Tweet
Pic by https://www.flickr.com/photos/neontommy/14885072374/
After English singer-songwriter Ben Howard cancelled his concert at Byron Bay's Bluesfest 2015 and the previously announced (and sold out) show at the Sydney Opera House, he's now rescheduled his whole Australian tour for May and June. His management said he decided to reschedule the tour to make sure he does the "best show possible" for his Australian fans, after just recently arriving home following months of touring overseas.
Howard apologised to his fans in a personal statement, saying "Dear Australia, we're really sorry" about having to reschedule the tour, "it's been an impossible decision" and "really not" what they wanted to do. Howard noted they had to make major changes "for the greater good" and he hopes his fans will be able to make the new dates, promising he'd be "back soon in full force."
On the upside for Aussie Howard fans, the indie-folk artist added two shows in Brisbane to his newly-rescheduled tour, which includes (as previously announced) dates in Melbourne, Sydney, and Fremantle. There will be a few Ben Howard tickets still available for the new Sydney show at Hordern Pavilion, Ticketbis being one of the websites still offering them.
Pic by https://www.flickr.com/photos/
letobladioblada/9974523786/
For fans who hold tickets for the rescheduled shows, their tickets will be good at the newly-announced dates. Holders of tickets to the Sydney Opera House show were told to contact their point of purchase for a refund prior to 31st march -- those that didn't, are out of luck.
Howard was the second big-name artist to drop Bluesfest recently, after Lenny Kravitz went and cancelled his whole Australian tour.
The last time Howard visited Australia was for 2014's Splendour in the Grass, where he also played sideshows to sold-out audiences in Perth's Astor, the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, and Melbourne's Palais Theatre. For his May return he will be performing his newly released album, I Forget Where We Were.
I Forget Where We Were is the follow-on to Howard's debut Every Kingdon, which made more than one million sales worldwide and won Howard two BRIT awards back in 2012 (Best Solo Male Artist and Breakthrough Act). Every Kingdom also got nominations for 2012's Mercury Prize (next to albums from Michael Kiwanuka, Django Django, and Alt-J, the latter eventually winning). The Guardian has called the new album a "progression" from Every Kingdom, "darker in hue" and songs that go beyond a "radio-friendly" length. The Guardian gave the new album four out of five stars.
The new I Forget Where We Were has earned Howard his best reviews and topped charts in the UK. He says he's hugely admired James Blake but doesn't feel the electronic music producer inspired his music even if some critics have noted a resemblance. He's also said he still feels "under pressure" and trapped between the simple acoustics of his earlier material and his newer style, which contains more spaces and delays. His solution, according to Howard, is to reject the idea he needs to play what his fans want simply because those particular songs brought him this far.
The expectation that fans pay him and he'll play your song -- "we don't do that," Howard told reporters. "It's live music," he noted, "it's alive." Fans who want to listen to the record should just go and listen to the record, in his view. Howard has criticised "lazy journos" and those who don't get it for questioning his way of rejecting entertainment.
Attached Files