Boasting an expansive, exploratory rock sound, British quintet Arena have just released a music video for the track ‘Poisoned’, their first ever video single in their 23-year career!
Lauded as one of the most popular songs from their recently-released album ‘Double Vision’ (2018, Vergals Music), ‘Poisoned’ was penned by Arena in homage of loved ones lost to illness and (more specifically) to cancer. Amid the release of the reworked single version of the track, the band are calling fans, followers and newcomers alike to join them in a social media movement commemorating anyone lost to them who has represented an important part of their lives.
Fans can join in with the #arenapoisoned campaign by posting on social media with a picture and name of someone important in their life who has passed on, using the hashtag #arenapoisoned. The band intend to collate the photographs and create a montage of the pictures in a forthcoming vinyl version of ‘Double Vision’ – something special for posterity that will immortalise the loved ones of Arena’s fanbase and extended community.
To take part in the #arenapoisoned movement, fans can post using the tags @ArenaVerglas for Twitter or @ArenaBandofficial for Facebook, and include the Hashtag #arenapoisoned. Photos can also be sent to the band’s email address arenabandUK@gmail.com.
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Though Arena are not limiting the parameters of the #arenapoisoned solely to cancer victims, it represents a very real, very personal experience for keyboardist Clive Nolan:
‘Poisoned was written at a particularly difficult time for me”, notes Clive. “While I was putting the songs together for the new Arena album, I was very aware that a good friend of mine was dying of cancer.”
“There was something so raw, present and inescapable about this that it seemed obvious to me that this had to be written about. When [singer] Paul Manzi brought in some musical material at the beginning of January, I knew we had the foundation of what was needed.”
“In that first week of January I told Ian that we were writing a song that reflected on him and others in similar situations, and he loved the idea. He said he really wanted to hear it, and I told him that should be fine, because we hoped to have a version ready by early February. Sadly he passed away before January was over.”
According to figures from Cancer Research UK, there were approximately 359,960 new cases of cancer reported in 2015, and no less than 163,444 cancer-related deaths in 2016. There is hope, however, as cancer survival rates have almost doubled in the UK over the last 40 years, with 50% of cancer patients now surviving for 10+ years with treatment.
Arena will be taking their awesome sound across Europe and the United Kingdom in early 2019.
UK AND EUROPEAN TOUR DATES 2019
Saturday 2nd March – Montgomery Hall, Wath, England
Saturday 30th March – Salle Jean-Paul-Tardif, Quebec City, Canada
Wednesday 3rd April – Academy 3, Manchester, England
Thursday 4th April – Robin 2, Bilston, England
Friday 5th April – Waterfront Studio, Norwich, England
Saturday 6th April – ULU, London, England
Tuesday 9th April – Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland
Wednesday 10th April – Backstage, Munich, Germany
Thursday 11th April – Das Rind, Rüsselsheim, Germany
Friday 12th April – Zeche Carl, Essen, Germany
Saturday 13th April – Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
Sunday 14th April – Neuberinhaus, Reichenbach, Germany