I went looking through some of the local papers I have access to online and this one for Tuesday’s gig at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena inside the Nottingham Post was succinctly full of praise.
The UK leg of the arena tour comes to an end tonight in Liverpool – followed then by just a single Dublin gig (I had booked to return to see them in Dublin – should have been flying over there today but decided to knock it on the head and wait for Paris), with the band then touring mainland Europe with arena shows until the end of May.
A couple of weeks downtime then. A run of festival dates then kick in for the guys begin in June, starting in Oslo at the OverOslo Festival on June 10th and 11th. They return to the UK a week later to headline an evening at the Nocturne Festival at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on June 18th. They remain busy in Europe through the course of the summer and return to the UK with four shows bringing the tour to its close in Belfast Custom House on August 9th, Audley End House in Saffron Walden, Essex on August 11th and finally a double header at Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh for the Summer Sessions Festival in August 12th and 13th. The final show being a benefit concert for UNICEF for Children in Ukraine, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of New Gold Dream with the album being performed in its entirety.
I have Paris on May 6th, Blenheim Palace in June 18th and the two Edinburgh gigs left to come – and that will bring me up to a total of 31 gigs (counting Copenhagen as TWO gigs) in the past seven years. That ain’t a bad run! Considering in four of those seven years they either did very limited touring, or no touring at all, I’m pretty happy with that statistic.
The next lot of gigs to come are spaced out nicely and won’t impede upon my study too much, so it’s all good.
For the gigs I went to, I had a ball. They were amazing! And I wish I could have gone to others but it wasn’t possible this time. I am excited for the ones to come.
For those going to Liverpool tonight, I hope you all have the best time.