The Mary Wallopers – The Big Mixer
Robert McAlpine, the construction magnate, was reportedly on his deathbed when someone floated the idea of pausing work out of respect once he passed. He said no, keep the mixer going, keep Paddy behind it. That’s the line The Mary Wallopers built “The Big Mixer” around, a direct descendant of ballads like “McAlpine’s Fusiliers” dragged into the present: a worker falls off scaffolding and gets replaced within days, self-checkouts scan the barcodes now, rockets go up while wages stay flat. It’s dedicated to labourers, nurses, drivers, SNAs, miners, and factory workers, basically anyone whose job doesn’t stop just because they’d rather it did, and somehow it’s still a rowdy singalong built on genuinely bleak math.
The track comes from Paddywhackery, the band’s third album, out September 18 and produced by James Skelly of The Coral in an intense two-week Liverpool session with engineer Chris Taylor, following 2023’s Irish Rock’n’Roll. They teased it from the main stage at Electric Picnic before release, and they’re about to be everywhere: a UK and Ireland run through October and December, then a 2027 North American headline tour from Philadelphia in March to Los Angeles in April. What gets me is that a band this loud about class politics can still write a chorus this easy to shout along to without either side feeling like a compromise.
Tour dates
Europe
- Oct. 13 / Edinburgh, Scotland / Edinburgh Corn Exchange
- Oct. 14 / Newcastle, England / Newcastle O2 City Hall
- Oct. 16 / Cardiff, Wales / Cardiff University
- Oct. 17 / Brighton, England / Brighton Centre
- Oct. 19 / Sheffield, England / Sheffield Octagon Centre
- Oct. 20 / Cambridge, England / Cambridge Corn Exchange
- Oct. 22 / Liverpool, England / Liverpool Olympia
- Oct. 23 / Manchester, England / Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse
- Oct. 26 / Nottingham, England / Nottingham Rock City
- Oct. 27 / Leeds, England / Leeds O2 Academy
- Oct. 29 / Birmingham, England / Birmingham O2 Academy
- Oct. 30 / London, England / London O2 Academy Brixton
- Dec. 10 / Dublin, Ireland / Dublin 3Arena
- Dec. 19 / Glasgow, Scotland / Glasgow OVO Hydro
North America
- Mar. 4, 2027 / Philadelphia, PA / Theatre of the Living Arts
- Mar. 5, 2027 / Asbury Park, NJ / The Stone Pony
- Mar. 6, 2027 / Boston, MA / Citizens House of Blues
- Mar. 9, 2027 / Montreal, QC / Club Soda
- Mar. 10, 2027 / Ottawa, ON / The Bronson
- Mar. 12, 2027 / Toronto, ON / HISTORY
- Mar. 13, 2027 / Chicago, IL / Riviera Theatre
- Mar. 14, 2027 / Cleveland, OH / House of Blues
- Mar. 16, 2027 / New York, NY / Irving Plaza
- Mar. 17, 2027 / New York, NY / Irving Plaza
- Mar. 19, 2027 / Washington, DC / Union Stage
- Mar. 20, 2027 / Pittsburgh, PA / Thunderbird Music Hall & Cafe
- Mar. 21, 2027 / Indianapolis, IN / The Vogue
- Mar. 23, 2027 / Milwaukee, WI / The Argo
- Mar. 24, 2027 / Minneapolis, MN / Fine Line
- Mar. 26, 2027 / Calgary, AB / The Palace Theatre
- Mar. 27, 2027 / Vancouver, BC / Orpheum
- Mar. 29, 2027 / Seattle, WA / The Crocodile
- Mar. 30, 2027 / Portland, OR / Crystal Ballroom
- Apr. 1, 2027 / San Francisco, CA / August Hall
- Apr. 2, 2027 / Los Angeles, CA / Pacific Electric
