Justin Currie

  • Motion-sickness

justin currie tour blog

"Attention-seeking desperado punting inoffensive balladry"

An introduction to hell.

Welcome to Hell. You can navigate from here to other, more private hells. You will find little in the way of further elucidation there but be my very special guest. In the torrential guff that is the internet you have arrived at a place that is uniquely neither informative nor entertaining, sickening nor aggravating, colourful nor classy, but one that is certainly very, very far from interesting. Feel free to move around within the confines of this dreadful place and when the agony of ennui begins to bite you can always return to Hell.

justin currie tour blog

We slip into Sydney in the damp darkness, dump our load and we’re out. Well, Mardi Gras has just finished…

justin currie tour blog

Goodbye, Christchurch

I can’t get a handle on Christchurch. There are old-time trams on freshly laid tracks. It looks like a…

justin currie tour blog

Auckland, NZ

The plane descends over what looks a heavy Tasman Sea into a thick bank of cloud covering the land…

justin currie tour blog

Show day, Melbourne

I have a stormy sleep and wait in the morning for an interview that never happens. I tap at…

justin currie tour blog

Heading out to St Kilda from the airport we hit our first traffic jam of the trip. We skirt…

justin currie tour blog

Show Day, Brisbane

I have an epic sleep – 2AM through to midday with only one stop for defuelling. I potter about…

justin currie tour blog

Day off, Brisbane

I have a patchy nap after the long morning of circadian chaos. At 1PM I make plans. I’ll head for…

justin currie tour blog

Adelaide to Brisbane

The jet zips up from the scorched runway into the limpid blue. We climb out over the St Vincent…

justin currie tour blog

Perth to Adelaide

After the second show I walk down to the river around midnight. A city of two million people and…

justin currie tour blog

We reunite at arrivals with our long lost colleague, Skip and are quickly at the hotel. It’s balmy out,…

justin currie tour blog

Doha to Perth

After a luxury repast I get horizontal for the rest of the flight. Having put my watch on WA…

Heathrow to Doha

We re-lounge at Heathrow, surrounded by the snooty, the successful, and the sordid all wheeling their valuables around the…

justin currie tour blog

Glasgow to Heathrow

Long haul. The start goes smoothly. Guitars, packed two to a golf bag, are weighed and spirited away on…

justin currie tour blog

I sit in the back lounge listening to Sky and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On until…

justin currie tour blog

We all sleep fractiously after a late leave and a lot of stopping. I slouch off the mothership into…

justin currie tour blog

Copenhagen and Hamburg

I don’t sleep much after 2AM so read until 6 when I finally slip under. I charge off the…

justin currie tour blog

We’re late arriving after getting stuck at the Norway/Sweden border in the middle of the night due to a closed…

justin currie tour blog

The bus brings us into town. This is not the Oslo I remember. It’s all gleaming towers in the…

justin currie tour blog

Like yesterday the venue is nowhere near anywhere. I sniff the air outside the bus. Cool, overcast, intermittent cats…

justin currie tour blog

This is all I saw of Stuttgart.

justin currie tour blog

I peer out of the back lounge window. Dark clouds torn and tattered stir around the sky. Downstairs I…

justin currie tour blog

In Amsterdam

There’s a milky green canal two feet from the door of the bus. I edge tentatively along its edge…

justin currie tour blog

To Amsterdam

I’m sitting in my usual seat in Glasgow airport in a quiet corridor just beyond the scent and shades…

justin currie tour blog

I roll out of my air-con coffin around 1 after a long sleep broken by the odd rattling noise…

justin currie tour blog

To Ostend (We must go on)

The tour bus is waiting for us in a bay right outside Terminal 5. It’s a double-decker with a…

justin currie tour blog

To Guilford and Weyfest

Andy, Jim and I sit gossiping in a taxi, keen to be back at work, preparing ourselves…

justin currie tour blog

To Southampton (When Will Bingo Die?)

