Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie (guitar).

The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums).

Primal Scream had been performing live from 1982 to 1984, but their career did not take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The band have continued to explore different styles on subsequent albums, experimenting with blues, trip hop and industrial rock.

Bobby Gillespie moved to Mount Florida in southeastern Glasgow, where he attended King's Park Secondary School, where he first met Robert Young.

While the Jesus and Mary Chain became notorious for their chaotic gigs, Gillespie and Beattie expanded Primal Scream's lineup to include schoolfriend Young on bass, rhythm guitarist Stuart May, drummer Tom McGurk, and tambourine player Martin St. John.

[1] After the release of the single, Gillespie was told by the Jesus and Mary Chain leaders William and Jim Reid that he was to either dissolve Primal Scream to join their band full-time or resign.

[1] May was subsequently dismissed; Gillespie's former bandmate Innes was brought in as his replacement, and the band found a new drummer, Gavin Skinner.

[1] The album reached number 62 on the British charts[1] and received poor reviews, with AllMusic calling it "pristine but dull.

[1] Young switched to guitar, and they recruited bassist Henry Olsen and drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov, who had both been in Nico's backing band, the Faction.

[1] Both Sonic Flower Groove and Primal Scream featured contributions from Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy.

The band met up with DJ Andrew Weatherall at a rave, and he was given a copy of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", a track from Primal Scream, to remix for one of his shows.

[4] The band entered the studio with Weatherall, Hugo Nicolson, the Orb and Jimmy Miller producing, and Martin Duffy now full-time on keyboards after Felt disbanded.

They released two more singles, "Higher Than the Sun" and "Don't Fight It, Feel It" which featured the lead vocals of Manchester singer Denise Johnson.

The album won the first Mercury Music Prize, beating Gillespie's former band the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The only release during this period was a single, "The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown", a collaboration with Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound, which caused controversy due to offensive lyrics about Rangers F.C.

The music on the album had a complex shoegazing dance/dub rhythm, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker.

It received almost positive reviews upon release, Entertainment Weekly calling it a "swirling, hypnotic acid-trip",[10] and Musik saying that "this group's place in the history book of late 20th Century music is assured.

"[11] The inclusion on the album of the title track from the film Trainspotting also helped cement the band's place in alternative modern culture.

Throughout the Vanishing Point tour Primal Scream employed the up-and-coming Asian Dub Foundation as a support act, helping them to break into the mainstream.

Many of the songs they wrote had overtly political lyrics, Gillespie said the band wished to convey "What it's like to be in Britain in this day and age.

"[12] The album featured multiple guest appearances, including the Chemical Brothers, New Order's Bernard Sumner, and former My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields, who had become a semi-permanent member.

The political content was well received, with Allmusic calling it a "nasty, fierce realization of an entire world that has... lost the plot.".

Kate Moss sang professionally for the first time with single "Some Velvet Morning", a version of the Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra song.

In 2003 the double CD album Dirty Hits was released containing the better known works and some previously unheard versions and remixes of those tunes.

They were eventually forced off by officials after overrunning their allotted time; the festival organisers were at that point already annoyed at the band when, in response to their invitation to join other recording artists in signing a Make Poverty History poster which would be auctioned off for charity, lead singer Bobby Gillespie instead altered the poster so that it read "Make Israel History".

The album's first single, "Country Girl", was released on 22 May 2006, and regular airplay resulted in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever.

[4] It was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand National 2007 and as the backing track to a video celebrating the successes of the Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti in the 2007 Autosport Awards ceremony in London.

The DVD featured clips of the band's performance in London, as well as all their music videos and an interview with Gillespie and Mani.

[32] On 23 May 2023, Primal Scream announced that they would be performing as a 12-piece band for their upcoming tour dates, with the core line-up augmented by members of the House Gospel Choir on backing vocals, Alex White of Fat White Family on saxophone, and keyboards by former Go-Kart Mozart member Terry Miles[33] who had also previously played with the band in Martin Duffy's absence.