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Ruarri Joseph announces autumn 2012 UK tour

Posted: 11 years ago
First dates appear for brotherly promotion of new album, on sale now/Friday 20th July

Here at Allgigs Towers, we've been inadvertently following Ruarri Joseph's gradual progression almost right from the start - it's been quite a journey. For a start, Joseph was born in Scotland but spent a chunk of his childhood in New Zealand, before heading back to the UK for a spell in London. After expanding his family by one, he upped sticks to the relative solitude of Cornwall (Newquay apparently, the Southend of the South West - maybe not that quiet after all).

Straight away, Joseph signed to Atlantic Records in 2007 and an album, 'Tales of Grime and Grit', appeared for tensions between artist and label came to a head. In response to Joseph cutting restrictive major-label ties, he retreated to a garden shed and played all the instruments on his second album, 'Both Sides of the Coin', which earned him a 5-star review on this very site.

But it was album number 3 that propelled him back into the limelight - 'Shoulder to the Wheel' tested music bloggers' superlatives to the max with a stream of acoustically-minded 'steady-Eddies' and some gorgeous stone-wall 'beauts', in particular 'Severed Dreams', plucked for radio play in 2011 and the focus of attention for this writer for a few weeks at least. Now it's time to build on the marvellous response to his canon thus far and get another album out.

His website hints at 'Brother' as being a possible title and the song included here, 'The April Spin', is a contender for the tracklisting with its pretty refrain and graceful melodic curves. And with the album will come a UK tour. A handful of October dates have leaked out so far, including Manchester on the 1st, Nottingham on the 2nd and then the likes of London, Exeter, Guildford etc until Bristol on the 13th. Tickets will go on sale throughout the week via us, priced at around £8 upwards.

Paul Pledger