I’m to be limo driver this morning as the Glasgow taxi landscape has become increasingly unpredictable since the pandemic…

justin currie tour blog

I was going to start this sentence with the word “so” but I caught myself just in time.…

justin currie tour blog

Belfast, 6th June 2020

Our propeller plane glides southwest down the Firth of Clyde to land with a gentle bump at George…

justin currie tour blog

Just three of us sit in the little van taking us south from dreich Glasgow to (possibly) sunny Durham.…

justin currie tour blog

I sleep till one thirty and head out to meet a friend at the Hall of Fame.…

justin currie tour blog

Warrendale, PA

I’m sitting outside a pizza place situated at an oblique X-shaped intersection and gazing over heavy traffic to a…

justin currie tour blog

Summersville, WV

Burly workmen carry me from my station to a high wall where, in a horrifying initiation ceremony, they mount…

justin currie tour blog

We have a food poisoning casualty in the shape of Iain, who only barely makes it back on for…

justin currie tour blog

Carrboro, NC

I stir at sunrise and sit in the front lounge as the bus pulls into the leafy campus of…

justin currie tour blog

Before we leave for Alexandria at 3AM we drop into the Red Lion opposite the gig where a five…

justin currie tour blog

New York, New Jersey

I cannot muster the enthusiasm to emerge from my cotton sheet cocoon until late afternoon. I make out for…

justin currie tour blog

Toronto and Philadelphia and Boston

The dreaded day off, day of the dead. I open the curtains of my room on the 16th floor…

justin currie tour blog

Milwaukee to St Paul

In Milwaukee I spend a few hours catching up with Bobby T, an original eighty-sixer and friend. We have…

justin currie tour blog

Salina, Kansas

I drop down from my bunk around 6AM, rosy-fingered dawn spreading across the plains. Gary the bus driver pulls…

justin currie tour blog

I have a rough night of it on the bus. Sleep will not swaddle me, it just claws me…

justin currie tour blog

To Salt Lake City

We’re off at 9AM to Utah and after a brief stint in my coffin I make bus coffee and…

justin currie tour blog

Day Off, Boise

BOY-see not BOY-zee says Wikipedia. Well, the streets are immaculately clean and everyone exudes that rural hospitality so typical…

justin currie tour blog

To Seattle and Vancouver and Portland

Today we drive by day for the first time and I stretch out on the leather upholstery of the…

justin currie tour blog

Berkley and Eugene

I drop down from my bunk around 10am. There’s a foul odour in the air. Gary, our trusty driver,…

justin currie tour blog

Back we come overnight from Phoenix to a sodden Hollywood for an early morning check-in prior to the…

justin currie tour blog

After the Canyon Club show we say hi to some old friends in the parking lot before the…

justin currie tour blog

Good morning Hollywood. I crank up the window blind to a foggy scene right out of Chandler. There’s…

justin currie tour blog

The device chirrups at my ear and I click into staring consciousness. It’s 3:30AM. I scrape some marmalade…

justin currie tour blog

In Kirkwall

I draw back the heavy woollen curtains and sunlight streams in like honey. The harbour lies gleaming below my…

justin currie tour blog

Blue, blue as an egg, the sky says spring and my watch says go. I don my two small…

justin currie tour blog

To Southampton

We park up outside the front of the Guildhall and head to catering to discover our chef Sarah has…

justin currie tour blog

Day Off Birmingham

On arrival I chuck my stuff in the room and get out for a wander. I take the canal…

justin currie tour blog

To Dunoon and Oban

A few powder puff clouds hang in a limpid sky and a raptor sails over the first of the…

justin currie tour blog

In Inverness to Perth

After scran I take an amble through the twilight along the river Ness.…

justin currie tour blog

To Inverness

We angle northwest through Aberdeenshire’s rich pasture, autumn a little more advanced up here, patches of foliage coloured…

justin currie tour blog

To Aberdeen

We are debating when we might have played in the granite city last. I wager it was the Music…

justin currie tour blog

Sheffield to Newcastle

I sleep poorly therefore sleep in. But I have my packing honed to a military efficiency and…

justin currie tour blog

Day Off, Manchester

I wander off in early afternoon, sniffing out a few local recommendations. The first thing I do…

justin currie tour blog

Blackpool to York

In the early evening I walk south along the waterfront, the Welsh hills pale in the distance…

justin currie tour blog

To Nottingham and Blackpool

The milky light leaks around the hotel room window blinds and I toy with getting out for a stroll.…

justin currie tour blog

In Cardiff, to Southend

We head straight for the stage door, leaving hotel check-in for later. I scope out the venue and find…

justin currie tour blog

We’re on a day trip to the outskirts of Wigan. Seven days of rehearsals done, we’re decamping south to…

