Barry Adamson has announced a brand new album, alongside an accompanying UK and European tour for spring / summer 2024.
The album, ‘Cut To Black’ – due out in May 2024 – features 10 brand new compositions and will be his first studio album since 2016’s ‘Know Where To Run’.
The UK and European tour launches at Bristol’s Strange Brew on 22nd May – eight UK dates including Brighton’s Komedia Studio on 23rd May – before travelling to mainland Europe for a series of performances, finishing at Berlin’s Privatclub on 12th June. The UK dates are listed below.
Adamson’s recent work includes an original soundtrack for ‘Scala!!!’, the acclaimed full length documentary on the legendary independent London cinema that inspired generations of artists, filmmakers and musicians, co-directed by Jane Giles and Ali Catterall. The Scala cinema in Kings Cross (1978-1993) was the world’s most influential and notorious cinema, with over a million people passing through its doors for revolutionary double-bills and all-nighters of classics, cult movies, horror, kung fu, LGBT+ and live music.
Barry Adamson was inspired by a Scala screening of ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’ (dir Otto Preminger, 1955), with its mind blowing Elmer Bernstein score to create his first solo single. He later explained:
“I came to see it here three times, it was like a study group for me. I had to know every nuance of the film, and how the music worked. It was also giving me a lesson in how I was going to go on and score films as well, I was very intrigued by the whole structure.”
Barry Adamson has been creating all of his life. Brought up in Manchester’s Moss Side, Adamson learnt to play the bass overnight for Magazine. When they disbanded, five albums later in 1981, his singular style was spotted by The Birthday Party, with whom he played several times.
His establishment as a solo artist came after a three-year stint with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with the release of his classic first solo album, ‘Moss Side Story’ – the ultimate soundtrack to an “imaginary film” – which raised Adamson’s name as a composer of diverse complexity; able to tell a story with music, where the images were those supplanted in the minds of the listeners. Adamson has worked with some of the film industry’s most intriguing mavericks including Derek Jarman (‘The Last of England’, 1987), David Lynch (‘The Lost Highway’ 1997), Oliver Stone (‘Natural Born Killers’, 1994) and Danny Boyle (‘The Beach’, 2000).
Having released nine studio albums, including the 1992 Mercury Music Prize nominated ‘Soul Murder’, 1996’s ‘Oedipus Schmoedipus’, an album celebrating his 40 years in music, ‘Memento Mori’ (2018), and his most recent release, ‘Know Where To Run’, which was in part inspired by a recent US tour, back playing with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds after 23 years, Adamson’s talents are as much demand by new generations of artists as he was after his first solo release, with collaborations in recent years across a variety of art forms, including an Olivier Award winning ballet performance by Sylvie Guillem and the Ballet Boyz scored by Adamson.
Barry Adamson will be on tour from 22nd May. Dates as follows:
Barry Adamson 2024 UK tour dates:
Wed 22 May – Bristol, Strange Brew
Thurs 23 May – Brighton, Komedia Studio
Fri 24 May – London, The Jazz Café
Sat 25 May – Hertford, Hertford Corn Exchange
Wed 29 May – Manchester, Deaf Institute
Thurs 30 May – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Fri 31 May – Glasgow, King Tuts
Sat 1 June – Newcastle, Think Tank
Tour tickets are on sale HERE.
