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Hue and Cry release Hot Wire on Blairhill Records (BLAIR7P) April 2nd 2012

Record unemployment, the rise and rise of left-wing comedy and a flailing British government, yes, it can only mean one thing – the return of Scottish hip-funkateers Hue and Cry. And indeed April 2nd 2012 heralds the release of Hot Wire, the first new album from brothers Pat and Greg Kane since 2008’s Open Soul. Hot Wire combines a love of Steely Dan and the solo work of Becker and Fagan with a sprawling template that includes songs reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone and early New Orlean’s inspired funk. The full track listing for Hot Wire looks like this:

Duty To The Debtor, Little Man, Hand And Heart, Fail You Better, If You Want Changes, Summer Head/Daze, Carlos Takes The Fall, I Can Have It All, Irreversible Situation, Darkness Falls.

As Scottish as crude oil and football management excellence, Hue and Cry first leapt to prominence in 1987 when their single Labour Of Love (lifted from that year’s Seduced and Abandoned album) hit the No.6 slot. The immensely successful album Remote and further hit singles Violently and Looking For Linda followed before Hue and Cry cemented their position as loveably intellectual soul-pop pioneers with the Top Ten album Stars Crash Down. The release of Open Soul in 2008 further showcased the band’s classic pop-soul sound this time with a stripped down production.

Hue and Cry are set to perform at the Hot Wire Weekend on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March at Glasgow’s 02 ABC, the first of these dates featuring the brothers in an intimate piano and vocal performance, whilst the second date sees the pair lining up as part of their full seven piece band. The weekend is set to include a host of amazing extras and a few surprises.

Full details can be found on www.hueandcry.co.uk

CHRIS REA RELEASES THE CHANCE OF LOVE ON NOVEMBER 7th 2011

British singer-songwriter and guitar maverick Chris Rea a new single on Rhino UK on November 7th 2011. Entitled The Chance of Love the track has been lifted from Rea’s current and elaborate three CD and two DVD set Santo Spirito. Santo Spirito includes a new studio album featuring the aforementioned The Chance Of Love plus Dancing My Blues Away, Never Tie Me Down, Rock &Roll Tonight, Electric Guitar and The Last Open Road plus two bespoke feature films on DVD, written and directed by Rea himself. The first film is a brutally honest chronicle on bullfighting and features neo-classical &Spanish themed gypsy music whilst the second film follows a man through the city of Florence in his search for the truth. The music to accompany both films is contained on two accompanying CDs.

The Chance Of Love comes over as a cross between Leonard Cohen and Chris Isaak and was inspired by three Polish guys who Rea bumped into at his corner shop, one of whom - it transpired - having made his way over to the UK in order to pursue the chance of love!

Rea’s career now spans over thirty years and both The Road To Hell in 1989 and Auberge in 1991 debuted at No.1 in the UK, cementing his position as one of the country’s finest musicians and songwriters. His rich catalogue includes Fool (If You Think It's Over), On The Beach, Let's Dance, Josephine, Stainsby Girls and I Can Hear Your Heartbeat, Working On It, The Road To Hell (Part 2), Auberge, God’s Great Banana Skin and Julia. "A maverick imagination at work ... wouldn't it be good if every middle aged rock star were half so full of ideas and verve." - The Mail On Sunday.

Chris Rea will be touring the UK in March and April 2012. The dates are as follows:

MARCH 2012
TUE 20  BOURNEMOUTH BIC
WED 21  OXFORD NEW THEATRE
THU 22  BRIGHTON CENTRE
SAT 24  HARROGATE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE
SUN 25  02 APOLLO MANCHESTER
MON 26  SHEFFIELD CITY HALL
SAT 31  NEWCASTLE METRO RADIO ARENA

APRIL 2012
SUN 01  BIRMINGHAM NIA
MON 02  NOTTINGHAM ROYAL CONCERT HALL
WED 04  PLYMOUTH PAVILLIONS
THU 05  LONDON HMV HAMMERSMITH APOLLO

Tickets £35.00 LONDON / £33.50 REGIONALS (subject to booking fee) are available from www.livenation.co.uk

Full details can be found on www.chrisrea.com

TONY MORTIMER STEPS UP TO THE MIKE

EAST 17 has announced that with immediate effect Tony Mortimer is take over lead vocal duties within the group. The band were recently re-united under the auspices of their principal (and Ivor Novello Award-winning) songwriter and then expanded to a four-piece with the addition of new recruit Blair Dreelan. However, due to his previous contractual issues, the group felt it necessary to part company with Dreelan. The band now consists of original members John Hendy, Terry Coldwell and Mortimer. They wish Blair all the best.