justin currie tour blog

Queens Hall Days Two and Three

And off we set a second day, the weather still madly midsummer. We discuss some changes to the…

justin currie tour blog

Queens Hall Day One

Here’s a white van, glinting on my street, three rows of seats, side door open. We enter the…

justin currie tour blog

Promo Day 2, May 28th, 2021

PROMO DAY 2

To the bathroom, to the bag, to the cab to the radio. Virgin is…

justin currie tour blog

Promo Day 1, May 27 2021

Eebs arrives at the flat at 9am and we commence loading acoustic instruments into the vehicle, which closely…

justin currie tour blog

“I really don’t know if there is hope beyond the black hole; if there…

justin currie tour blog

I’m driving northeast to Nairn, where I am appearing as an unannounced guest at their beer festival. It’s a pub…

justin currie tour blog

Edinburgh, St. Celia’s

I’m playing a “songwriter-in-the-round” charity event in Edinburgh with Ricky Ross, Karine Polwart and old friend Gary Clark. It’s taking…

Changing server

We may lose contact soon.

Everything’s gonna be alright.

justin currie tour blog

So to London, choking snakepit of billionaires. Our abode is way uptown, a barren tower in a morass of roads…

justin currie tour blog

Brighton and Colchester

I’m sitting on the seafront basking in the sun. My bench has a plaque that reads: “FAY HARRIS 1921 -…

justin currie tour blog

To Preston and Nottingham

Bristol, goodbye. Not a cloud to be seen, October at its most beautiful and here we sit, strapped to our…

justin currie tour blog

We approach Bristol from the south, passing black lakes of solar farms. Portishead lies out to the west, a few ships…

justin currie tour blog

We grab some scran on the way out of Cardiff and are soon cruising across the Severn bridge stuffing our…

justin currie tour blog

Farewell Holiday Inn, sterile lodge on the edge of town. Today’s route takes us directly south along A-roads edging the…

justin currie tour blog

We arrive at our hotel outside Chester in good time. There are a few hours of daylight left so I…

justin currie tour blog

We snake towards the motorway through Yorkstone villages, passing a vast estate. The aristocracy are everywhere, like rats or Nando’s.…

justin currie tour blog

To Wakefield

I make my own way back to the hotel after the Glee, amazed to find no restaurants open after 11…

justin currie tour blog

To Birmingham/ Day Off

The infernal chirruping of my phone alarm pokes me into resentful consciousness. It’s 11am but I could cruise the halls…

justin currie tour blog

To Newcastle

Suitcases packed in the back of the Grey Toupee, we build up to escape velocity. England is beckoning. We pick…

justin currie tour blog

To Edinburgh

I come to in my own bed, not yet fully on the road. I set the kettle on its plastic…

justin currie tour blog

To Manchester

As soon as we are on the road Mr. Nisbet christens our vehicle “The Grey Toupee” after a gentleman’s club…

justin currie tour blog

Day Off, Liverpool

Our hotel is a ’70s brown brick building refitted to resemble an art-deco ocean liner. So I went out roaming…

justin currie tour blog

To Liverpool 

White cumuli hang lazily in a milky blue sky as we angle up to Merseyside. Everywhere about us there must…

justin currie tour blog

To Wolverhampton

I investigate my face in the bathroom mirror, pink and pillowy like an eleven-year-old girl’s bedroom. I should put a…

justin currie tour blog

To Pocklington

I wake up in the dark cocoon of my 70s hotel and draw back the vinyl shades to reveal a…

justin currie tour blog

To Holmfirth

The lid of doom is clamped on the country and a porridge of grey prevails. Summer’s over, boys or maybe…

justin currie tour blog

Oh, shit – the sun is shining, shining down on all of bonny green Scotland. What does this portend?…

justin currie tour blog

Crybabies (Shot and edited by Jamie Vincent Gillespie)

https://youtu.be/1h3vS9di0mE

justin currie tour blog

With the encroaching cynicism of middle age, episodes of excitement become increasingly rare. Perhaps a trip to some unvisited country…

justin currie tour blog

This Is My Kingdom Now out today on all capitalist tech outfits

This masterpiece of meh can be retrieved from here in physical form:  https://justincurrie.tmstor.es/

And here in bits:  http://apple.co/2naovtO

And from the tax…

Tour with The Pallbearers announced for October/ November!!!!!!!

