Saint Etienne have spoken to NME about their last album and plans to “party” on their 2026 farewell tour, while vowing to carry on working together and teasing future projects.
The London trio, who formed back in 1990, shocked fans in May when they announced their 13th studio effort, ‘International’, which contains collaborations with Confidence Man’s Janet Planet, The Chemical Brothers‘ Tom Rowlands, Paul Hartnoll of Orbital, and more.
They later confirmed a UK and Ireland farewell run for next autumn, which will see them give fans “the best of the best” from their 35-year catalogue, as they bow out with the “fun” and celebratory gigs. They also hinted at some international dates still to come.
Speaking to NME, keyboardist Bob Stanley looked ahead to the trio’s final commitments as Saint Etienne, and revealed that they would still “keep busy together” for the foreseeable future.
“It won’t feel like anything is finished, because there will be catalogue stuff to do, including at least a couple of fanclub albums,” he explained. “We have another album that never got released, and that will come out at some point.”
Singer Sarah Cracknell assured that she’d “be doing the cha-cha” by the time the big shows roll around, having broken her leg nine weeks ago while on holiday in France.
“I had a weird moment where my foot went one way, and the rest of me didn’t,” she told NME. “I was just walking in a perfectly straight line. I’m on crutches now, but I’ll be alright.”
Read on for NME’s full interview with the band, where they express their determination “not to fuck up” their legacy, hint at the tour setlist, recall inadvertently upsetting Manic Street Preachers, being supported by Oasis on tour, and discuss upcoming solo work.
NME: Hi, Saint Etienne. How have you felt about the response to announcing your farewell?
Bob Stanley: “It’s been extraordinary, as none of us expected anything much.”
Pete Wiggs: “We did a signing tour for ‘International’. One person showed me a photo of him with his ex-partner, both wearing Saint Etienne T-shirts. They’d bonded through the band, but she’d sadly died of cancer. That was obviously so sad, but then he said: ‘Wait – my new partner delivered your son’. She was our midwife.”
Sarah Cracknell: “We’ve had a lot of people tell us how we got them through hard times when they were younger. Like Winona Ryder!”
(Ryder revealed in August how Saint Etienne’s music “totally rescued me” when she had a tough time working on a film when she was 20.)
Wiggs: “We couldn’t believe it when we read that. I wish we’d known it at the time, we could have got Winona in for something.”
Have you started planning the farewell tour’s setlist?
Craknell: “We want it to be very up, a party. In my mind, it’s an elongated festival set.”
Wiggs: “It’s about which songs work best for a celebration, while also reminding ourselves: ‘Hey, we haven’t played anything off [2002 album] ‘Finisterre’ for ages’.”
Saint Etienne, 2024. CREDIT: Paul Kelly
What will be the last song at the last show?
Stanley: “There’s a morbid thought! The last song we ever play live? We haven’t thought that far ahead.”
Cracknell: “It’s going to be emotional, especially if you have to sing it without crying. I’m not very good at that.”
Stanley: “It’s alright for me and Pete, we can just cry behind our keyboards.”
Cracknell: “Although these shows are our last British tour, hopefully festivals and shows abroad mean this is likely to creep into 2027.”
Since announcing your farewell, are you still sure this is the right decision?
Cracknell: “Yes, this is the end. I never renege on a promise.”
Wiggs: “The announcement has strengthened it, in a way. It’s been like going to your own wake, hearing nice tributes about yourself, while also still being able to respond to them.”
Stanley: “The reaction to the band in recent years has been so good. None of us wanted to go out when we were tailing off, until only 12 people were interested.”
Cracknell: “I’m proud of everything we’ve done. We haven’t let the side down at all. That’s a good point to stop: let’s not fuck it up it up now.”
Wiggs: “We’ve made an impression on the world of pop music and I’m proud of that. We did something good there.”
Saint Etienne. CREDIT: Rob Baker Ashton
Where do you see Saint Etienne’s influence now? Confidence Man feature on ‘International’, for instance.
Cracknell: “That’s hard to answer, as it feels a bit showy-offy.”
