Scots chart-botherers Del Amitri will make their long-awaited return to the stage for a UK tour in 2018.
It’s been a while since we last saw Del Amitri – February 2014, to be exact, when they closed their ‘A To Z of Us Tour’ with a sold-out show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Their fanbase revelled in their first UK dates for more than a decade and a live album, ‘Into The Mirror’, was released to commemorate the tour. Then it all went quiet.
Now the Del Amitri lineup that performed to rapturous crowds in 2014 – Justin Currie (vocals, guitar), Iain Harvie (lead guitar), Andy Alston (keys), Kris Dollimore (guitar) and Ashley Soan (drums) – have confirmed that they will play a run of dates in 2018, including Edinburgh Castle.
“25 years ago we played Edinburgh Castle to the biggest headline audience we’d ever been in front of,” says Justin Currie. “I wore a kilt and my bass didn’t work for the first two minutes during which we played the opening riff of ‘The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere’ over and over again. We never recovered. This is our chance to make up for it. I won’t be wearing a kilt…”
With a back-catalogue spanning six albums, including hit singles ‘Always The Last To Know’ and ‘Roll To Me’, there will be plenty of material for them to choose from for their sets and some songs are particularly pertinent. “From ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ to ‘Jesus Saves’ there is a catalogue of Del Amitri songs that seem even more relevant now than when we wrote them,” notes Iain Harvie. “In this new millennium where everything changes and everything stays the same in an increasingly disorientating gyre of social and personal atomisation, the chance to lean against the bar and play our songs again to audiences around the UK just seems like something too right.” That said, it’s the new songs mooted on their blog that will likely excite their loyal fanbase even more.
Prior to their last tour, Del Amitri maintained that their indefinite hiatus was due to a lack of interest rather than any kind of formal split. They said the phone had just stopped ringing. Their fans can now celebrate that the call has been made to get the band back on the road once again.
Del Amitri 2018 UK tour dates:
July 20 Newcastle City Hall
July 21 Edinburgh Castle
July 22 Manchester Apollo
July 23 Birmingham Symphony Hall
July 25 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
July 26 London Hammersmith Apollo
Tickets for the above dates are on general sale from 9am this Thursday 23rd November from Gigsandtours.com and Ticketmaster.co.uk
