Placebo – release the newly reworked version of Nancy Boy alongside a new visualiser for the single.

Placebo release the newly reworked version of Nancy Boy alongside a new visualiser for the single. This is the final single to be shared ahead of their forthcoming new album Placebo RE:CREATED, set for release 19th June 2026 via Elevator Lady Ltd through AWAL. 

 
Nancy Boy was Placebo’s breakthrough – peaking at number 4 in the UK charts – it arrived in the middle of the Britpop era and offered music lovers a radically queer alternative. A song about bisexuality, addiction and gender that somehow crossed over into the mainstream. The RE:CREATED version returns to the original tapes and pulls the song into new territory with Brian Molko’s iconic vocals pushed forward and more expansive guitars as backing, creating a new twist on this already legendary song. The same song, given room to breathe.
 
On its release in 1996, Placebo stood in stark contrast to the prevailing cultural mood. While much of British guitar music at the time leaned into laddish nostalgia and national identity, Placebo’s debut delivered something altogether more provocative and confrontational. Its songs addressed sexuality, androgyny, addiction and alienation with an honesty rarely heard in mainstream rock at the time, establishing the band as one of the most distinctive voices of their generation.
 
Speaking about the forthcoming album, Placebo explain:
 
“We think of this record as a director’s cut. We haven’t recreated it from scratch. We went back to the original master tapes and brought 30 years of playing these songs live back into the record. 
 
This project was about finally finishing the record, dragging it into the 21st century sonically, while preserving the integrity and the spirit of the original. It’s not about improving it, there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s about completing it.
 
When we made the first album, we didn’t yet have the experience or the studio knowledge to fully translate what was in our heads. Over the years, the songs took on a life of their own on stage; they grew, they developed, they kind of completed themselves.
 
It’s a celebration of where we began, and a meeting point between who we were then and who we are now. It’s a way of honouring that innocence, while letting the songs exist with the scale, confidence, and energy of the band we’ve become.”

 
Placebo recently composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s blistering satire, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by Seán Linnen and starring double Olivier Award-winning actor Mark Gatiss as the notorious Arturo Ui, in a new version of the play by Stephen Sharkey. The production has already won the hearts of critics and audiences alike, with rave reviews rolling in for what is a sold-out run – and the first major theatre collaboration of the band’s career.
 
Later this year Placebo will embark on an extensive UK and European arena tour to celebrate this momentous anniversary. The band will be performing songs from their first two albums, Placebo and Without You I’m Nothing – some of which have not been performed live for over 20 years! The tour kicks off in Portugal before heading across Europe and ending in the UK, seeing them perform to hundreds of thousands of fans across 36 dates. All tickets available here: https://placebo.ffm.to/live

Pre-order Placebo RE:CREATED here: https://placebo.ffm.to/recreated.OPR