Lawrence Arabia

You may have caught wind of these via your trusty social media hub, if not – some shows in your vicinity.

Except where noted, most shows supporting Phoenix Foundation whose superlative “Fandango” is out now.

Photograph with roadie taken by @mistercrawley.

Thursday May 9, Glasgow Oran Mor

Friday May 10, Manchester Deaf Institute

Saturday May 11, Liverpool Kazimier

Monday May 13, Brighton Audio

Wednesday May 15, Sebright Arms London (headline show)

Thursday May 16, Bristol Thekla

Friday May 17 Brighton The Haunt (12:15pm Great Escape – NZ Party)

Friday May 17 Brighton Komedia (7pm Great Escape thingy)

In the bold, freewheeling spirit of such other ad hoc, last minute ventures as the snap election of ’84, I’m announcing a short solo tour of my home country.

The venues are small-ish, the prices are low-ish to non-existent (see Christchurch); it’s all just an excuse to do something spontaneous without endless agonising over marketing, logistical considerations, string quartet rehearsals, arranging someone to feed the cat etc.

I’ve been writing some new songs over the past couple of months and I’d like to try some of these out in a public setting to force me to finish the lyrics. I’ll also be taking requests, and will undoubtedly perform “The Handsome Sons Of Shirley” at some point. I’m considering covers.

Presales for the Wellington and Auckland shows are available now through Under The Radar. The Auckland show’s particularly small in capacity (75), so I’d especially recommend pre-buying for that one. Just doing doorsales for the Dunedin show cos everything’s a bit more casual down there. Christchurch, first come, first served!

See you soon.

Michael Fabulous and I are pleased to announce that our pro-am funk ensemble Fabulous/Arabia is coming out of mothballs for a few shows in various New Zealand locales, ending up in the scenic Southern Lakes for the Festival Of Colour.

The dates are as follows:

Friday April 12 – Titirangi Festival of Music, Auckland

Monday April 15 – Puppies, Wellington

Tuesday April 16 – Festival of Colour at Queenstown Memorial Hall, Queenstown

Wednesday April 17 – Festival of Colour at Central Lakes Trust Crystal Palace, Wanaka

Happy summer New Zealand.
Tickets for this flamingoid Wellington show (above) are available here.

We also play Laneway Festival on January 28 in Auckland with the string quartet (tickets/info here), then a non-stringy lineup will play at Music at Matua on February 9 with our friends the Phoenix Foundation. (tickets)

(Photo by Andrew Keoghan)

Tom Watson looking reverent at St Michael’s Church in Christchurch. (Alistair)

Set list scribbling backstage at St Michael’s. (Hayden)

Iselta Allison on viola. (Hayden)

Andrew Keoghan. (Hayden)

The String Pack (l-r: Iselta Allison, Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper, Rachel Wells, Peau Halapua) backstage at Sammy’s Dunedin. (Hayden)

Drummer’s eye view of Sammy’s. (Alistair)

Brown trousers time pre the Auckland Town Hall show. (Alistair)

More Town Hall. With Rob Larsen’s beautiful lights factored into the equation. (Alistair)

Wellington Opera House. (Alistair)

Our friend Thanaa cooked us an amazing Algerian feast before the Wellington show. Alistair in front serving himself some sort of dauphinoise. Sound guru James Dansey is at the back in the grey v-neck. (Hayden)

Getting pretty deep into rehearsals for the NZ tour at the moment. It’s exceedingly exciting hearing all the songs come together with the string quartet. We’re finally bringing the quartet and the full band together this evening.

Hayden took this footage at a rehearsal with the string quartet last Friday. Disclaimer: not real super 8.

Last week we were in Australia. Here’s a performance of “The Listening Times” we did on ABC Radio National’s “The Inside Sleeve.”

Steaming at the ears, cup brimmeth over with excitement, foaming at the bit etc. to be announcing a new album and a New Zealand tour to support said album. More dates in other locations will be announced soon. (think North America – August/Europe – September for a vague start…)

The Sparrow is my new album, recorded in fits and starts in the UK and New Zealand over the last year or so. It was tracked live in Surrey back in October 2010 with a band consisting of myself, Elroy Finn and Connan Mockasin. All of the additional arranging and overdubbing was completed during 2011 with the help of some wonderful musicians including Andrew Keoghan, Toby Laing, Daniel Yeabsley, Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper, Rachel Wells and venerable band long-termers Hayden Eastmond-Mein and Tom Watson.

The live line up for this upcoming tour will be a similarly large seething mass of musical talent, with horns, a string ensemble, and an actual wooden piano onstage. I confidently predict the term “magical” will be bandied about a bit.

Here are a couple of mentions/reviews of a filmed performance we put on at Whangateau Hall over Easter, which may give some idea what lies in store. You’ll see some of the results of that filming within a few weeks.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/concerts/news/article.cfm?c_id=161&objectid=10799505

http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/getting-out/

Anyway, THE SHOWS…

13th July 2012 – Christchurch
Under The Radar and RDU present ‘Lawrence Arabia: The Sparrow’
St Michaels and All Angels – 8pm
(Tickets from UTR, Cosmic Stores and Penny Lane Records)

14th July 2012 – Dunedin
Under The Radar and Radio 1 present ‘Lawrence Arabia: The Sparrow’
Sammy’s – 8pm
(Tickets from UTR and Cosmic Stores)

20th July 2012 Auckland
Under The Radar and 95bFM in association with STAMP at THE EDGE present ‘Lawrence Arabia: The Sparrow’
Auckland Town Hall – 8pm (Tickets from The-Edge.co.nz)

22nd July 2012 – Wellington
‘Lawrence Arabia: The Sparrow’
The Opera House – 8pm
(Tickets from Ticketek)