Tom McRae, one of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters, is set to present a very special series of live shows in April with The Hotel Café Tour.
Named after the tiny L.A venue where musicians meet to perform and try out new ideas, The Hotel Café Tour provides a platform for fantastic new artists from America and the UK to find an audience overseas. The nine date UK tour – part of a total of 20 European dates - will start in Nottingham on Sunday April 20 and finish at London’s Kings College on Wednesday April 30. Performing on the tour alongside McRae, are American artists Catherine Feeny, Brian Wright, Cary Brothers, Jim Bianco and Greg Laswell.
“Gibson Guitar, the world’s leading and iconic guitar brand is proud to sponsor this years Hotel Café tour in the UK” To mark this sponsorship, Gibson Guitar has generously provided several Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitars for promotional and performing artist use throughout the tour dates.
Live dates: - April:
Sun 20 - Rescue Rooms Nottingham £15 www.gigantic.com
Mon 21 - Cockpit Leeds £15 www.seetickets.com
Tues 22 - Club Academy Manchester £15 www.gigsandtours.com
Thurs 24 - The Ark Edinburgh £15 www.gigsinscotland.com
Fri 25 - Oran Mor Glasgow £15 www.gigsinscotland.com
Sat 26 - Barfly Birmingham £14 www.ticketweb.co.uk
Mon 28 - Thekla Bristol £15 www.gigantic.com
Tues 29 - Concorde2 Brighton £14 www.ticketweb.co.uk
Wed 30 - Kings College London £15 www.gigsandtours.com
“The Hotel Café Tour is about musicians taking control and filling the vacuum left by the near-fatal collapse of the record industry”, says McRae. “It’s a show unlike any other”, says McRae, “the rapport between the musicians and the audience is so fantastic, it’s more like a festival than a gig.”
“Unless you’ve got a major label backing you, the idea of touring – especially abroad - is a virtual impossibility. With the death of recorded music sales, major labels have stopped supporting all but the most chart-bound music, and independent labels can’t afford to pay tour support. That’s where a network of artists around the world can pool their resources to help each other. It’s not a new idea, but whereas we used to see ourselves in competition we now have to see ourselves as allies.”
Following two hugely successful Hotel Café tours in the states, Tom McRae (Mercury, Grammy and Brit Award nominee) brought the tour over to the UK in 2006. The 11 sold out dates and incredible audience reaction persuaded Tom to bring the tour back to Europe this month and into May.
For more information on The Hotel Café Tour please visit www.thehotelcafetour.com and www.myspace.com/thehotelcafetour
Gibson.com will have an exclusive Q & A with headline artist Tom McRae coming soon..
Photo credit – John Rahim
Media contact:
Jeremy Singer – Gibson Guitar UK PR Manager
Tel 020 7167 2144 – jeremy.singer@gibson.com