British Blues sensation Oli Brown's UK tour starts April 11

www.thegigcartel.com & Rhino Agency presents
OLI BROWN
APRIL 2012 UK TOUR

"The hottest young pistol in British Blues"
– Mojo

24 HOUR BOX OFFICE: 0844 478 0898
BOOK ONLINE: www.eventim.co.uk www.thegigcartel.com

"One of the best and brightest guitar heroes performing
in the world today"
– Classic Rock

After winning ‘Best Band’ and ‘Best Album’ at the prestigious British Blues Awards 2011, 22 year old British guitar sensation Oli Brown will return to the UK in April 2012 for his biggest headline tour to date.

Tickets for Oli Brown’s solo tour, which kicks off at the Manchester Academy on Wednesday April 11th, will go on sale at 9am on Friday November 4th, mid-way through Oli’s UK stint as special guest to the legendary blues-man John Mayall. Tickets will be available from www.eventim.co.uk, www.thegigcartel.com, and the national booking hotline 0844 478 0898.

A special 48 hour ticket pre-sale will be made available through Eventim and Ents 24. From 9am on Wednesday November 2nd, fans can get their hands on a limited amount of tickets for each of the concerts by visiting www.ents24.com.

Since the release his 2010 album “Heads I Win Tails You Lose”, Oli has been almost constantly on the road with tours across Europe, America, Canada and New Zealand.

The album was produced by Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton), who came out of retirement especially to work with Oli, after hearing his debut album, “Open Road”.

Upon release, “Heads I Win Tails You Lose” garnered much critical acclaim, with Mojo and Classic Rock naming the album as their #4 and #3 Blues albums of 2010 respectfully.

Following the dates with John Mayall, Oli will be heading into the studio to work on an as-yet-untitled new album, set for an April 2012 release to coincide with the UK tour.

"A masterful show"
– The Times

"Oli brings a freshness and excitement to every performance...
He's at the forefront of the UK's new Blues movement"
– Planet Rock

www.thegigcartel.com & Rhino Agency presents
OLI BROWN
APRIL 2012 UK TOUR

24 HOUR BOX OFFICE: 0844 478 0898
BOOK ONLINE: www.eventim.co.uk www.thegigcartel.com

Manchester Academy
Wednesday 11th April
Doors - 7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0161 832 1111
Online - www.manchesteracademy.net
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR

York The Duchess
Thursday 12th April
Doors -7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0844 478 0898
Online - http://theduchessyork.co.uk
Stonebow House, York, YO1 7NP

Edinburgh The Caves
Friday 13th April
Doors - 7pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0844 478 0898
Online - www.thecavesedinburgh.com
8-12 Niddry Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1NS

Glasgow O₂ ABC 2
Saturday 14th April
Doors - 7pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box office - 0844 477 2000
Online - www.o2abcglasgow.co.uk
300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JA

Aberdeen Lemon Tree
Sunday 15th April
Doors - 7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box office - 01224 641122
Online - www.boxofficeaberdeen.com
5 West North Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5AT

Newcastle O₂ Academy 2
Tuesday 17th April
Doors - 7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0844 477 2000
Online - www.o2academynewcastle.co.uk
Westgate Road, Newcastle, NE1 1SW

Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Wednesday 18th April
Doors - 7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0845 413 4444
Online - www.rescuerooms.com
25 Goldsmith Street, Nottingham, NG1 5LB

Birmingham O₂ Academy 2
Thursday 19th April
Doors - 7.30pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0844 477 2000
Online - www.o2academybirmingham.co.uk
16-18 Horsefair, Bristol Street, B1 1DB

Exeter Phoenix
Friday 20th April
Doors - 8pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 01392 667080
Online - www.exeterphoenix.org.uk
Bradninch Place, Gandy St, EX4 3LS

Bristol The Tunnels
Saturday 21st April
Doors - 7pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0845 605 0255
Online - www.thetunnelsbristol.co.uk
32 Bristol & Exeter Mews, Bristol BS1 6QS

London Islington O₂ Academy
Sunday 22nd April
Doors - 7pm / Tickets - £12.50
Box Office - 0844 477 2000
Online - www.o2academyislington.co.uk
N1 Centre, 16 Parkfield Street, London, N1 OPS

OLI BROWN - "HERE I AM" - OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

So here he is. The great white hope of British blues. The young man blues sensation. The rock ‘n’ roll alchemist who fires a bullet-belt of influences into the mix. The heart-on-sleeve songwriter who bleeds onto the lyric sheet and solos like his soul is hard-wired to his fingers. The mover, shaker and rule-breaker, who drags the dusty conventions of the blues into the millennium by the hair.

But if you thought you knew the real Oli Brown, you don’t know the half of it. Please allow him to introduce himself. Three albums into his career, Here I Am finds Oli letting down the barriers, showing his cards, turning the spotlight on himself and defying you to turn off your stereo. “The new album is called Here I Am,” he explains, “because I’m saying, ‘this is me’. People know when something isn’t believable. I’m just trying to be honest.”

