Robin Trower confirms new album and special guest Joanne Shaw Taylor on UK tour

“SOMETHING’S ABOUT TO CHANGE”
THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM
RELEASED 9th MARCH 2015
VIA MANHATON/V12 RECORDS

DOVETAILS MARCH/APRIL UK TOUR
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR

Highly anticipated as his first new studio album since 2013’s critically acclaimed Roots And Branches, Robin Trower’s Something’s About To Change, will be released by Manhaton/V12 Records on 9th March 2015 – the same day as his 70th birthday.

The new album coincides with Trower’s nationwide 17-date UK tour with special guest Joanne Shaw Taylor that kicks off on 26th March 2015.

When it comes to a new album by Robin Trower, some things never change. The guitar work will be breathtaking. The song writing will be heartfelt and fearless. The vocal will siphon the soul. True to form, from the opening swoop of electric guitar, Something’s About To Change is a thrilling encapsulation of everything fans love about the celebrated bandleader. And yet, as the title implies, this album finds Trower twisting his talent into bold new shapes.

Photo Credits: © Mike Prior

Something’s About To Change confirms a world-class musician at the top of his game. With his own V12 record label allowing Trower to bypass the spirit-sapping protocol of the conventional record industry, it comes to no surprise this new album sounds so vital. While palpably influenced by Trower’s deep love of post-war U.S. blues, its personal themes and visceral music means that it will resonate with every generation. “As a songwriter and a performer, you use everything at your disposal to put into songs,” reflects Trower.

The songs remain the cornerstones. Trower’s astonishing fretwork may sometimes take top billing, but the all-original material of Something’s About To Change speaks of the gas in his creative tank. Fallen drips with atmosphere. Riff No. 7 (Still Alive) moves with power and purpose.

Tracking alongside long-standing producer Livingstone Brown at Studio 91 in Newbury, this was not a dry exercise in box-ticking, but a bid to capture the rare chemistry between Trower and his band. On drums, Chris Taggart’s touch can be thunderous or feather-light. On organ, Luke Smith slips between his roles as support player and sparring partner on standout cuts like What You Never Want To Do. Leading the line, of course, is Trower himself, playing bass for the first time, alongside his unmistakable soul-in-fingers guitar parts. “There is some sort of feeling of emotional release,” he says, “when you play a note that rings out right.”

Photo Credits: © Mike Prior

Trower, of course, has plenty of peaks to choose from in his six-decade career. Hailing from Southend, he hit the London circuit of the early ’60s with fledgling R&B group The Paramounts, but it was his 1967 arrival in the line-up of Procol Harum that made his guitar work headline news.

A lesser talent might have settled for that meal-ticket, but Trower soon proved his questing spirit, quitting the British heavyweights to score his first solo smash-hit with 1974’s ageless Bridge Of Sighs – an album that made him a household name in the States and still sells an annual 15,000 copies in modern times. “That’s a powerful piece of work,” he told The Blues Magazine, “but it was because of Jimmy Dewar’s singing that it crossed over into the mainstream.”

While his ’60s peers were content to tread water and trade on former glories, Trower kept moving through the decades. The ’90s saw him partner Bryan Ferry on the well-received Taxiand Mamounaalbums, while his collaborative nature led to post-millennial alchemy alongside Jack Bruce on 2008’s Seven Moons.

Photo Credits: © Mike Prior

Even in recent times, Trower’s work walks a tightrope between fresh and familiar, one foot planted in his formative blues influences, the other boldly striding forward. It’s a dichotomy perfectly summed-up by 2013’s Roots And Branches album, which combined new original material with visionary reboots of cherished blues covers from Hound Dog to The Thrill Is Gone.

“The criteria was that I had to come up with an original arrangement for every song” notes Trower, “or I wouldn’t touch it”

Its curriculum vitae lands with a massive thump. And now, in 2015, chalk up another career high with Something’s About To Change. Whether you spin these songs on your stereo, or catch them live as the bandleader tours the UK through March/April 2015, there’s no doubting the enduring power of Trower. As he told The Blues Magazine: “I still enjoy making music. I practically live for playing the guitar.”

Photo Credits: © Mike Prior

When one of the most celebrated – but least outspoken – practitioners of electric guitar declares that “I can’t remember ever being so happy with a finished album before”, you’d be well-advised to sit up and take notice.

To support the release of Something’s About To Change Robin Trower will embark on a 17-date March/April Tour. His special guest will be guitarist and singer/songwriter, Joanne Shaw Taylor.

Tickets for all regional shows are priced at £22.50, while London tickets are priced £25.00. Tickets can purchased at www.thegigcartel.com or from the 24 hour box office – 0844 478 0898.

LINCOLN, ENGINE SHED
Thursday 26th March 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 0844 888 8766
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS
www.engineshed.co.uk

BURY ST. EDMUNDS, THE APEX
Friday 27th March 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01824 758 000
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3FD
www.theapex.co.uk

BIRMINGHAM, TOWN HALL
Saturday 28th March 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 0121 345 0600
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Victoria Square, Birmingham, B3 3DQ
www.thsh.co.uk

SALFORD, LOWRY
Sunday 29th March 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 0843 208 6000
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Pier 8, Salford Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
www.thelowry.com

CHESTER, LIVE ROOMS
Thursday 2nd April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01244 317171
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
1 Station Road, Chester, CH1 3DR
www.theliverooms.com

GATESHEAD, SAGE
Friday 3rd April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 0191 443 4661
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
St Mary’s Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 2JR
www.sagegateshead.com

GLASGOW, ARCHES
Saturday 4th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01415 651 000
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
253 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G2 8DL
www.thearches.co.uk

ABERDEEN, LEMON TREE
Sunday 5th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01224 337 688
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
5 West North Street, Aberdeen, AB24 5AT
www.aberdeenperformingarts.com

STOCKTON, ARC
Tuesday 7th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01642 525 199
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Dovecot Street, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 1LL
www.arconline.co.uk

YORK, BARBICAN
Wednesday 8th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01423 502 116
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Paragon St, York, North Yorkshire,  YO10 4AH
www.yorkbarbican.co.uk

SHEFFIELD, CITY HALL BALLROOM
Thursday 9th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01442 789 789
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Barkers Pool, Sheffield, S1 2JA
www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

HOLMFIRTH, PICTUREDROME
Friday 10th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 0844 478 0898
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Market Walk, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD9 7DA
www.picturedrome.net 

LONDON, O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE
Saturday 11th April 2015
Tickets: £25.00 / Box Office: 0844 477 2000
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Shepherds Bush Green, London, W12 8TT
www.o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk

CRAWLEY, HAWTH
Tuesday 14th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01293 553636
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
The Hawth, Hawth Avenue, Crawley, RH10 6YZ
www.hawth.co.uk

EXETER, CORN EXCHANGE
Wednesday 15th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01392 665 938
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Market Street, Exeter, EX1 1BW
www.exeter.gov.uk/cornexchange

SALISBURY, CITY HALL
Thursday 16th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01722 434 434
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Malthouse Lane, Salisbury, SP2 7TU
www.cityhallsalisbury.co.uk

MILTON KEYNES, STABLES
Friday 17th April 2015
Tickets: £22.50 / Box Office: 01908 280800
Book Online: www.thegigcartel.com
Stockwell Lane, Wavendon, Milton Keynes,
Buckinghamshire, MK17 8LU
www.stables.org

Joanne Shaw Taylor. Photo Credit: © Adam Kennedy