Tickets on sale 9:00am on Monday 15th May

See Parades for details.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

I have had a “single”. It’s called Failing To See and it weighs a ton. Here’s a video featuring people…

Separated at Perth?

Perth want me to punt this:

http://www.perthfestival.co.uk/event/justin-currie/

Consider it punted, Perth.

World exclusive. Video of specie cunt on train.

https://youtu.be/MtAAzMV47BY

Trump fucks goat – kittens frolic. An introduction to My Kingdom

https://youtu.be/m4mePqzm5tE

justin currie tour blog

Album release announced via satellite, telegraph, semaphore etc…

Good moaning. I take great pleasure today in announcing the pre-release (whatever the fuck that is) of This Is My…

justin currie tour blog

This Is My Kingdom Now

Link to high-budget video. Directed by Steven Seagull.

https://youtu.be/ab-jjL6fWo0

justin currie tour blog

Short UK jaunt announced

Just added some dates in May/June to support the forthcoming release of This Is My Kingdom Now on Endless Shipwreck…

Leeds to London, November 16th-19th 2014

After four nights in the same hotel in Leeds it’s refreshing to be back…

Selby and Uppermill, November 12th-14th 2014

At last we escape the clutches of the country club with its therapy pool and veneer of hushed sympathy. I…

Norwich, November 11th 2014

Heave-ho, we head out of Bury, swinging round the sugar factory which belches white…

Bexhill-on-Sea, November 8th 2014

By the time we hit Bexhill the warm southern wind is whipping off the channel in swiping gusts. We hear…

To Liverpool, 7th November, 2014

We start at ten. The gear goes in the back, the boys go in the front and we get on…

Phoenix to LA, LA to San Francisco, October 4th – 9th 2014

We load into the van at eleven for the seven hour drive to LA,…

El Paso to Phoenix, October 2nd & 3rd

Another morning, another fucking beautiful day, still in Texas. But not for long. The route out of El Paso hugs…

Dallas to Austin and El Paso, TX, September 1st & 2nd 2014

Texas is a different world, an unimaginable place in, say, Manhattan. It sits culturally…

Dallas, TX, 30th September 2014

In the afternoon of the show I hook up with old friends the Kresses…

Minneapolis to Dallas, September 28th to 30th 2014

We leave the Twin Cities early and are…

Minneapolis, September 27th 2014

We cross the Mississippi four times, once in, once out and twice in the…

Chicago, September 25th 2014

Why do we wave to people on boats? I’m sitting under a high sun…

To Chicago, 24th September 2014

We escape the clutches of the city early in the morning, all the heavy…

To and From Philadelphia, September 22nd 2014

We take a leisurely amble down the 95 to Philly and seem to drive…

New York City, 21st September 2014

Around lunchtime I take a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge dodging through the streams…

To New York, September 20th 2014

Onward up the eastern seaboard we go, the weather consistently glorious. Virginia, Maryland, Delaware,…

To Vienna, VA, September 19th 2014

I awake to the tragedy of my own people rejecting radical change to cling…

To Pittsburgh, September 17th 2014

We are out of Cleveland by 9am, pale blue skies above. There are three…

To Cleveland, OH, September 15th 2014

I am sorry to be leaving Nashville. After last night’s show a pleasant bevy…

To Nashville, September 13th 2014

We lift out through thin fog and reach over Islay’s inner seas, the island…

justin currie tour blog

NYC City Winery

Still tickets left for this show here:

http://www.citywinery.com/newyork/justin-currie-4-22.html .

Hallo good people of USA. Here’s a quick update on the upcoming tour. It’s all up. For debate. Firstly I’m…

Rotterdam to Cologne, January 6th 2014

Hull to rotterdam, jan 5th 2014, tracks of the year 2013.

Here are my tracks of the year, 2013:

Small Plane by Bill Callahan Black Tambourine by Withered Hand Avant Gardener by Courtney…

Bob Harris session, London, December 9th & 10th

I come burning out of the JPR Management Christmas party in a…

Monday 4th of November, 2013

Being the dick that I am, I pride myself on passing pointless…

I NEED YOUR HELP

Women, I need your help. Next…

September 20th 2013

September 17th – 19th 2013, september 14th 2013, 12th september 2013, 11th september, 2013, bend to my will live at kyoti studios.