EAST 17 are one of the most celebrated and successful boy bands of all time, having achieved 18 Top Twenty hits (including House Of Love, Deep and Christmas No.1 Stay Another Day) as well as four Top Ten albums and sales of over twenty million records. They are currently putting the finishing touches to their first new album for over twelve years which is due for release on FOD Records next month. The album will be called ’Recharged’ and track titles include Counting Clouds and the new single I Can t Get You Out Of My Mind.

East 17 has just completed a successful tour of the UK and are planning more dates for later in the year.

Full details can be found on www.east17official.com/

JAMES RELEASE THE GATHERING SOUND ON NOVEMBER 7TH 2011- EXTRA LIVERPOOL DATE ADDED ON 28TH OCTOBER DUE TO PHENOMENAL DEMAND

JAMES will be releasing their first ever box set on November 7th 2011. Entitled The Gathering Sound, this limited edition deluxe box set covers the band’s career to date and includes three CDs, a DVD, a 12" vinyl record and a unique j-shaped USB stick. The 8GB USB stick includes JAMES’ eleven studio albums and non-album “best of” tracks in 16 bit FLAC and 320 kbps MP3 formats plus the videos for the singles. The videos will be in a format which will allow you to load them onto your mobile device (smart phones, iPod touches, etc).

The three CDs feature an album of live rarities, one of studio rarities and one combining the recent, critically-acclaimed The Morning After and The Night Before albums and the DVD features Come Home Live, the show from the Manchester GMEX on DVD for the very first time.
The heavyweight 180gsm 12" black vinyl has four previously unreleased demos from the Gold Mother era. These are all in a 12" gatefold sleeve that houses the vinyl, the CDs and DVD, a 16 page A5 booklet (featuring personal contributions from each of the band plus contributions from Gordon Strachan, Peter Kay, Bernard Butler, Richard Reed Parry from Arcade Fire and Brian Eno), a 44 page 12"x 12" scrapbook with previously unseen and rare photos, memorabilia, cuttings and many other items straight out of JAMES personal archives. Also included is a complete timeline of JAMES’ career annotated by the band, plus four art-cards, four button badges and four sticky satin replica backstage passes.

JAMES also recently announced that they will be touring the UK’s most beautiful and premier classical venues later this year with an orchestra and choir in tow. “An evening with JAMES accompanied by Orchestra of the Swan and The Manchester Consort Choir orchestrated and conducted by Joe Duddell” will see the band explore the back catalogue highlighted on The Gathering Sound during this groundbreaking venture. The dates are as follows:

Sunday 23rd October Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Monday 24th October Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Tuesday 25th October Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Thursday 27th October Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Friday 28th October Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool
Saturday 29th October Liverpool Philharmonic, Liverpool
Monday 31st October Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 1st November Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Wednesday 2nd November The Sage, Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Friday 4th November Royal Albert Hall, London

Tickets are on sale via gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk and 24 Hour credit card hotlines 0844 811 0051 and 0844 826 2826

Full details can be found on www.wearejames.com

BOTHAM’S ASHES, CHARLES AND DI’S WEDDING AND THE RELEASE OF "MICHAEL NYMAN" ....

The year 1981 saw the release of Michael Nyman , the first Michael Nyman Band album, a groundbreaking record that presented Nyman’s unique take on minimalism and experimental music and unexpectedly threw in jazz improvisation for good measure. The album has only ever been available on the rarest of long-since deleted vinyl but will be re-released on MN Records on 5th December as a 30th anniversary retro-look black vinyl CD with a booklet and limited edition poster in a replica gatefold LP-style sleeve.