Here I Am is the sound of an artist on the crest of a wave. When Oli hit the studio in Nottingham after a triumphant 2011, he had the plaudits of fans, press, peers and heroes ringing in his ears, a truck-load of trophies and a huge weight of expectation. Most 22-year-olds would have felt pressure, but with his dream team around him – drummer/producer Wayne Proctor and bassist Scott Barnes – Oli rode the red light and chased down 12 classic songs to hand over to Magic Garden Mastering’s Brian Lacey (fresh from The Black Keys’ El Camino album).

It’s a tracklisting that runs the gauntlet, from Thinking About Her’s grooving ode to a seductress, past the desolate break-up blues of All We Had To Give, to the stinger missile Solid Ground that features Paul Jones on harmonica and signs off the album with a slam-dunk. “Ain’t tryin’ to be no Jimi or Stevie, I wanna be my goddamn self,” Oli roars on the title track, and even on covers of Donny Hathaway’s I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know and Nikka Costa’s Like A Feather, he has both hands on the wheel. Oli Brown has stepped it up. Again.

It’s a long climb from the schoolyards of Norwich to the top table of the British blues scene, and hard to believe that Oli Brown has scaled it in just four years. “I didn’t have any career ambitions until I started playing guitar in 2002,” he notes. “Blues was always in the background, but what really hit was the first Stevie Ray Vaughan album I bought. When I started playing, Hendrix was my first influence. He was a showman, too, setting his guitar alight. I’ve never done that!”

With his chops primed, Oli soon went public, playing impromptu Norwich jam nights where “we didn’t even know what we were playing, but it taught me a lot”. The pivotal moment came at 15, when he was invited to the US as the guest of Blinddog Smokin’: a support slot that morphed into a mentoring scheme, with Oli sharing bills with Buddy Guy and Taj Mahal, and being schooled after-hours by his hosts. “Before that, I didn’t care what the music was, I just wanted to solo,” he admits. “But while I was out there, they taught me everything about the blues, about stagecraft, about walking tall and speaking to the audience.”

Oli would return to the US with Blinddog Smokin’ several times, while he also cites the wisdom imparted by legends including Robben Ford, John Mayall and Walter Trout. Fast-forward to 2008, though, and the student had become the master, and when Ruf Records label boss Thomas Ruf witnessed an explosive UK gig he signed Oli on the spot. Things moved fast. That same year, the precocious bandleader burst out of the blocks with Open Road: a dazzling opening shot that fused funky cuts like Psycho with heart-rending solo showcases like Missing You. “There aren’t many 12-bars on there,” Oli said in 2008. “I try to get across a few different styles, but I haven’t had any purists shout at me yet!”

So it began. With that first release, the press woke up to what live blues fanatics knew already, and promptly showered Oli with champagne, with Blues Matters! voting Open Road the #2 album of 2008, and Classic Rock declaring the singer had “the blues under his fingernails like few of his peers”. The flattery stepped up a gear when the Oli Brown Band became the only British act selected for 2008’s International Blues Convention in Memphis, and some measure of his exploding profile came when Oli was invited by John Fry of Ardent Studios to record a live session… which scored 1.3 million hits in under a month.

The buzz was building, and by 2010, it caught the ear of legendary British producer Mike Vernon, the veteran of such benchmarks as 1966’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton, who was lured out of semi-retirement to helm second album, Heads I Win Tails You Lose, and capture a light-footed tracklisting that mixed up scuttle-buttin’ grooves like Evil Soul and room-shakers like Real Good Time. On release in April 2010, it was clear this kid was more than alright, and the press duly threw star ratings like confetti, with Mojo dubbing Oli “the hottest young pistol in British blues”, Uncut praising “a British bluesman to rival Trucks and Bonamassa”, and Classic Rock voting Heads I Win #3 blues album of the year.

With the 2010 British Blues Awards toasting him as Best Male Vocalist and Best Young Artist, some musicians would have rested on their laurels and watched the royalties roll in. Not Oli Brown. He once said that “blues needs to be heard live”, and it’s true that while he tears it up in the studio, his natural habitat is the darkened stage and his favourite sound the roar of the crowd as he blasts songs skyward with his signature Vanquish guitar. In 2011, Oli toured the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Canada and America – even charming Uncle Sam with a high-profile breakfast TV appearance – and scored another haul of trophies at the British Blues Awards (Best Band and Best Album). The year concluded in schoolboy fantasy-style, playing 25 gigs with John Mayall. Somebody pinch him…

So where do you go when you’ve hit the top? The answer, for Oli Brown, is back on the road, as he supports the April release of Here I Am with a major UK headline tour. For this 22-year-old, blues isn’t just a job, an easy pay-cheque or a shot at cheap cejavascript:void(0)lebrity: it’s his passion, driving force and raison-d’être. “I picked the wrong genre of music to be a celebrity,” Oli laughs. “I just wanted to be a credible musician and get respect from people.” With Here I Am, it’s mission accomplished.

“The hottest young pistol in British Blues” - Mojo

“A British Bluesman to rival Trucks and Bonamassa” - Uncut

“Brown’s fretwork really stuns” - Classic Rock

“His singing voice is compelling” - Guitarist

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