bergenPAC to Welcome James Blunt, 2/28

Bergen Performing Arts Center located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood New Jersey truly offers music for everyone at affordable prices... See English singer-songwriter, musician and former army captain James Blunt on Tuesday, May 6 2014 at 8pm. Tickets for James Blunt go on sale Friday, February 28, 2014 Be sure to reserve tickets for these new shows at www.ticketmaster.com or Box Office at 201.227.1030.

We all think we know about James Blunt, of course. But those who've been off-planet, here's a recap on the story so far. Born in an army hospital in Tidworth, Wiltshire. Educated in Harrow, then Bristol. Signed up for four years in the Army. Ended up serving six, in Canada, Kosovo and then London. Spotted playing at the South by Southwest Music Festival, signed up by Linda Perry to her new label Custard. Recorded an album, Back To Bedlam, with Tom Rockrock in LA. Released it to universal indifference. And then the third single, You're Beautiful, came out.

And so there it was: one big hit, two more albums, three world tours, four number one singles, five Grammy nods (plus two BRITS, two Ivor Novellos and a host of MTV awards), a six-piece band, seven whole years on the road, eight kiss and tells, and then the numbers spiral out of control: nearly 17m albums and 20 million singles sold worldwide. Plus over 5m Facebook 'likes', 250m plays on Spotify and an astonishing 257m YouTube views.

What do those figures mean? Some amazing experiences - some youthful excesses. The chance to use his high profile to do some good, supporting charities such as Medicines Sans Frontiers and Help For Heroes (including three foiled attempts to play in Afghanistan for serving soldiers), and to draw attention to the issue of climate change.

But to a lad who picked up a guitar and wrote his first song at 14, wrote his university dissertation on the music industry, took that guitar to the war in Kosovo, and always dreamed of making music, what success has meant, more than anything, is freedom. 'What it allowed me to do was go on tour with a band. That was absolutely amazing, and so I recorded our second album, All The Lost Souls, with that band, and make a deeper, richer album. Then I recorded the third album, Some Kind Of Trouble, in the UK with lots of musicians and a fancy studio, and enjoyed making a more upbeat album. I picked up an electric guitar and did the kind of songs that I'd heard as a teenager but couldn't replicate on my acoustic. It was fun playing catch-up, exploring all the things I wanted to do and be - all the other musicians I wanted to sound like.'

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