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| | US and Spain tour dates confirmed | 02/07/09 | Is Billy heading your way with his trusty guitar and ready wit? Check out the newly confirmed dates in Spain and the US late summer and autumn. Before then, the Barking Bard's got some gigs to perform in the UK and Ireland.
TOUR DATES
19 July - Tolpuddle, Dorset - Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival
23 July - Kendal, England - Brewery Arts Centre
24 July - Dundrennan, Scotland - The Wickerman Festival
31 July - Northampton, MA, USA - Calvin Theater
1 August - Newport, RI, USA - Folk Festival 50
2 August - Albany, NY, USA - Swyer Theatre 'The Egg'
3 August - Boston, MA, USA - Berklee Performance Centre
15 August - Majorca, Spain - Bellver Castle
29 August - Santa Monica, CA, USA - Beethoven Bragg
5 September - Portlaoise, Ireland - Electric Picnic
3 October - San Francisco, CA, USA - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
5 October - San Francisco, CA, USA - Great American Music Hall
14 October - Madrid, Spain - Galileo Galilei
15 October - Barcelona, Spain - Bikini
16 October - San Sebastian, Spain - Kursaal Sala de Camara
18 October - Bilbao, Spain - Palacio EuskaldunaBeethoven Bragg details and tickets Bragg Tour Dates |
| | US premiere of Beethoven's 'Bragg' Ninth on 29 August | 15/06/09 | Billy's rewritten libretto for the choral version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony will receive its United States premiere in Los Angeles, California, on 29 August.
The symphony, including Billy's version of the Fourth Movement, will be performed by the Asia America Youth Orchestra conducted by David Benoit, at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. It will benefit Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice in LA.
Billy will be on hand to perform and lead the audience in a singalong of his English version of Schiller's Ode to Joy.
The Bragg version of the hymn to brotherhood and sisterhood was first performed at the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall in London in June 2007.
The following October it was performed again at the same venue by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in front of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Billy wrote about the experience in an article for the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK: 'How The Queen Charmed the Pants off Me'.
The story of how Billy became involved is captured in a documentary that tracks the global impact of the Ninth - Following The Ninth: In The Footsteps of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony www.followingtheninth.com - to be released in 2010.
If you are fond both of music and economic justice, please support the U.S. premiere of the Beethoven 'Billy Bragg' Ninth. If you can't be in Los Angeles for the event, please let your Los Angelano friends know about it.
In keeping with the Ninth’s spirit of international connection, several other groups from across the Los Angeles and Santa Monica ethnic communities will perform their versions of different parts of the Ninth.
Artists include: Dwight Trible (Jazz), Susie Glaze (Bluegrass), Banda Philharmonica (Oaxacan brass ensemble), Ernest Troost (Blues), Justin Bischof (Pianist), and the Dafra Drum and Dance Project from Burkina Faso.
Battle Hymns Productions
www.battlehymnsproductions.comDaily Mail article Buy tickets at BeethovenBragg.com |
| | Jay Bennett RIP | 26/05/09 | We are very sorry to have to report the death of Jay Bennett, the former Wilco member who worked with Billy on the hugely successful Mermaid Avenue albums.
Jay, a multi-instrumentalist, died of unknown causes in his sleep at home in Illinois over the weekend.
Billy said: "I'm very sorry to hear that Jay Bennett has passed away, aged just 45. He was a cat who could get the most beautiful music out of any instrument you put in front of him, which made him a real asset during the Mermaid Avenue sessions.
"It was his playing on guitar and keyboards that, more than any of us, defined the sound of those records. He put his heart and soul into everything he played and his loss will be deeply felt among the musicians he worked with. My thoughts are with his family and friends."
Grant Showbiz, who produced the Mermaid Avenue albums with Billy and Wilco, said: "Jay Bennett was a wonderful musician with an enormous brain. He was an integral part of the Mermaid Avenue sessions with his ready wit and his ability to pick up any instrument and make it sound great.
"We had a large amount of gear set up in a circle around the central booths of Billy and Jeff, and Jay was pretty much 360 degrees involved with the instrumentation.
"Billy and I called him 'The Cat In The Hat'... he had that mischievous other-worldlyness of a slightly eccentric professor. He will be sadly missed."
Billy's manager, Peter Jenner, added: "Jay was a vital part of the team that put Mermaid Avenue together... He always seemed a key creative person. He could play many instruments and was always positive, innovative and creative on all of them, on any song.
"I think we all enjoyed working with Jay, and we have all lost a fine musician and an open, warm human being. An unsung hero."Uncut report |
| | Presale for Newport Folk Festival - buy tickets today! | 04/05/09 | Join Billy in celebrating five decades of folk music in Newport, RI, USA, on 1 August 2009 alongside co-founder Pete Seeger, The Decemberists, Joan Baez, Neko Case, Arlo Guthrie, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, Tom Morello, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Brett Dennen, Avett Brothers, and many more.
Pre-sale tickets for George Wein's two-day folk festival which can be accessed using our exclusive passcode are available from 10am EST TODAY 4 May.
The passcode is: BRAGG
http://www.folkfestival50.com/PRESALE.html
Don't hang about: tickets are expected to sell quickly, and general sale to the public begins on 6 May.All Billy Bragg Tour Dates 2009 Newport Folk Festival 50 Folk Festival 50 presale page |
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