Thomas Dolby announces UK November tour and first studio album in 20 years
aaamusic | On 10, Aug 2011
Thomas Dolby announces UK tour November 2011
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First studio album in 20 years
‘A Map Of The Floating City’ (released 24.10.11)
Thomas Dolby, electronic legend and ground-breaking synth master, will tour his brand new studio album, ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ this November.
The 11-date tour, starting at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Sunday 6th November, sees Dolby eagerly back on the road after a number of years away from touring and recording.
Back in the ’80s, Dolby’s smash hits ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ and ‘Hyperactive!’ helped define the MTV generation and some 20 years since his previous full release, he returns with a new studio album, ‘A Map Of The Floating City’’, featuring appearances by special guest artists Mark Knopfler, Regina Spektor, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Woolley and Imogen Heap, will be available on Monday 24th October 2011.
Thomas Dolby’s impressive recording and production career now stretches a staggering thirty years. He was the producer for seminal rap heroes Whodini, but his commercial breakthrough came with the 1982 release of his very first album, ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’. Go back a year and Dolby’s innovative synthesiser work was already making its mark – he wrote the mesmeric synth intro to Foreigner’s ‘Waiting for A Girl Like You’.
In 1983, he appeared on Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ album and in 1984 Dolby’s second album, the expansive masterwork, ‘The Flat Earth’, featured Dolby’s biggest single success – ‘Hyperactive!’ – a fine piece of pop-art funk that was originally written for Michael Jackson. After successfully producing Prefab Sprout‘s revered ‘Steve McQueen’ album, Dolby would spend the rest of the decade working with George Clinton, David Bowie, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock..
The five-time Grammy®-nominated British artist quit the music business in the early ’90s and spent many years in Silicon Valley, where his tech company Beatnik Inc. created the ringtone synthesizer embedded in more than three billion mobile phones shipped by Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and others.
Of the new album, which is divided into three parts, Dolby says, “The new songs are organic and very personal. ‘A Map Of The Floating City’ is a travelogue across three imaginary continents: In Amerikana I’m reflecting with affection on the years I spent living in the U.S.A., and my fascination with its roots music. Urbanoia is a dark place, a little unsettling…. I’m not a City person. And in Oceanea I return to my natural home on the windswept coastline.”
“I marvel at the new landscape of the music business – distribution via the Internet and recording technologies I barely dreamed of when I started out,” he continues, “but this album does not sound electronic at all. I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there. The Net has made a music career approachable for thousands of bands – but I hear too few single-minded voices among them, so I’m returning to what I do best, which is write songs, tell stories.”
Thomas Dolby UK Tour Dates Nov 2011
ticketweb.co.uk – 0844 477 2000
Sunday 6th November
O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (£25.00 adv)
Monday 7th November
The Forum, Hertfordshire (£21.50 adv)
Tuesday 8th November
O2 Academy Bournemouth (£21.50 adv)
Wednesday 9th November
The Assembly, Leamington Spa
Friday 11th November
Gaiety Theatre, Isle of Man (£25.00 adv)
Saturday 12th November
Stanley Theatre, Liverpool Guild of Students (£21.50 adv)
Sunday 13th November
O2 Academy2 Birmingham (£21.50 adv)
Monday 14th November
O2 Academy Oxford (£21.50 adv)
Wednesday 16th November
O2 ABC Glasgow (£21.50 adv)
Thursday 17th November
O2 Academy Sheffield (£21.50 adv)
Friday 18th November
Picturedrome, Holmfirth