Michael Nyman was produced by Nyman’s ex-Maidstone Art School student, David Cunningham, who had just founded the Flying Lizards and who went on to produce every Michael Nyman recording for the following ten years. The most significant production is that of ’M-Work’, the reduced-scale score for Nyman’s collaboration with Bruce McLean and Paul Richards’ performance work ’The Masterwork/Award-Winning Fish-knife’ of 1979. Much of the remaining music on Michael Nyman is taken from soundtracks for pre-’Draughtsman’s Contract’ films by Peter Greenaway: such as Bird Anthem (from Act Of God, 1981, a documentary about people struck by lightning), "Bird List Song" [from the 3-hour long The Falls, 1979] and Five Orchestral Pieces, Opus Tree (from The Tree, 1978). It also includes Nyman’s classic deconstruction of the first 16 bars of the ’Catalogue Song’ from Mozart’s ’Don Giovanni’, "In Re Don Giovanni" which was also released at the time as a single on Les Disques du Crepuscule. The most unexpected track on Michael Nyman, however, is the melodically na?ve Waltz in F , a piece Nyman wrote for art students whilst teaching at Trent Polytechnic in 1977, and which he subsequently commanded two modern jazz improvisers, Evan Parker and Peter Brotzmann, to destroy by overdubbing around ten separate tracks which Nyman and Cunningham added in to the Waltz mix.

Michael Nyman is significant for other reasons: as the first Michael Nyman album it represents the ’crossing point’ between the Campiello Band [the onstage band which Nyman founded to play his arrangements of Venetian gondoliers’ songs in the opening production at the Olivier Theatre in October 1976], with its unique mix of folk, Renaissance and modern instruments and the purely modern instrumentation of the current Michael Nyman Band. And Bird Work is used as the music for the closing sequences of both Man with a Movie Camera and NYman with a Movie Camera and Bird List Song is the model for Nose-List Song and various ’list songs’ in the new collaboration with Robert Pacitti, On Landguard Point which world premiered, sung by Marie Angel in Felixstowe on 23 September 2011.

Michael Nyman will be released on MN Records on December 5th 2011.

Full details can be found on www.michaelnyman.com/

CHRIS REA

Chris Rea releases the elaborate 3CD & 2DVD set, Santo Spirito, on September 5th 2011. The release includes a new studio album featuring Dancing My Blues Away, Never Tie Me Down, The Chance Of Love, Rock & Roll Tonight, Electric Guitar and The Last Open Road plus two bespoke feature films on DVD, written and directed by Rea.

Santo Spirito is the natural successor to The Blue Guitars project (which contained 11 CDs && 1DVD), a project that was considered pure, incomprehensible madness by record companies - until Chris produced the entire package himself and saw the release gross £5 million at retail. Chris told the BBC News last year "I cannot be bothered just making a CD any more. It has got to be something more interesting for me than just 10 tracks on CD."

Santo Spirito will be released by Rhino UK, a division of Warner Music, on Monday September 5th on CD/DVD only and will not be available for digital download until December 2011. The release offers exceptional value for money since it retails for less than £15.00. This enhanced collection includes Rea’s new 12-track studio album plus two exclusive feature films on DVD and the accompanying soundtracks for both movies on 2 separate CDs.

Full details can be found on www.chrisrea.com

JOHNNY BOY WOULD LOVE THIS - A TRIBUTE TO JOHN MARTYN ...

A unique tribute album dedicated to the wonderful, legendary John Martyn is due to be released in the UK via Hole In The Rain Music/Absolute on August 15th 2011. Entitled Johnny Boy Would Love This A Tribute To John Martyn, the project features two CDs and thirty cover versions of Martyn's songs recorded by such musical luminaries as Beck, Phil Collins, Snow Patrol, David Gray, Paolo Nutini, Morcheeba, Beth Orton and The Cure's Robert Smith. The package will also include a DVD that will contain interviews with a number of the artists, some special John Martyn performances and a music video. All proceeds from the record will go to Martyn's family.

The full track-listing looks like this:

CD1 - David Gray - Let The Good Things Come; Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler - Glorious Fool; Robert Smith -Small Hours; Beck Stormbringer; Ted Barnes (featuring Gavin Clark) Over The Hill; The Swell Season I Don t Wanna Know; The Emprerors Of Wyoming Bless The Weather; Lis Hannigan Couldn't Love You More; Vetiver Go Easy; Skye Edwards Solid Air; Cheryl Wilson You Can Discover; Joe Bonamassa The Easy Blues (Jelly Roll Baker); Sonia Dada Dancing; Sabrina Dinan Certain Surprise; Paolo Nutini One World.

