SCOTTISH legends Arab Strap are coming to Dunfermline this winter as they celebrate 25 years of their classic second album.

The duo of Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton are set to 'quietly celebrate' Philophobia's quarter-century milestone by performing it live in full.

Their gig at PJ Molloys on Tuesday, December 5, is one of seven dates in Scotland and the audience will see all 13 tracks presented in their most intimate form in a suitably intimate setting.

The record was originally released on April 20 in 1998 via Chemikal Underground Records, and features songs such as New Birds, and its singles Here We Go and (Afternoon) Soaps.

While never ones to dwell too much on the past, the two found it difficult to ignore the magnitude of this particular anniversary and decided to honour the album with a fitting tip of the cap in the form of the Philophobia Undressed tour.

Or, as Moffat and Middleton themselves put it: “With a new album about halfway ready for release next year, we thought we could easily ignore our second album’s 25th birthday.

"But we find it hard to say no to Philophobia.

"If our first album was a ramshackle oddity filled with in-jokes and formerly private tape moments that we never expected to bother many ears, it was Philophobia where everything started to come together, when we began to realise making music might have a future for us, and the Arab Strap sounds and themes began to take shape.

"If you’ve seen us play in the past few years, you’ll know we still include quite a few of its songs in our set lists.

"These tunes seem to have endured, and it’s probably the only album we’d ever consider performing all the way through.

"But, with our new forward-facing philosophy and eighth album on the way, we didn’t want to make too big a deal of it.

"We hummed, we hawed.

"Venues for a bells-and-whistles full-band Philophobia tour were on hold for a while, but those plans were abandoned because it just didn’t feel right and, as Aidan said on our last album, we don’t really give a fuck about the past.

"But, as we say, it’s hard to say no to Philophobia, and we couldn’t just let its 25th birthday shuffle by unmarked … so we’ve decided to celebrate it after all, but quietly.

"The Philophobia Undressed tour will feature the album in full, but performed by just the two of us – Malcolm and Aidan with a guitar or two, some drum machines and probably a digital Mellotron – as we sing our old songs about being young, in intimate surroundings and, in some cases, visiting towns we haven’t played in a long, long time.

"We’ll probably play some new songs too.”

Tickets for the PJ's show - doors at 7pm - are on sale now through www.arabstrap.scot