Having spent half a lifetime within each other’s orbits, and the odd show here or there, their timelines serendipitously aligned in 2024. Both Gruff and Bill released critically acclaimed albums just weeks apart; Bill’s Iechyd Da and Gruff’s Sadness Sets You Free arrived in January 2024 and found themselves frequently mentioned in the same breath.
Therefore it wasn’t a giant leap of logic to take to the road together with full bands in tow to round off a special year. Headliners will switch each night, with both artists playing a full headline length set.
Gruff Rhys is a songwriter, producer and BAFTA-winning storyteller from Bethesda in Wales who has consistently sought a variety of outlets for the spectrum of muses behind his creative fights. Formerly most well known as the frontman of Super Furry Animals – a band that has been able to achieve that rarest of mixes, artistic adventure with popular devotion – he blended fuzz-fled rock, pure harmonies and cutting edge electronics, while with his other band, Neon Neon, Rhys has documented the lives of maverick car maker John DeLorean and Italian activist and publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in widescreen style.
With their blissful melodies, his solo records have explored untapped areas lyrically too. His first, 2005’s Yr Atal Genhedlaeth, revelled in Welsh puns; 2014’s American Interior celebrated the unlikely yet influential 18th century explorer John Evans; Babelsberg offered a baroque take on the modern world in 2018; while a year later Pang! created a multi-lingual mash-up, driven by folkish bleeps crafted in collaboration with South African artist-producer Muzi.However, while all those records certainly explored fresh territory, the Top Ten charting Seeking New Gods climbed lyrically and musically on to totally new terrain, because for his seventh solo record Gruff Rhys created a conceptual record about his own mountain and became his most critically and commercially successful solo album yet. His last album Sadness Sets Me Free was released early 2024 and has received rave reviews and acclaimed to be amongst his finest work.
Bill Ryder-Jones is a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist from West Kirby on the Wirral. Bill first found success as a founding member of the band The Coral, achieving several UK number one albums, a mercury prize nomination and tours with Blur and Oasis. He left the band in 2008, signing to the great British independent label Domino Records, with whom he has released five LPs, from his first – a classical score to Italo Calvino’s ‘If on a Winter Night a Traveller’, to this year’s critically acclaimed album ‘Iechyd Da.
Iechyd Da is Ryder-Jones’ most ambitious record to date. At times joyous and grand, at others intimate and heartbreaking, the past few years spent producing other artists has provided that gentle nudge to expand into new territory, from kids’ choirs and tender strings to dramatically re-contextualised disco samples.
Outside of his own work, Bill produces, arranges and writes with and for other artists, recent highlights including producing Mick Head’s latest top ten album Loophole, Swim Deep’s upcoming LP and the gorgeous new records by Amelia Coburn and Saint Saviour.
GRUFF RHYS & BILL RYDER-JONES
ANNOUNCE VERY SPECIAL DOUBLE HEADLINE
VICAR STREET, DUBLIN
18TH NOVEMBER 2024
TICKETS FROM €28.00 AVAILABLE FROM FRIDAY, 31ST MAY AT 10AM
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Connect with Gruff Rhys: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Connected with Bill Ryder-Jones: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify