Party: James Blunt at Darwin Convention Centre

Party: James Blunt at Darwin Convention Centre

James Blunt and his band will visit every state in Australia for a very special run of shows in May/June next year, with guests Busby Marou.

The timing for this exciting announcement could not be better, with Blunt’s brand new single ‘Bonfire Heart’, taken from his upcoming album ‘Moon Landing’ (out tomorrow through Warner Music), peaking at #1 position on the iTunes single chart and debuting at #5 on this week’s ARIA single chart!
James Blunt shot to fame in 2006 with the smash singles ‘You’re Beautiful’ & ‘Goodbye My Lover’ from his platinum selling album ‘Back to Bedlam’, one of the UK’s best-selling albums of the 2000’s. For fourth studio album Moon Landing, Blunt wanted to go back to sounding… like himself. ‘I was playing a lot of ukulele - mainly because it makes me look bigger,’ says James. He also returned to producer Tom Rothrock, and to working with just the two of them in the studio, occasionally bringing in selected musicians from the Back To Bedlam sessions.

Picking up a guitar and writing his first song at 14, Blunt wrote his university dissertation on the music industry, took that guitar to the war in Kosovo, and always dreamed of making music, saying what success has meant, more than anything, is freedom. ‘What it allowed me to do was go on tour with a band. That was absolutely amazing’. But it also meant much more than that, with three world tours, four number one singles, five Grammy nods (plus two BRITS, two Ivor Novellos and a host of MTV awards), a six-piece band, seven whole years on the road, nearly 17m albums and 20 million singles sales worldwide following.

Bringing a full band with him for the tour and renowned for his charm and grace on stage, Australian audiences will surely be captivated when he returns for his first visit since 2011, playing songs from his highly anticipated new album as well as a collection of hits. ‘There's just something romantic, old-school and lonely about the moon landings,’ he explains. ‘A nostalgic memory of something huge that we can hardly believe we once achieved, and for some sad reason, can't achieve again – like first love.’

“Goodbye My Lover was everything Sydney’s jilted lovers could have dreamed of. His timorous demeanour whilst sitting at the piano worked rather well here, giving the hit song a raw touch and awarded him a well-deserved standing ovation.” – The Music Network 2011

It’s an exciting week for Australian duo Busby Marou, with their new album ‘Farewell Fitzroy’ (out now through Warner Music) debuting at #5 on the ARIA album chart this week, they have also been confirmed as special guests for this Australian/New Zealand tour with James! Two years on from their acclaimed self-titled debut, Farewell Fitzroy is 12 tracks of folk-pop and country-tinged song craft, distinctly Australian storytelling, and the gifted musicianship of Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou.

“Marou's sometime-falsetto and Busby's earthy, clear lead vocals combine in heavenly harmony, and their guitars do likewise.” – The Australian (4.5 stars)