I suppose most people aren’t that interested in the London one, so I’ll just talk about Manchester. Saturday 7th April will see the band playing at the Manchester Arena in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Tickets are on sale Friday 15th December at 9am.
Originally released in April 2008, St. Jude charted at number 4 in its first week and went on to win the inaugural Guardian First British Album award, beating albums by Duffy, Adele and Glasvegas. The record saw Courteeners present to the world a first set of songs that perfectly sound tracked modern life in the UK. Released on the 6th April, the new, unplugged version of St. Jude has been produced by Liam Fray and Joe Cross and will be released on the 6th April 2018.
Liam Fray: “We were looking for a way to mark the 10 year anniversary of the release of St. Jude… we thought it might be worth at least raising a little glass to celebrate the fact that we’re still here. I’d been out on an acoustic tour this autumn, re-working and revisiting tunes from the back catalogue, stripping them back, bigging them up and experimenting with some different interpretations.
“The string section were incredible and unknowingly nudged me into unlocking something special. I loved revisiting all the old songs and putting a new twist on them. So, the day after the final date of the tour, I gingerly prised myself out of bed, booked a studio, rang the band, brought in some string-players and we ‘re-did’ St. Jude in a few days. And it sounds fucking brilliant.”