CD2 - Snow Patrol May You Never; Beth Orton Go Down Easy; Bombay Bicycle Club Fairytale Lullaby; Syd Kitchen Fine Lines; Vashti Bunyan Head And Heart; Morcheeba Run Honey Run; Nicholas Barron Angeline; John Smith Walk To The Water; Judy Tzuke Hurt In Your Heart; Jim Tullio Road To Ruin; Oh My God John Wayne; The Blackships Rope Soul'd; Ultan Conlon Back To Stay; Brendan Campbell Anna; Phil Collins Tearing And Breaking.

MAMAS GUN release their single On A String

MAMAS GUN release their single On A String on 30 May 2011 (on Candelion distributed by Essential) and announce a string of live dates.

The Life & Soul tour thus far runs as follows:

LONDON, Dingwalls - JUNE 14th
BRIGHTON, Komedia June 15th
BRISTOL, Thekla June 16th
NOTTINGHAM, Bodega June 23rd
MANCHESTER, Band on the wall June 24th

The first three dates are on sale now from: www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/home_mamas_gun.html

THE NORTH SEA SCROLLS

An evening of revelations by Luke Haines and Cathal Coughlan
With footnotes by Andrew Mueller
And accompaniment by Audrey Riley
August 22nd and 23rd, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, £12.50

The North Sea Scrolls have long been a bone of contention amongst historians, theologians and people shouting at bins in car parks. The Scrolls are believed, in certain quarters, to record a parallel, semi-hidden history of these islands. Now, a triumvirate of unlikely questers has at last pinned down the full story of these legendary documents. They are; Luke Haines, who has recorded as The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof, Black Box Recorder and solo; Cathal Coughlan, who has recorded as Microdisney, Fatima Mansions, Bubonique and solo; Andrew Mueller, journalist and author.

This dauntless trio are now ready to share the terrible knowledge they have disinterred. In song.

The parchments reached the hands of messrs Haines, Coughlan and Mueller by means which need not trouble us, and have been meticulously distilled and tactfully rewritten into fourteen new songs by Mr Haines and Mr Coughlan, to be performed on guitar and piano, and accompanied by the cello stylings of Audrey Riley. The songs will be linked by explanatory footnotes read by Mr Mueller.

The truths contained in the scrolls are at once profoundly disturbing and peculiarly reassuring. Certainly, they answer many long-pressing questions. How did a Dublin criminal overlord become an imperial viceroy? Is England really just two counties Northshire and Southshire? Could it be that the guttering violence of Northern Ireland is caused by terrorist tribute acts from Australia? Who is Tony Allen? How did Tim Hardin end up commanding a nationalist militia in Cornwall? Can it be true that Morris Men, far from the prancing buffoons of popular repute, are murderous vigilantes a Cotswoldian thugee cult? Was Chris Evans really burnt at the stake? If not, why not? Is Jim Corr actually right about everything?

The musical and spoken word section of the show will be followed by a Q&A session with Mr Haines and Mr Coughlan, hosted by Mr Mueller.

BARENAKED LADIES PLAY GLASTONBURY AND HYDE PARK AND ANNOUNCE DETAILS OF LONDON AND GLASGOW SHOWS.

Canadian multi-platinum pop rock outfit Barenaked Ladies will be playing Glastonbury on the evening of Friday 24th June before heading up to Scotland to play Glasgow on the 25th June, traveling back down to London for Hard Rock Calling on Sunday 26th June and finally headlining their own show at KOKO on 27th June.
The UK tour looks like this:

Friday 24th June GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
Saturday 25th June GLASGOW 02 ABC
Sunday 26th June HYDE PARK HARD ROCK CALLING PEPSI STAGE
Monday 27th June LONDON KOKO

Founded as a duo in 1988 by schoolmates Ed Robertson and Steven Page, the past twenty years have seen Barenaked Ladies rack up eight Juno Awards, multiple Grammy nominations and sell more than 14 million albums worldwide. These albums include Gordon, Rock Spectacle, Stunt and Maroon whilst the band's hit singles include One Week, Pinch Me and If I Had $1000000 ). The band's last album All in Good Time was Barenaked Ladies' eleventh and their first as a four-piece featuring Ed Robertson (guitar/vocals), Jim Creeggan (bass/vocals), Kevin Hearn (keyboard/guitar/vocals) and Tyler Stewart (drums/vocals). The album was recorded in Toronto and produced by long time BNL collaborator Michael Phillip Wojewoda, who produced the band's very first full length CD, 1992's Gordon.

Barenaked Ladies are due to embark on a Greatest Hits world tour later this year.

Full details can be found on www.barenakedladies.com