News

DAVID BYRNE announces additional UK tour dates (Oct & Nov)

June 12, 2018

L-R: Tendayi Kuumba, Mauro Refosco, Davi Viera, Aaron Johnston, Bobby Wooten, Tim Keiper, Gustavo Di Dalva, David Byrne, Daniel Freedman, Angie Swan, Karl Mansfield, Chris Giarmo. Photo Credit: Donna Lewis

DAVID BYRNE ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL DATES ON AMERICAN UTOPIA WORLD TOUR

INCLUDING AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, IRELAND AND UK

Coinciding with the a sold out run of UK dates beginning this week, David Byrne has announced additional dates on his American Utopia World Tour, including nine arena dates in the UK and Ireland in October and November, as well as seven dates in Australia and New Zealand in November. Tickets for UK and Ireland go on sale on Friday June 15 at 10am local time, and for Australia and New Zealand on Monday June 18 at 12pm local time. See below for a complete list of dates.

Byrne will be performing songs from his critically acclaimed album American Utopia, as well as classics from his solo career and his days with Talking Heads. A twelve-piece band will also join Byrne on stage for an Annie-B Parson choreographed concert that he has called “The most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense.” Annie-B Parson also choreographed the St. Vincent and David Byrne collaboration tour around Love This Giant.

The American Utopia World Tour began in the US in March, before moving on to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and back to the US (including one of the highlight sets at this year’s Coachella). The European leg of the tour begins on June 14 in the UK with six sold out concerts, followed by dates in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, France, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, before returning to North America for additional dates from July to October. Currently totalling over 80 performances, the full list of upcoming tour dates around the world can be found here.

Praise for the American Utopia World Tour:

‘Already the toast of Coachella, Byrne’s new road show was a knockout.’– David Fricke, Rolling Stone

‘One of the most inspired, intriguing, energetic and joyful concerts in recent memory. To call it unique hardly does it justice.’ – Calgary Herald

‘It’s honestly hard to believe the amazingness of Byrne’s live show. Byrne radiates a joy while performing that few – if any – musicians can match.’– Seattle Weekly

‘Decades into his career, Byrne remains an unpredictable, vital artist. There aren’t many who can say that.’ – LA Weekly

‘A marvel of staging and motion that was at once utterly novel and oddly comforting, the evening proved a celebration of Byrne’s music at its most rhythmic and transcendent.’ – Chicago Tribune

American Utopia World Tour Band:

David Byrne: vocals

Chris Giarmo: backing vocals

Tendayi Kuumba: backing vocals

Karl Mansfield: keyboard

Angie Swan: guitar

Bobby Wooten: bass

Mauro Refosco: Tamborim Tree, shaker

Davi Viera: bongos

Gustavo Di Dalva: conga

Tim Keiper: bells/metalwork

Aaron Johnston: bass drum, snare, hi-hat

Daniel Freedman: bass, snare / hi-hat

Following his only other UK show this year at Latitude, Benjamin Clementine will be Byrne’s special guest for the UK and Irish dates. Clementine also recently completed a run of North American dates on Byrne’s tour. Byrne explains, “I was introduced to Benjamin Clementine’s music through a friend. I was floored! I asked him to perform in the 2015 Meltdown Festival I curated in London and am honored to have him join me at various stops along the American Utopia Tour!”

American Utopia is Byrne’s first solo album in 14 years (following 2004’s Grown Backwards), and was released in March via Todomundo/Nonesuch Records. It debuted at # 1 on the Top Album Chart in the US, the highest chart position of his career, as well as at # 1 on the Canadian album charts, plus Top 20 in the UK and Ireland. The career chart highs were repeated across Europe, including in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland, amongst others. The first single from the album, ‘Everybody’s Coming To My House’, was co-written with Brian Eno, and contributions from TTY, Happa, Isaiah Barr leader of the Onyx Collective, Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Mercury Prize winner Sampha, and others feature throughout the album. The current single is ‘Every Day Is A Miracle’, also written with Eno.

Byrne announced the release of American Utopia during a presentation of Reasons To Be Cheerful – an ongoing series he curates of hopeful writings, photos, music, and lectures. The presentation was given at New York’s New School to a live audience and also was streamed via his Facebook page, with additional engagements in Europe. Fans can sign up to the Reasons To Be Cheerful websitehere to receive Byrne’s “thoughts, images and audio relating to this initiative”.

‘Byrne’s best record in years,’ proclaimed Q magazine. ‘His creative fires still show no sign of dimming, Byrne remains as playful and brilliant as ever. ‘Byrne is a profile in American reinvention – it’s here a kind of alien found a band, an audience and a home,’ wrote theNew York Times. “I’ve made a record that just has my name on it but is also the result of the contributions of many other people,” says Byrne. “I suspect that like me it is asking what are we like, what do we want, and what are we looking for.”

David Byrne’s recent works include Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, a theatrical exploration of the historical heroine which premiered at The Public Theater in New York (2017); The Institute Presents: NEUROSOCIETY, a series of interactive environments created in conjunction with PACE Arts + Technology that question human perception and bias (2016); Contemporary Color, an event inspired by the American folk tradition of color guard and performed at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (2015); Here Lies Love, a twenty-two-song theatrical production about the life of Imelda Marcos, authored in collaboration with Fatboy Slim that premiered at The Public Theater in New York (2013), travelled to London’s National Theatre for a sold-out run (2014–15), and was remounted at the Seattle Repertory Theater (2017);Love This Giant, a studio album and worldwide tour created with St. Vincent (2012); and How Music Works, a book about the history, experience, and social aspects of music (2012). In 2015 Byrne curated Southbank Centre’s annual Meltdown festival in London. A co-founder of the group Talking Heads (1976–88), he has released nine studio albums and worked on multiple other projects, including collaborations with Brian Eno, Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Jonathan Demme, among others. He also founded the highly respected record label Luaka Bop. Recognition of Byrne’s various works include Obies, Drama Desk, Lortel, and Evening Standard awards for Here Lies Love, an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe for the soundtrack to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Talking Heads. Byrne has published and exhibited visual art since his college days, including photography, filmmaking and writing. He lives in New York City.