Lene Lovich: Post-Punk/New Wave icon

Lene Lovich, the Post-Punk/New Wave icon who could count John Lennon and Frank Zappa among her fans, is set to return to the United States for the first time in 18 years this fall. She will undertake her first full North American tour in 35 years, playing 25 shows across the country.

Lovich moved to London in the mid-1970s just as the Sex Pistols were about to seize the nation by the proverbial throat, forming a band with her partner Les Chappell, and soon beginning to make a name for herself with her flamboyant style and effervescent live performances. She came to the attention of Oval Music moguls Charlie Gillett and Gordon Nelki, whom had recently helped to launch the careers of Ian Dury and Elvis Costello, taking Lene to the same independent record label, Stiff Records, that had been at the vanguard of punk and New Wave in the UK, with debut releases from The Damned and Devo, as well as the aforementioned Dury and Costello, and Stiff Records house producer Nick Lowe.

Lene rocketed to the top of the UK charts with her second single on Stiff, the unforgettable “Lucky Number”, in 1979. The success of the single propelled her debut album Stateless to instant cult status, where it remains to this day, a classic of its time and hugely influential on the burgeoning 1980s post-punk Goth subculture. Lene’s second album, Flex, released in 1980 was arguably even more influential in the United States than Stateless.

Lene toured America successfully many times during the 80s, and her band included Thomas Dolby on keyboards, with whom she co-wrote her biggest selling US single “New Toy”. Her third album, No Man’s Land, released in 1982, seemed poised to become her commercial breakthrough in America. Alas by then her relationship with Stiff had deteriorated. She released the album March in 1989 on the independent label Pathfinder Records, and toured America one more time, in 1990, subsequently retreating from the limelight to raise a family in rural England.

Sporadic collaborations and extremely rare live appearances was all that was seen of her for many years, until the release of the album Shadows and Dust in 2005. With her daughters now grown up, Lene returned to regular live performances in 2012 when she and guitarist Jude Rawlins formed the Lene Lovich Band to take her classic material back on the road. The band garnered huge acclaim across the UK and Europe, where they have toured consistently ever since. Finally, in 2025, America will get the chance to see what they’ve been missing for far too long, the iconic and unique Lene Lovich at full volume.