Blue Rock Tours presents the Australian return of acclaimed singer songwriter John Grant, for the first time with his full band.
In 2011 John Grant enchanted Australian audiences with a clutch of intimate showcase performances that announced the arrival to our shores of a true and unique musical talent. Playing music from his then Mojo Album of the Year award winning debut Queen Of Denmark, Grant disarmed audiences with his brutal honesty and sublime musical ability. John Grant exposes every vulnerability he has in his live shows. The deep, almost unsettling, emotional connection he can make is why people keep coming back to him.
This time John will be bringing a full five-piece band with him to perform selections from his second brilliant solo release Pale Green Ghosts, re-engaging those he left so enamoured after his last visit and inspiring those recently converted to John’s lyrical and musical mastery.
It’s been an extraordinary journey for John Grant, from a point where he thought he would never make music again or escape a life of substance abuse to winning awards and accolades, collaborating with Sinead O’Connor, Rumer and Hercules & Love Affair and having his music featured in the award-winning film Weekend.
If Queen Of Denmark is Grant’s ‘70s album, channelling the spirits of Karen Carpenter and Bread, then Pale Green Ghosts is his’80s album. Of the electronic tracks, the title track is a panoramic, brooding classic, while ‘Sensitive New Age Guy’ and ‘Black Belt’ are the tracks that you might dance to in new wave clubs. ‘You Don’t Have To’ is a classic example of Grant’s influences blending together. It also features the distinct spacey Moog sounds that are familiar to lovers of Queen Of Denmark – Midlakes McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander play on ‘Vietnam’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him’.
Grant has also never shied away from discussing depression, and Pale Green Ghosts is a show of strength and survival, of moving on with life, on what will continue to be an incredible journey. “Moving to Reykjavik, at the age of 43, was incredibly risky and scary,” says Grant. “I didn’t know anyone here, but I’ve built up a life here, and recorded an album I’m really proud of, that distils what I’m about down to its most essential components, better than ever before. And this was during the middle of health issues. It means I’m trying to take the bull by the horns, and to live.”
www.facebook.com/johngrantmusic
Bluerock Tours Presents:
John Grant
With Full Band
Australia 2014
16th January Sydney Festival
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
17th January Adelaide Festival Centre
www.bass.net.au
18th January Melbourne, The Corner Hotel – Presented by RRR
www.cornerhotel.com
19th January Hobart, MONA FOMA
www.mofo.net.au
www.facebook.com/johngrantmusic