Electronic pioneer - THOMAS DOLBY - will return to the UK for three dates this Summer.
With appearances at Newcastle O2 City Hall (16th August), Manchester’s O2 Ritz (17th August) and London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (22nd August), the shows will provide a rare opportunity to see the celebrated musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and professor, revisiting his inspiring back catalogue live on stage.
Previously announced to be appearing on the Totally Tubular Festival tour throughout June and July in North America (alongside acts including Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Modern English, Men Without Hats, The Romantics, Bow Wow Wow, Tommy Tutone, and The Plimsouls); Dolby’s only other European appearance will be at the W - Festival in Ostend, Belgium on 24 August.
Last seen in the UK for a one-off appearance at Electric Dreams festival in 2017, these will be his first official headline shows this side of the Atlantic in over a decade.
In a statement, Thomas Dolby said: “This summer I’m going to be doing a big tour called the Totally Tubular tour which will be going all around north America - around 20 dates - with a great group of other acts including Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Modern English, Bow Wow Wow, The Plimsouls, The Romantics and others. There are a couple of dates in Canada, none currently set up for Europe I’m afraid. However, I’m going to be doing a festival called W - Fest in Ostend in Belgium at the end of August and I’m going to try and slip in a few UK dates around the end of August just so as to not disappoint you UK fans. I’m very excited about this… Please do come and see us during this tour and look out for my novel later this year.”
Support for the UK dates will come from Special Guest: Martin McAloon, who will be performing the songs of Prefab Sprout live across both nights.
Tickets are on sale now at these links as follows:
Academy Events presents…
THOMAS DOLBY - 2024 UK DATES
Friday 16th August - Newcastle O2 City Hall
Tickets on sale here:
https://www.academymusicgroup.com/o2cityhallnewcastle/events/1474912/thomas-dolby-tickets
Saturday 17th August - Manchester O2 Ritz:
Tickets on sale here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/3E00604D922809BC
Thursday 22nd August - London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Tickets on sale here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/3E00604CEE22266B
The list of breakthrough innovations in Thomas Dolby's 35 year career is continuous. As an early MTV icon he blazed a trail for electronic music with his imaginative videos. The same year as his own record reached the top of the pop/dance charts, he co-wrote and produced the first ever platinum-selling rap 12” single Magic’s Wand by Whodini. His synth playing and production have graced the recordings of Foreigner, Def Leppard, George Clinton and Joni Mitchell, earning five Grammy™ nominations. He appeared live with Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, with David Bowie at Live Aid, and with Roger Waters at The Wall in Berlin. And his self-penned “She Blinded Me With Science” became a Top 5 Billboard hit, going on to become an evergreen geek anthem of the 1980s that still pops up in Grand Theft Auto, The Big Bang Theory and Breaking Bad.
Thomas has created original music for feature films produced by George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Ken Russell; he has appeared with The Muppets, and on numerous TV shows from Soul Train to The Late Show.
Sought after as a consultant for tech startups and research companies, Dolby seemed to have a hand in every emerging entertainment platform, from laser disks and computer games to interactive TV, virtual reality installations and location-based entertainment. His name is on multiple US patents, and he has worked as an investment advisor for top venture capital firms. During the early Silicon Valley internet explosion, Thomas founded high tech startup Beatnik Inc and co-created the code that drove interactive audio in Java. When mobile phones began to play polyphonic ringtones, it was via his BAE technology, which Beatnik licensed to phone manufacturers to be embedded in over two billion cellular phones and devices.
Between adding music to the mix as in-house Music Director of every TED Conference from 2001-12, Thomas taught himself to be a digital filmmaker; and in 2013 he won multiple awards for his groundbreaking film The Invisible Lighthouse, which chronicles the closure of a 250 year old lighthouse visible from his coastal home in Suffolk, UK.
Since Autumn 2014 Thomas has held the post Professor of Music for New Media at Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute in Baltimore, MD. He released his best-selling memoir in 2017 ‘The Speed Of Sound’ (Macmillan/Flatiron) and plans to release his first novel ‘Prevailing Wind’ in Summer 2024.
This August, Dolby will return to UK live stages for his first headline appearances on home soil since 2013.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
w/ https://www.thomasdolby.com/
FURTHER PRAISE FOR THOMAS DOLBY
"He rose during the advent of the British New Wave. But what was he, exactly? A singer-songwriter? Performance artist? Programmer? Engineer, poet, actor, inventor? And if we couldn't be sure, how possibly could he? This is the engaging, emotional, funny and surprising tale of Thomas Dolby -- a brilliant multi-hyphenate on his journey of discovery and self-discovery." -- JJ Abrams, Director, Writer, Producer
"Whatever technology does to musicians will also be done to the rest of us -- but to Thomas Dolby first. Professor Dolby's candid memoir is fascinating. Its significance will grow." -- Bruce Sterling, author of The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things and The Mirrorshadeanthology
"Thomas Dolby has had at least four notable lives. The chart topping musician and ubiquitous MTV presence, the Silicon Valley innovator, the music director for TED and then, astonishingly, a professor at Johns Hopkins. His journey is as amazing as the book is well written. From start to finish, I thoroughly enjoyed every page of The Speed Of Sound. Brilliant." - Henry Rollins, bestselling author, journalist and musician
"Musician Thomas Dolby debuts with an absorbing account of his pioneering work merging digital music with film, technology, and science. In this story-filled memoir, Dolby draws deeply on his experiences as a synthesized music guru and early internet geek, offering wonderful scenes involving such notables as Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Steve Jobs, and George Lucas. His innovative accomplishments, rendered in fascinating detail here, are legendary." - Kirkus, Starred Review
“In his engaging memoir, British New Wave icon Dolby retraces his journey from London stock clerk to pop star to unlikely success as a Silicon Valley pioneer…Dolby’s style—understated but acute—and wealth of anecdotes make for an enjoyable narrative… the bespectacled Brit is more Renaissance man than one-hit wonder.” - Publishers Weekly
"Wildly entertaining" — Salon.com