Brighton, September 9th 2013

We haul out of Cambridge through desultory drips of rain. I have…

justin currie tour blog

Cambridge, September 8th

The broken white lines stream towards me like tracer fire, England in early autumn slides past the van’s windows all…

justin currie tour blog

Bad sports metaphor

As the transfer window closes I find myself sitting in the manager’s office, gold Montblanc in hand, staring down at…

Lolling in bed.

Into A Pearl

justin currie tour blog

Good morning, Fuckers

Out today like a goddamn plague, like a mass escape from the asylum.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/178Q3Tk iTunes: http://smarturl.it/lowerreaches …

This is my ass

I’ll be selling my ass on Thursday at HMV, Buchanan Street in…

Wogan with a guitar

On with Tezza, 11am Radio 2, Sunday 18th singing live with Stu

Back to Gatwick

After an arduous soundcheck trying to fit eleven lines into…

French village

To gatwick and beyond.

My cabbie offers me a pellet of chewing gum, perhaps reacting to the reek…

justin currie tour blog

Whoring Alert

For I shall be a-whoring, next Thursday the 22nd at HMV, Buchanan St, Glasgow. Singing and signing on the week…

Hitler Youth watches Coronation Street

Member of Hitler Youth watching Coronation Street during half-time of Celtic game.

Little Stars

Download this for free now at http://justincurrie.com/little-stars-download New album Lower Reaches released 19th August. Pre-order it and a signed lyric…

Recent Comments

  • “Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful post with us.”  —Volet roulant 19e arrondissement Paris
  • “Greetings!”  —Greg
  • “satire”  —boxes
  • February 2023
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • February 2013
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • August 2011
  • November 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2006
  • December 2005
  • The 100% ROCK MAGAZINE Team

100% ROCK MAGAZINE

  • Aussie Tour News
  • News & articles
  • Photo Galleries
  • Movies + other

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN CURRIE, del Amitri – Feb 2023

INTERVIEW: JUSTIN CURRIE, del Amitri – Feb 2023 By Shane Pinnegar

justin currie tour blog

del Amitri [the little ‘d’ is how they prefer it] return to Australia this month for the first time since 1990, when they toured on the back of their breakthrough second album Waking Hours. That album climbed to #8 in the Australian charts, with singles Kiss This Thing Goodbye, Stone Cold Sober and Nothing Ever Happens all hitting the Top 50.

The band released another four albums before taking a hiatus in 2002, selling around six million records all up. Chief songwriter, singer and bassist Justin Currie steered the ship along with guitarist Iain Harvie as other musicians came and went, most notably Andy Alston on keyboards since 1989. Currie’s established a successful solo career since, releasing four albums under his own name, and reunited with Harvie and Alston, as well as former del Amitri guitarist Kris Dollimore and drummer Ashley Soan, in 2013.

It took until 2021 to release another studio record, titled Fatal Mistakes – but don’t be fooled into thinking the title betrays a regretful view of their almost-but-not-quite-huge career. Currie humbly tells SHANE PINNEGAR that he feels very privileged to have the career he’s had and keep doing what he loves rather than having to resort to getting a “real job”.

“Yes, it’s a privilege and an unexpected luxury.

“I mean, really, we’ve just kind of kept the wages being paid by still having songs played on the radio. And that’s just like, you know, that’s not our doing, really – if anything, that’s because the people who worked for A&M [Record label] were so diligent and good at their jobs in the 1990’s.

“So, I’m eternally thankful that I don’t have to work in a restaurant! I mean, I liked working in restaurants when I was young, but I couldn’t do it now.

“Also, what happened in the great internet wars, the Napster Wars, is that all the money and music went out of recorded music and then went into the live arena. So, we were kind of quite fortunate in that we sort of missed out that whole period where music was ostensibly free, and ticket prices were incredibly cheap because they were all subsidised by the Recording Industry.

“By the time we went back on the road, ticket prices were five, six times what they were in the 90’s and we could make a living playing. So yeah – total luck. And I’m forever grateful to the fates that that’s the case.”

Chatting to Currie from his home in Glasgow, it’s easy to see that he’s relaxed and looking forward to heading Down Under for a respite from Scotland’s cold winter, even admitting that he’s “looking forward to packing my shorts.”

justin currie tour blog

One thing he says he won’t be doing is a repeat performance of reliving that 1990 tour – a tour he’s stated in interviews was “one of the highlights of our career.”

