The John Grant Australian Tour 2014 has been announced, with Blue Rock Tours presenting the return of acclaimed singer-songwriter and former Czars frontman 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 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 – Midlake’s 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.”
Grant and his talented band will be performing as part of Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, Tasmania’s MONA FOMA 2014 lineup, and a sideshow at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel. Don’t miss out.
John Grant Australian Tour 2014
Sydney Festival: 16th January – more details here
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
Adelaide Festival: 17th January, Adelaide Festival Centre
www.bass.net.au
Melbourne: 18th January – The Corner Hotel – Presented by RRR
www.cornerhotel.com
Tasmania: 19th January Hobart, MONA FOMA 2014 – more details here
www.mofo.net.au
