John Grant announces further UK live shows
With his new album Love Is Magic due out 12th October via Bella Union, John Grant has announced news of a number of new UK tour dates for January and February 2019. Tickets go on sale on Friday 7th September. Upcoming UK live info below:
Monday 29th October – Brighton – Dome
Tuesday 30th October – London – O2 Academy Brixton
Wednesday 31st October – Bath – The Forum
Friday 2nd November – Sheffield – Octagon Centre
Saturday 3rd November – Manchester – Albert Hall **(SOLD–OUT!)**
Wednesday 30th January – Leeds – O2 Academy
Thursday 31st January – Gateshead – Sage Gateshead
Friday 1st February – Glasgow – Kings Theatre (Celtic Connections)
Sunday 3rd February – Hull – Bonus Area
Monday 4th February – Liverpool – Philharmonic Hall
Tuesday 5th February – Nottingham – Rock City
Thursday 7th February – Cambridge – Corn Exchange
Friday 8th February – Southampton – O2 Guildhall
Sunday 10th February – Manchester – Albert Hall
Monday 11th February – Cardiff – St David’s Hall
Grant last week shared two new tracks from the LP: “He’s Got His Mother’s Hips” recalls an 80’s electroclash deep cut that, in John’s words, is “about a cheeseball doing all he can to seduce a woman and making a total ass of himself. It’s a fun song built on disgust.”
On the other end of the spectrum is the elegant and heartbreaking album closer “Touch & Go”. That song is a story centred around Chelsea Manning, the former US soldier turned WikiLeaks activist who transitioned to a woman while in prison. “I was very intrigued by her incredible story,” says Grant. “What kind of strength does it take to survive something like that while being decried as a traitor and a pervert for whom death is too good”.
With his fourth solo album Love Is Magic, Grant has continued to evolve, creating his most electronic record yet, in collaboration with Benge (Ben Edwards), analogue synth expert/collector and a member of electronic trio Wrangler, Grant’s collaborators earlier this year under the collective name of Creep Show on the album Mr Dynamite.
Produced by Grant (together with Benge and Paul Alexander), and engineered by Benge at his Cornish studio, the diamond-hard, diamond-gleaming Love Is Magic, “is closer still to how I’ve always wanted my records to sound, but I didn’t know how to go about it,” Grant says. Besides the quest for sound, “the lyrics, of course, continue to be very important to me,” says John. “They’re just snapshots of everyday life where myriad moods and every sort of horrible and hilarious occurrence one can imagine mix with the pedestrian resulting in the absurdity and beauty of life.”
Love Is Magic is released 12th October via Bella Union in the UK/Europe.