The Cult have announced that guitarist James Stevenson will be joining them on the band’s upcoming Electric 13 tour. 

Stevenson, who previously toured with The Cult in the mid-90s, is replacing Mike Dimkich, who has left the band to play with Bad Religion.

The Electric 13 tour, which kicks off in San Diego on July 25, coincides with the release of the new 2-disc set, “Electric Peace”, on July 30.

The collection pairs 1987’s “Electric” with the group’s abandoned "Peace" album, a project The Cult recorded as the follow-up to 1985’s “Love.” The band teamed with producer Steve Brown at The Manor studios in Oxfordshire and by the end of October 1986, the album was recorded and the masters assembled; however, the group weren't happy with the final results, which seemed too polished. 

The Cult then contacted producer Rick Rubin to remix the lead track "Love Removal Machine," and Rubin agreed, but only on condition that the track was entirely re-recorded. Thrilled with the results of the Rubin sessions, the band abandoned the original "Peace" recordings and re-recorded the entire album in New York with him, resulting in “Electric.” 

"We stared of rehearsals as a trio with me, Chris [Wyse, bass] and Johnny [Tempesta, drums] as we felt like we just wanted to get a bit of the rust off as we haven’t played together for a while,” says guitarist Billy Duffy."Obviously, 'Electric' is very much a two-guitar album, one rhythm and one lead, so with Mike moving on, we've decided to welcome back James Stevenson back into the fold to play rhythm for the tour. As a Cult alumni of 94/5, James was the obvious choice.”

"The plan is to play the 'Electric' album in order then break and play a bunch of other stuff from the other eras, similar to the 'Love Live' tour from a few years back,” added Duffy. “I've really enjoyed playing 'Bad Fun', 'King Contrary Man' and 'Electric Ocean' again as it’s been a while. There's moments when it's really exciting and that's really cool. It will be interesting to see how 'Memphis Hip Shake' goes down, as it will end that first section of the set, as it sounds really good, but it's not your traditional set-ending song. But then 'Black Angel' ended the 'Love Live' set really well."

(via hennemusic)