Well, not only are ace New Wave band The Vapors signed up to tour with the Lost 80s Live festival in America next year, but they apparently had crowdsourced a fourth album last summer while I was completely oblivious??! I thought that my Monk-Sense™ would have undoubtedly started tingling under such circumstances! Or my social circle would have offered up the factoid in our chats. So if you wanted to pony up to get the album recorded and duplicated for release, the chance is gone. I’m chagrined that I was not telling anyone who visited this as of last July [the crowdfunder ran for two months from August through September].
I wouldn’t have minded getting the £20.oo album thanks you credit but that ship has sailed. The band were aiming for a £14K budget but healthy response that saw each one of their buy-in levels bought into [sometimes those uppermo$t tiers go unloved – not everyone has £1K laying around even to support their favorite band] to ultimately take the budget from $14K to a little over £18K. Leaving a fair amount for promotional purposes.
The band were touring America last summer and ended their tour by stopping in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where Michael [The Split Squad] Giblin recorded and produced the disc. He’s a new name to me but his last credit was for the new Fleshtones album, so he’s obviously good people! Mastering is by Greg Reierson and now we can see what the contents will be.
The Vapors: Wasp In A Jar – US – CD [2025]
- Hit The Ground Running
- The Human Race
- Forever & Ever
- Miss You Girl
- Decompression
- Carry On
- Nonstop Radio
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now
- The Words
- Look Away Now
- Idiot Creature
- It Gets Better
- Proud
- Together Again
Yow! We can tell that The Vapors have a distinct penchant for black and yellow artwork. One hopes that they used a WASP synth on the album as well! And the running order features an abundant set of 14 songs. Hopefully these are all 2-3 minutes long and we can have a fast moving album that avoids “Cure Album Syndrome.” Somehow, I don’t think the band are preparing a 63 minute opus.
Presales are open and the group are selling through Music Glue worldwide with North American fans getting local sales [and shipping] thorough Giblin’s label, Red Chuck Records on Bandcamp. So yay for low shipping costs. The album is in the three formats, priced to move. No VIP packages here – that was all in the crowdfunder. UK fans can get DL for £7.99, CD for £11.99, and LP [black wax, of course!] for £25.99. US/Canadian fans will pay $12 for DL, $15 for CD and $30 for LP. And then after release the band is touring the UK and America. Some headline date in the UK followed by opening for Big Country. In The States we also get both acts on the Lost 80s Live tour.
THE VAPORS: 2025 TOUR DATES
UK
7 Mar | The Albert, Brighton
8 Mar | Thunderbolt, Bristol
14 Mar | 33 Oldham Street, Manchester
15 Mar | Record Junkee, Sheffield
23 Mar | Hope & Anchor, London
29-30 Mar | Scarborough Punk Festival, Scarborough
17 Apr | Junction, Cambridge w/ Big Country
18 Apr | Assembly, Leamington Spa w/ Big Country
19 Apr | 1865, Southampton w/ Big Country
25 Apr | Roadmender, Northampton w/ Big Country
26 Apr | Chalk, Brighton w/ Big Country
2 May | Patti Pavilion, Swansea w/ Big Country
3 May | Crossing, Birmingham w/ Big Country
4 May | Trinity Arts Centre, Bristol w/ Big Country
USA
31 Jul | Lost 80s Live – Westville Music Bowl | New Haven, CT
1 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Boch Centre Wang Theatre | Boston, MA
2 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Rooftop at Pier 17 | New York, NY
3 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Koka Booth Amphitheater | Cary, NC
14 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Saenger Theatre | New Orleans, LA
15 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Smart Financial Centre | Sugar Land, TX
16 Aug | Lost 80s Live – The Espee | San Antonio, TX
17 Aug | Lost 80s Live – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory | Irving, TX
20 Aug | Lost 80s Live – The Arizona Financial Theater | Phoenix, AZ
21 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Cal Cost Credit Union Ampitheater | San Diego, CA
24 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Greek Theatre | Los Angeles, CA
29 Aug | Lost 80s Live – Vina Robles Ampitheatre | Paso Robles, CA
The UK tour starts right after the album comes out, so fans there should get ahead of the curve on the pre-order. In America I can wait a little longer, but why should I? The last Vapors album was a corker and melted the decades away as if by magic. If you’ve ever like The Vapors, I’m not expecting them to put out a duff album this late into the game so DJs hit those buttons!
UK PREORDER
US PREORDER
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![Want List: Visage DLX RM […finally!]](https://i0.wp.com/postpunkmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/visage-dlxrmuscda.jpeg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
(Snickers at The Cure dig)
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The Vapors play regularly down the road at Portmeirion and even recorded a single there.
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Gavin – Was that locally recorded single vintage or modern? So not only Richard Jobson hangs around at Portmeirion, eh? I suspect many rockers who have their minds blown my The Prisoner on its original airing would be drawn there…like magnets!
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It was called Hey Baby,its Christmas and was recorded in 2019. My friend Meurig, who is events manager at Portmeirion and looks after all of the music guests etc, posted about it last month on Facebook.
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Gavin – That’s another lead slipping through the cracks! Apparently it was on a Finnish label and was released just 40 days ago in a split single with Eddie + The Hot Rods!!
It was recorded live with Ed Bazalgette taking part!
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I completely agree that Together was a really nice return to form from The Vapors, with King L being a particular stand out track for me (to take nothing away from everything else on the album). If only they would play a select few small venues when they come to the states this summer as they are in the UK. Looking forward to hearing Wasp in a Jar!
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drskridlow – I didn’t even know they were touring The States last year when they piggybacked their album session in Pennsylvania! There’s always the chance. And if there’s two days between festival gigs, the potential for a band to fit in a headlining gig is there.
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