Pom Poko announce extensive touring schedule for 2025 including UK shows following excellent reviews for new album "Champion" - out now on Bella Union!

Following excellent reviews for their new album Champion, released in August via Bella Union, Pom Poko have announced news of an extensive touring schedule for 2025. Norway’s finest will play shows in North America and Europe throughout January and February before arriving in the UK in March for a 6-date tour that includes a headline show at The Garage in London. Additionally, Pom Poko have shared a DIY video of them performing two of their live favourites, “Crazy Energy Night” and “My Family”, at a recent show in Oslo. Click HERE to watch.

March 2025 UK Tour:

Friday 7th March – Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach

Saturday 8th March – London – Garage

Sunday 9th March – Manchester – YES

Tuesday 11th March – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club

Wednesday 12th March – Brighton – Chalk

Thursday 13th March – Margate – Where Else?

Acclaim for Champion:

“The four-piece combine surreal lyrics with genuinely unpredictable garage rock... it’s the victorious sound of a band still having fun.” The Guardian – 4 stars ****

“There are still instances of thrilling freneticism, but this LP is often more cleanly directional, as with the sweet vocal / guitar chimes on ‘Bell’. The title track is weightlessly delightful,

with Ragnhild Fangel’s vocals alternately cute and melancholy – with echoes of Emiliana Torrini, Stina Nordenstam and Bjork.” MOJO – 4 stars ****

“Inventive, melodic post-punk... The band’s third album is their most focussed and fully realised to date.” The Sun – 4 stars ****

“Champion is the sound of a band fully focused and completely in control of what makes them special.” MusicOMH – 9/10

“An ode to their time spent together and to the music and memories forged... They retain that spunk that Pom Poko have become known for,

but imbued with a new heart and honesty.” Far Out – 4 stars ****

“While Birthday and Cheater were bursts of frenetic, art-punk madness, Champion marks a deliberate shift toward something more refined and emotionally rich. Not just a progression

from their earlier works, Champion is Pom Poko showing us who they are with an honesty and maturity that’s refreshing and profound.” God Is In The TV – 8/10

“Norway’s excellent post-punk quarter are on top form, expertly producing big hooks and confident compositions.” HiFi Choice – 5 stars *****

“The musical equivalent of a firework display, the third album from Norwegian art-poppers Pom Poko is bright, energised and unstoppable...

With the effervescent Champion, Pom Poko have found themselves.” The Arts Desk – 4 stars ****

“A terrific album of hooky, off-kilter indie rock, Champion keeps you delightfully on your toes throughout.” BrooklynVegan

“A power-pop tour de force, energetic and imaginative... Champion expands their sonic palette with some of their most anthemic and gorgeous songs to date.” Narc – 4.5 / 5

“a fun, exhilarating and melodically dense listen... Pom Poko have never sounded more cohesive than on Champion.” Northern Transmissions – 8.1 / 10

“Pom Poko soar with Champion... an energetic and inventive indie rock gem.” Buzz – 5 stars ****

“Pom Poko are extremely talented musicians... On Champion there is a confidence and ease on display, together with a heightened melodicism twinned with showers of rhythmic craziness, that make for a winning combination.” Silent Radio

Pom Poko are growing up. On Champion, a monumental slice of reflective and life-affirming post-punk, vocalist/lyricist Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit, bassist Jonas Krøvel, guitarist Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne, and drummer Ola Djupvik are the closest they’ve ever been, both personally and in terms of their hermetically tight four-piece rock instrumentation. When most bands call each other “family”, it’s a bit of a cliché—but with Pom Poko, after years of touring the four corners of the world and instituting a stringently democratic songwriting process, they really have evolved into one highly-synchronized unit, whose mission is to stay as true to their artistic values as possible while continuing to explore the farthest reaches of their slightly chaotic, always exhilarating sound. 

Champion is Pom Poko’s third LP, after their blistering debut Birthday in 2019, and 2021’s critically acclaimed Cheater. Both albums served to cement the band’s sound: Ragnhild’s high-pitched yet crystal clear voice punctuating the rest of the band’s ferocious onslaught of noise, which fluctuates from post-punk to math-rock and everything in between. 

“We trust each other more, now that we've written a lot of songs together and know each other so well,” says Ragnhild. “For me, at least, you see things clearer when you have a bit more space. When you start a band in your early twenties, everything is being thrown in your face, you can’t really see what’s going on, and you just keep running. At the end of the day, these songs are about us, and the value of our friendship.”

Champion artwork (by Erlend Peder Kvam) and tracklist below:

1. Growing Story

2. My Family

3. Champion

4. You’re Not Helping

5. Pile Of Wood

6. Bell

7. Go

8. Never Saw It Coming

9. Druid, Fox And Dragon

10. Big Life

11. Fumble