Stanley: “I can’t think of many artists who use samples while writing traditional pop songs. It’s changed so much since we started that it’s hard to say, as now everyone has made bedroom music for the past 20 years.”
Wiggs: “We were in the right place at the right time. There weren’t many bands mixing British pop with electronics and hip-hop. We started in the early ’90s, when people were becoming open to mixing scenes. That was our initial USP for success. Now, everyone moves around genres and mashes it all up.”
Did you ever feel part of a scene?
Stanley: “Pulp, Denim, early Suede, World Of Twist: We all sounded different from each other, but there was a kinship. We were more colourful than what came later. As soon as something has a name attached, it becomes more generic. We kept our heads down when Britpop was happening.”
Wiggs: “We were influenced by the electronic side of things, like Stereolab and later Broadcast. Without necessarily talking to each other, that’s where the cross-pollination came from.”
There also seemed to be a scene at your record label, Heavenly, through its club nights at The Social in London.
Cracknell: “That’s true. It goes back to that feeling of kinship and a similarity of attitude.”
Stanley: “I agree, but whenever we saw the Manics and mentioned anything we thought we had in common, James [Dean Bradfield, frontman] would look at us like we were taking the piss. Manic Street Preachers definitely didn’t feel part of any scene.
“For me, it’s linked to impostor syndrome, not feeling as good as the people around you. I’d see Andrew Weatherall at the Heavenly office and think: ‘You’re a proper DJ and [Primal Scream‘s] ‘Loaded’ is the first record you’ve produced. Now, that’s impressive’.”
Cracknell: “I’ve still got impostor syndrome, massively. It’s awful. Someone asked me recently about the end of the band and I said: ‘It’s exhausting, trying to be me.’ I’m riddled with it.”
Speaking of Britpop, what do you remember of the 1994 tour when you headlined over Oasis?
Stanley: “In Glasgow, the entire audience was pinned to the wall as they were so loud, like a jet engine. Then we came on and sounded like we were playing Chad Valley instruments. It was obvious they shouldn’t have been supporting us. They were clearly going places, but to a completely different audience.”
Wiggs: “That tour was two very separate Venn diagrams. Not long after, I remember buying them a round. This was at the point when we should still be buying them drinks, not the other way round, but I still remember thinking: ‘Ooh, I’m buying Oasis a drink!’ They seemed very grateful.”
What are your solo plans?
Wiggs: “I’m finishing a film soundtrack in the next few weeks. I did the soundtrack to a short, which has now turned into a long. It was called Ana Paula, but that might change. I’d really like us to do another film and its soundtrack. We’re never short of ideas for them.”
Stanley: “Bradford [where he now lives] is a fascinating city, for the number of cultures integrated there. There are social clubs for each of those communities, where everyone has a West Yorkshire accent. Working men’s clubs still exist, too. Those clubs won’t be there forever, and I wanted to capture that on film. It got a little way down the line, but the funding wasn’t there.”
Stanley: “I’m finishing a book in January which will be out around next Christmas, on The Shadows. I’m doing another book after that.
Cracknell: “I have no plans at all, nothing. I didn’t think this thing through, did I? I can’t think past next week, let alone into 2027.”
How much are you looking forward to meeting up as friends once the band is done?
Cracknell: “When we meet, we just talk shit anyway. We only talk about the band when we’re forced to.”
Wiggs: “We mostly come up with a lot of song titles. We can’t do that anymore, though they were mostly stupid and unusable anyway. There were a lot of comedy band name suggestions, too.”
Stanley: “’The Camomile Lawnmower’, there’s one. We live in three different places – Oxfordshire, Sussex, Yorkshire – so we don’t see each other as much as we like, but we’re still friends. We should all go on holiday together. That’s something we haven’t done.”
Saint Etienne’s album ‘International’ is out now on Heavenly. Their farewell tour, ‘The Long Goodbye’, starts in September. Find tickets here and see the full schedule below.
SEPTEMBER 2026
15 – New Century Hall, Manchester
16 – Beacon Theatre, Bristol
18 – Roundhouse, London
19 – Electric, Sheffield
20 – SWG3, Glasgow
22 – 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin
24 – Glasshouse, Gateshead
25 – Dome, Brighton
26 – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
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