El Rey Theatre

The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers released their seventh studio album ‘Life With You’ (W14/Universal) on September 3d in the UK to fantastic critical acclaim and great commercial success with album sales beyond silver status. October then saw The Proclaimers kick off their biggest ever UK & Ireland tour, 44 dates to over 85,000 fans.

Last summer has seen them play at a number of festivals, including 2 triumphant main stage performances at V Festivals. 2008 will see The Proclaimers touring across Europe in March then April/May sees them touring USA & Canada.

Earlier in 2007 they topped the UK singles chart in March with a rousing new rendition of their classic anthem I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), a collaboration with comedians Peter Kay and Matt Lucas for this year's Comic Relief, raising over a million pounds in the process. EMI relaunched their 2002 Best Of collection, re-entering the Album Charts at No 5 and now turned platinum. Then Craig, Charlie and band headed to the legendary Rockfield Studios with producer Steve Evans to record the new album.

Complementing their raw, stripped down delivery with the greater musical scope of a full band, they then embraced country and rock on their second album, 1988's Sunshine On Leith produced by Pete Wingfield, which also saw them form their first full live band and go on a 9 month World tour. In addition to the deeply moving classic title track which has gone on to be an anthem for Hibs fans, the album featured hit singles, the raucous, euphoric I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) and I'm On My Way, The latter track subsequently accompanied one of the pivotal scenes in the hit movie Shrek (2001) while in 1989 I'm Gonna Be spent 6 weeks at number 1 in Australia and a was a top 10 college radio hit in USA. The song went on to soar to No. 3 during a 6-month reign in the US Billboard Singles Chart in 1993 after appearing on the soundtrack of the Johnny Depp film Benny And Joon. Previously in 1990 The Proclaimers had a huge UK & European hit with their King Of The Road ep. The Proclaimers returned with 1994's Hit The Highway, an album that featured a three-piece brass section yielding the hit Let’s Get Married. A longer than intended break then ensued before a fourth album, 2001's Persevere, was cut in Minneapolis. Produced by Chris Kimsey with an all star American musician line up, another fantastic collection of Reid/Reid songs re-established The Proclaimers as they went back on another mammoth year long World tour.

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Jamie Lidell

    No easy feat to follow up 2005’s Multiply, which garnered many fans and an astounding collection of superlatives still ringing across the world. That album, Jamie’s second solo, caught most of us off-guard. After a decade of electronic experimentation that had brought him from underground techno to the science-funk of Super_Collider (with Cristian Vogel), and into his blistering live show, few people expected Jamie to make an honest-to-goodness soul and funk record. Jamie had let those classic influences fuse with his own deeply felt songwriting, meticulous production skills, and most of all, that flipping voice

    Hard to believe that the bespectacled self-confessed music nerd who’d grown up fetishising samplers and boxes that went squelch, could belt it out like a Berry Gordy discovery circa 1961. And if you’d seen him live there was another glimpse of the old Jekyll-Hyde routine. Slyly self-deprecating gent becomes relentless sonic showman. The audience were there to dance, and now the man wrapped in gold lamé is crooning, spluttering, laughing, transforming words into sounds, noise into signal, a body-rocking beat conjured out of nowhere, and then over that, a rousing harmony. On the edge between control and chaos, Jamie turned music inside out – and it was an exhilarating experience.

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