BOB Dylan will play Hull Bonus Arena on October 27 as one of nine British dates on his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021-2024.
Tickets go on sale at 10am today at ticketmaster.co.uk/event/36005CE8F066F6 as the Nobel Prize-winning American singer-songwriter announces his first UK itinerary since his Never Ending Tour dates in April and May 2017.
Dylan, who turned 81 on May 24, began his latest travels last December in Milwaukee and has since played 74 gigs showcasing his 39th studio album, June 2020’s chart-topping Rough And Rowdy Ways, his first set of original songs since 2012’s Tempest.
Dylan will open his British visit with four intimate nights at the London Palladium on October 19, 20, 23 and 24, before playing Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on October 26, Hull the next night, Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on October 28 and Glasgow Armadillo on October 30 and 31. Preceding European dates will run from October 25 to 17, taking in Oslo, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
All Dylan’s 8pm shows are “non-phone events”, where audience members must put their phones into a Yondr bag, to be kept with them until after the concert. This is intended to deter audio and video recording, photography or the distractions of using a mobile device.
American dates so far have placed an emphasis on the Minnesota-born folk and rock veteran’s latest album, rather than a greatest hits set from a 60-year career that has brought him 125 million record sales and a 2001 Oscar for Best Original Song for Things Have Changed from the Wonder Boys soundtrack.
American dates so far have placed an emphasis on the Minnesota-born folk and rock veteran’s latest album rather than greatest hits from a 60-year career that has brought him 125 million record sales and a 2001 Oscar for Best Original Song for Things Have Changed from the Wonder Boys soundtrack.
The latest addition to those sales is a one-off: a new studio recording of Dylan’s 1962-penned protest song Blowin’ In The Wind that sold for £1.5 million at auction last Thursday at Christie’s, in London, where bidding lasted four minutes, matching the length of the record coincidentally, after a guide price of £600,000 to £1million.
The recording is presented on an Ionic Original disc, a form of technology that promises to deliver higher quality sound than vinyl and can be played on a conventional turntable by the way. The disc is made of aluminium, treated with a layer of nitrocellulose, coated with a sapphire and quartz gradient.
The recording was produced by musician T Bone Burnett in “one take, if I’m not mistaken”, working with Dylan, mandolin player Greg Leisz and bassist Don Was. “It felt holy. It always feels holy for me playing with Bob,” said Burnett, who described it as a “one-off piece of singular art, the equivalent of an oil painting”.
Dylan’s music can be heard live in York too in late-summer, at the Theatre Royal from September 6 to 10, in Conor McPherson’s bold reimagining of his songs “like you’ve never heard them before” in Girl From The North Country, a heart-breaking and universal story about family and love.
Writer-director McPherson’s double Olivier and Tony Award-winning West End and Broadway hit is set in 1934 in the heartland of America, where a group of wayward souls cross paths in a time-weathered guesthouse.
Standing at a turning point in their lives, they realise nothing is what it seems, but as they search for a future and hide from the past, they find themselves facing unspoken truths about the present.
Tickets for the 7.30pm evening performances and 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
