Randy Newman In Concert at Vicar Street

EUROPEAN TOUR – FEBRUARY & MARCH 2012

‘The first, and perhaps the best, of modern pop’s great storytellers. He may well be the greatest contemporary American songwriter.’

Observer

RANDY NEWMAN has announced two Dublin Shows as part of a European tour in February & March 2012 to coincide with the release of the CD/DVD album package Randy Newman: Live in London in November. The tour also includes dates in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Denmark and Switzerland. Tickets for the extra Dublin Show on 2nd March 2012 are priced from 55.00 Euro and go on sale Monday 7th November at 9am from all usual outlets.


Randy Newman: Live in London was recorded while Newman was touring in support of his acclaimed 2008 album Harps and Angels. He performed a special televised concert for the BBC at London’s intimate LSO St. Luke’s, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler. The 22-song set features material from throughout Newman’s four-decade long career, including some of his best-known songs like ‘Short People’, ‘Louisiana 1927’, and ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’, as well as newer songs such as ‘A Few Words in Defense of My Country’ and ‘Laugh and Be Happy’.

Earlier this year the second volume in The Randy Newman Songbook series, in which the songwriter takes a fresh look at his work in new solo recordings, was released. The Daily Telegraph called the album ‘An invigorating celebration of the joys of great songwriting and proof of the power of one man and his piano.’ The Independent declared, ‘Newman never sounds more quintessentially Newman than when experienced, as here, alone at the piano, with the lyrical intricacies and ironies of his songs dependent on just his laconic delivery and trenchant accompaniment for their effect.’

After starting his songwriting career as a teenager, Newman launched into recording as a singer and pianist in 1968 with his self-title al bum Randy Newman. His reputation as a songwriter grew quickly, as Judy Collins, Dusty Springfield, Peggy Lee, Harry Nilsson, and Joe Cocker, among others, recorded his work. Throughout the 1970s he released several other acclaimed albums such as 12 Songs, Sail Away, and Good Old Boys. In addition to his solo recordings and regular international touring, Newman began composing and scoring for films in the 1980s. The list of movies he has worked on since then includes The Natural, Awakenings, Ragtime, all three Toy Story pictures, Seabiscuit, James and the Giant Peach, and A Bug’s Life.

Newman has earned six Grammys, for: Toy Story 3 (2011), ‘Our Town’ (2006), ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ (2002), ‘When She Loved Me’ (2000), A Bug’s Life (1999), and The Natural (1984). He has won three Emmys and in 2010 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been nominated 20 times for Academy Awards and has won twice: for ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ (Monsters Inc.) and for ‘We Belong Together’ (Toy Story 3); he performed the latter song at the 2011 ceremony.