Former Lead singer of The Seahorses,Chris Helme, announces UK tour

Chris Helme – who first rose to prominence as the front man of John Squire’s post-Stone Roses  band ‘The Seahorses’ – released his new solo album, The Rookery, on August 27 to excellent  reviews in the likes of Q, Mojo, Uncut and Classic Rock Magazine. He is now pleased to announce  an Autumn / Winter UK tour.

 Helme is still rightfully remembered for the anthemic Britpop classics Love Is The Law and
 Blinded By The Sun; and with The Rookery, he now has a critically-acclaimed solo album under  his belt too. Along with some of the tracks he recorded whilst in The Seahorses, he will be playing  songs from his new album live on a tour which takes in venues all over the UK, including the  following:

  20th Sep 2012, Jam Jar, Dunfermilne, Fife, Scotland
 21st Sep 2012, Burns, Irvine
  2nd Oct 2012, Surya, London
  7th Oct 2012, Rock Your Mind Festival, Middlesborough
  12th Oct 2012, Kings Hall (with Simon and Oscar of Ocean Colour Scene), Herne Bay
  3rd Nov 2012, Venue Cymru (with Turin Brakes), Llandudno
  4th Nov 2012, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
  9th Nov 2012, Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
  10th Nov 2012, Tollbooth, Stirling
  23rd Nov 2012, The Square (with Mark Morriss of The Bluetones), Harlow
 29th Nov 2012, Compass, Chester
 30th Nov 2012, Helmsley Arts Centre, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
 1st Dec 2012, The Junction, Oldham
 6th Dec 2012, Chapel Arts Centre, Bath
 21st Dec 2012, The Blue Room (with Mark Morriss of the Bluetones), Blackpool
  22nd Dec 2012, Cumbernauld Town Hall, Cumbernauld

 More performances will be added shortly – please see www.chrishelme.co.uk for latest dates and venues.

Ex-Seahorses front man Chris Helme back with new solo album

Chris Helme – The Rookery

August 27^th 2012

Little Num Num Music

Music: www.chrishelme.co.uk

Chris Helme, who first rose to prominence as the front man of John Squire’s post-Stone Roses band ‘The Seahorses’ will release his brand new solo album on August 27^th. Still rightfully remembered for the anthemic Britpop classics Love Is The Law and Blinded By The Sun - songs that evoked everything the 90’s stood for, the excitement, the culture and the bands that provided a voice in a period of political and social imbalance. Present day societal context may well in fact mirror those times but the man himself, now, appears cut from an entirely different cloth.

Helme’s is an enviable back catalogue, bolstered further by his acclaimed works with The Yards, but it’s The Rookery’s knack for melody and imaginative, intricate, three-way guitar interplay that brings each track to such lush, blossoming, climaxes. Add to this Helme’s keen ear for arranging and those brooding string passages resonate even more deeply.

Recorded in just 9 days at The Rookery, a country hideaway nestled in the wilds of the Yorkshire Dales, the album reveals a beguiling vulnerability in both Helme’s voice and lyrics. The wonderfully restrained Darkest Days’ somber refrain, ‘Following you, leads me astray’, rings out with the sentiment of changing direction, putting paid to past misdemeanors, while on the forthcoming single Long Way Round, Helme is found resolute in his plaintive cry, ‘Now you’ve found yourself, you’re on your own’.  An apt lyric indeed as his solo path turns this dramatic corner.

There is plenty on offer here as Chris and producer Sam Forrest (Nine Black Alps) showcase their depth of sonic understanding as fuzzed out guitars are married with distorted Mellotron, melting strings, whistling feedback and haunting orchestral vocals. Melodies rooted in traditional folk structures are vividly reimagined on an album of startlingly rich variation. Even the Rolling Stones’ stomp of Daddy’s Farm bookended between the blues filth of Pleased and the gorgeously mellow Summer Girl, doesn’t stick out, testament to Helme’s most powerful weapon – his voice.

This aspect to his music was never in question. From the earliest days of his career, his voice always commanded attention, and The Rookery’s variation is seemingly bound by this one continuous thread. File next to CSN&Y, Led Zeppelin 3, Buckley, The Coral, and enjoy.

Article posted by Musicmafia