GARETH DUNLOP | UK & RoI tour with Bonnie Raitt starts 1st June + July 2023 dates with Josh Turner announced | 'Look Back Smiling': single out now from 'Animal' album
GARETH DUNLOP
ON TOUR IN UK & RoI
SPECIAL GUEST OF
BONNIE RAITT
Having recently completed a UK tour with Lucy Spraggan, Northern Irish singer-songwriter and producer Gareth Dunlop heads straight back out on the road this week for eight shows as the special guest of US blues and Americana legend Bonnie Raitt. Their tour itinerary is as follows:
01.06.23 DUBLIN Vicar Street
03.06.23 LONDON Palladium
06.06.23 BOURNEMOUTH Pavilion Theatre
07.06.23 OXFORD New Theatre
09.06.23 GATESHEAD Sage One
11.06.23 GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall
14.06.23 MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall
15.06.23 BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall
A fan of Raitt's since his mid-teens when he saw her on an Old Grey Whistle Test compilation DVD, Dunlop reveals that “her ‘Too Long At the Fair’ got an instant replay. There was just something about her voice grabbing the blue notes outside of the melody and her incredible guitar playing that gave off this effortless attitude. Putting my own music out into the world has thrown up some unexpected and surprising twists and turns over the years but I never thought opening shows for Bonnie Raitt would be one of them. I’m absolutely stoked to have been asked!”
Dunlop has added two London dates with US country music hit-maker Josh Turner to his schedule, with the pair performing at the Union Chapel on 12th and 13th July. Dunlop will also play his own headlining show in the capital at The Lower Third on 16th November, with tickets available HERE.
GARETH DUNLOP
ANIMAL
album
out now
(Zenith Cafe/Membran)
“Sophisticated pop with a modern feel and appeal. It’s classy music and you can see why he is in demand from other artists“
GET READY TO ROCK!
“A surprising album, more than the blend of its influences and casting a few new out there for the future. Is this where Roxy Music were heading, had they ever got beyond ‘Avalon’?”
AT THE BARRIER
“An immersive, synth textured set that blends ambient pop with soul, a touch of Celtic and a splash of cinematic”
FABRICATIONS HQ
“‘Animal’ is a beast of an album. Just put it on and bathe in its glow”
MAXIMUM VOLUME MUSIC
includes the single
LOOK BACK SMILING
video
Evocative yet timeless, ‘Look Back Smiling’ is among a diverse set of songs to be heard on ‘Animal’, which also includes the soulful and anthemic 'Right About Ready’, the atmospheric ‘Sorrow' and 'Prisoner Of My Past', the ‘60s dream-pop of ‘Humans', plus a title song that adds an electro-bounce to its subtle groove.
Of ‘Look Back Smiling', Dunlop explains that: “I wrote it as a message of sorts for my son. In those weird pandemic years I had noticed him retreating into himself. He’d missed out on most of his first year at school and bypassed an important year of making those first connections with would be friends. It set my head off in a direction of wanting him to grab life by the horns and be as much of a kid as possible before the real trials and tribulations of life seeped in. In a time when it was hard to be a normal kid, I was desperate for his young sense of wonder and childlike fearlessness to rule his heart. When I was young I couldn’t wait to grow up, and now I'm older I'd give anything to go back and be a kid again.”
‘Animal’ was recorded in Sycamore Studios in Belfast during a period that also saw Dunlop produce new records by his friends and compatriots Foy Vance and Lee Rogers. He toured the US, UK and Ireland with them both during 2022. Dunlop and Rogers have also recently earned plaudits for their collaborative single 'The Past Is Never Dead’, which is included in a documentary about the novelist William Faulkner and has been played across BBC radio. A video for the song can be seen HERE.
GARETH DUNLOP | photo by Daniel Morton
Dunlop has been recognised as an accomplished talent ever since being tipped by the BBC as ‘one to watch’ in 2010 when he was not long out of his teens. In the decade prior to ‘Animal’, he released several singles, a handful of EPs and an acclaimed debut record that were all musically eclectic and showcased his soulful voice. Several of his songs have subsequently featured in hit TV shows such as ‘Nashville’ and ‘Lucifer’, ads for Disney and Subaru and more. He also has writing credits for stars such as T.I., Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and John Oates.
Dunlop has forged a reputation as a magnetic and charismatic performer on frequent headlining tours and support slots to the likes of Van Morrison, the late Jeff Beck, Snow Patrol, James Morrison and Foy Vance.
GARETH DUNLOP | photo by Jamie Neish
