laughs!). No, The Almighty fans are a special bunch, they really are, and they are incredibly loyal. I think musically we connect with a lot of people but lyrically we connect with a lot of people as well because of where we came from: working-class, no-frills, believing in yourself, being respectful to each other and standing up for yourself, and I think people like to hear that. And I think they can see that in themselves as well, you know? I’ve absolutely had a lot of people messaging me going ‘such a such a song has helped me’, and that’s the best thing you can ever hear as a songwriter, when you’ve connected with somebody on that level. There is no bigger accolade. There’s just nobody like The Almighty, what can I say? There’s nobody like us and I’m really proud of that fact. We’re not everybody’s cup of tea and that’s okay, but I think we stand for something and I think the people who come to see us know we stand for something. I don’t think we’ve ever really deviated. I don’t think we’ve ever given less than 100% and I think they appreciate that, and for that, I’m indebted to them.

I think those values absolutely come through the music and I can absolutely see how people have connected with and stayed with the band. Since the band reformed you’ve done some amazing things and have plans for amazing things, for example, the Three ‘n’ Easy run of shows, the Blood Fire and Five For 2025, as well a short tour of Japan and some special one off gigs such as the Gibson Garage in London, and this year you’ve even returned to the studio. But I think what we’ve perhaps seen is the band not rushing things. When coming back together, how important was it for you to take those tentative steps and baby steps to make sure that you got it right as a band?

It was very pragmatic. We sat down with management and a lot of planning went into it. It would’ve been very easy just to say “Oh, let’s do 25 shows, let’s do a tour”, but we just knew we wanted to make it special and we wanted to make everything an event. We want to make sure that we’re doing everything for the right reasons - because we want to do it - which is why we’re not just throwing everything out there. We’re taking our time and we’re being pragmatic and we’re enjoying it! And every year as we enjoy it, we’re doing a little bit more, and we will just see how it goes. Basically, we’re covering our arses as well because we said we’d just do 3 shows. If we did those 3 shows and they weren’t great or we didn’t feel it or we didn’t dig it, then we could happily walk away. But obviously it was epic and we loved it so much we thought ‘Well, let’s do a little bit more’. It’s the same with the studio. We wanted to go in the studio. What’s a great way to get in the studio? Well, there’s a lot of pressure if we have to write one of our own songs. We got the opportunity to do the Metallica cover and that was a great way to get us back in the studio after all this time. So there’s a lot of thought there and I’ve got to give the management credit as well for their input and steering us in the direction that they are. Stump’s worked in the business for the last 35 years and he’s a hugely successful tour manager and production manager, so between us we have a good idea of how it all works now. So we are a little bit better at planning ahead.

You are of course headlining the Stonedead Festival today, and what’s really interesting about your performance is that you have a ‘by request’ set. You actually asked the Stonedead festival-goers to pick the songs they wanted you to play. What made you take this approach and also, to what extent would you agree that this is The Almighty putting your fans at the centre of your Stonedead appearance?

Of course! Let us know what you think! Let us know what you want us to play and we’ll play what you vote for. Happily we’ll do it! Any musician or any artist is nothing without the people that buy their art and obviously that applies to us. Our fans are so important to us and so passionate that we just thought ‘let’s let them have a say in what we’re going to play and we’ll take it on board’. And we did and it was a great success! Thankfully they didn’t pick anything that we hadn’t played before or ‘that B side’ that we’ve never played, so it worked out pretty good! (Laughs!)

It’s wonderful that the fans pressed the right buttons! In February this year, social media blew up when it was announced that The Almighty have been back in the studio. Fast forward to August, and The Almighty have released The Four Horsemen, a cover of the Metallica track for the forthcoming album ‘No Life ‘Til Leather – A Tribute To Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All’. It’s an absolutely incredible version with comments from the fans being overwhelmingly positive, with one fan even saying this would be the best rock/metal track you are likely to hear this year. I absolutely agree! As a band, how did the conversations develop to the point where you felt it was the right time to go back into the studio?

Well the offer came in from Silver Lining Music who had the Metallica tribute album in the works. We really didn’t get a say in it. They said ‘We’d love The Almighty to be on it, the only song that’s left is The Four Horsemen’. We’re all massive Metallica fans, always have been, so that was a no brainer and then we just thought, like I was saying, this is a great way to get back in the studio and see how we feel without the pressure of having to come up with a new song, which everybody would obviously judge us on. People will judge us on the Metallica song but it’s a little bit different because it’s an established song, and it just took the pressure off a little bit. We just thought that was a good way for us to find out if we would still be able to cut it in the studio, and if would we enjoy it more importantly. And we did! With everything we’re kind of doing, we’re trying to get back to a lot of the places and work with a lot of the people that we used to work with back in the day. We use as much of the original crew that we did back in the day. When we go back to Glasgow to rehearse we go back to the same rehearsal studio that we rehearsed in. So we wanted to record in Glasgow because we just feel at home there, and we did, and the guy that runs the studio there is a very old friend of ours. So it’s great having him around. And then we worked with Chris Sheldon obviously who did Crank and Just Add Life. Chris is semi-retired so to get Chris to come out and do a killer mix was great!

Did it take much coaxing to get him back out?

No! (Laughs!) He’s a good friend and we had such a great time working with him. I think Chris will come out and work for bands that he loves. Like he just did the last Therapy? album (Hard Cold Fire – Ed) and I think he did the last Feeder record as well (Black/Red – Ed) but he just made it sound bombastic! I mean, I knew we’d got a good recording down when we sent it to Chris, and the mixes he sent back, I don’t think we changed anything.

This is the first time you’ve been in the studio together for 34 years. How did this experience compare to the late 80s and early 90s?

Nothing had changed. It was still the four of us sitting up together in a room, putting this song down as a band, Stump being happy with the drum track, Floyd putting the bass on, overdubbing the guitars, overdubbing the vocals and mixing it. There were no shortcuts or suggestions we do it remotely or play along to a click – none of that. It was the four of us looking at each other in a room and playing, and that’s the only way I think The Almighty works in the studio.

We have of course talked about tentative steps and taking a step at a time. Has it ignited desires to record an original new album?

I think it probably has if I’m being really honest with you but again, I think we’ll take our time. We’ll not suddenly just go ‘Oh, we’re going to do a new record next week’. I think we’ll plan it out and start writing and see what the songs are sounding like, because there’s no point even planning anything if we don’t have the songs or we’re not happy with them or they’re not up to the standard that they need to be. So I think we’re talking about maybe getting together and doing a little bit of writing and we’ll see how it goes, and if it goes well will take it a step further.

I’ve heard you say recently that ‘the riff is king’. What does that mean?

For The Almighty it certainly is, yeah. If you look at any of the big Almighty songs, you know, Addiction, Over The Edge and even Free ‘n’ Easy, they’re all based around a big, big guitar hook and that’s just our thing.

And finally, what does it mean to not just be at the Stonedead Festival but to be headlining it?

It’s lovely! It’s a lovely position to be in, you know, to be able to come back again after so long, and to walk in to a festival like Stonedead and close it, it’s fantastic! The achievement’s not lost on me and it’s a huge honour and I’m very excited about it. I can’t wait to get up there and start playing! That’s the only bad thing about headlining: you have to wait around! (Laughs!) I could’ve just kept playing this morning after soundcheck. I could have just gone on then and it would’ve been fine, you know?! But yeah, I’m thrilled to be here!