“That’s the last time we toured – we did a very brief promo tour in 1992, we were just there for a week. I don’t think… we might have been in Perth, but I only really remember being on the east coast.

“We certainly will not be able to relive any of that,” he chuckles, “because we were in our mid-20s, and we had the energy to do shitloads of promo during the day, do the gigs at night and then go out ‘til four in the morning. And I don’t know how we did it! Well, I do know how we did it – we were young!

“And that tour was just incredibly special. Because we’d had a really busy year, it started when we had a big hit in the UK, and then we kind of got stuck in America. We got stuck on a tour of these sheds and arenas in America supporting an act called Melissa Etheridge, which was a real grind, playing to half empty auditoriums.

“And so, we came right off the back of that, and Australia was just a complete breath of fresh air compared to what we’d been doing for most of that summer. Everybody just seemed so unpretentious. And, you know, I love America, I love touring America: but when you’re only meeting radio guys and promo people, it can start to go a bit Spinal Tap – and Australia, all the Australians we met in 1990, were the complete opposite of that. They were just, like, normal people. So yeah, we’ve extremely fond memories, and we just had a great time, you know?”

After Australia, the band are off to America for two months in June and July. Rather than feeling exhausted by the long stints in hotels and tour buses, Currie says they’re looking forward to the time on the road.

“I think we find it a lot more enjoyable [than in the ‘90s] because we don’t have promo to do during the day. In America in the mid-90s. because we had a big pop hit there that was on the radio – well, it’s still on the bloody radio! – we were doing tons of extracurricular stuff. So, sometimes we’d do morning [radio] shows, we’d do five or six acoustic performances a day before the soundcheck, we’d do things after the soundcheck, we’d have meet and greets with the all the radio people after the shows… and that became incredibly exhausting. And it’s also very hard to do with a beer in your hand!

“So, it just became really knackering. When we came back in 2014, and were touring without a record company, and without any new music, it was just a joy because it was just about the gigs. And also on the last American tour, because we didn’t have promo to do – well, at one point we did the Jimmy Kimmel show and that was it. So, you roll off the bus at half 10 In the morning, go and get breakfast and then just get to explore whatever city you’re in for five or six hours. You can go to an art gallery, go to the cinema, you could go to the park, you know. So that’s really good, because we didn’t really see a lot of these places in the 90’s ‘cos we were just in radio stations constantly.”

Having mentioned Spinal Tap, I wonder if there were any ‘Artie Fufkin’-type Spinal Tap moments he recalls from those 90’s tours.

“LOTS of that, yeah! I mean, the A&M people on the road were really nice. They were like proper human beings, but the problem would be when you’d have all these people your dressing room after the gigs, and there’d be, you know, the radio programmer’s wife’s cousin, who was like a flight instructor, and you just end up speaking to these absolute bullshit artists!

“Like, why the fuck am I speaking to this guy?!?” he laughs.

“So, in those days in America… I’m sure it’s still the same – the whole music industry just runs on meeting people, and you know, you’ve got to be kind of on your best behaviour all the time as well. And it’s kind of not what you signed up for at all, you know, so, yeah, we don’t miss that side of it at all.”

Fatal Mistake was released in 2021, but actually recorded over a three-week period in March 2020, just before the Coronavirus pandemic turned the world upside down.

“Yeah, it was very strange. Kind of, the cordon was closing in as we were doing the last bits of percussion and backing vocals. And then we actually got all the gear out on the Thursday, because we were afraid the gear’s gonna get stuck [in the studio]. Then we scarpered on the Sunday and the [first UK] lockdown started on the Monday – so it was kind of like, ‘get out of dodge!’ It was pretty bonkers. Actually, it was a very, very strange time – as it was for everybody, absolutely.”

Having finished the album, that provided something stable for Currie and his bandmates to focus on as that anxious time and the months of isolation began.

“Yes, it was a relief that we got the thing recorded before – it would have become impossible to record it. Mixing remotely was tricky – kind of mixing by email – it was not easy. It took us four months to mix the thing, it should’ve taken two weeks.

“But yeah, you’re right. It gave us stuff to do, [we could] focus on doing the artwork [etc]. I mean, it was like five months before we could do a photo session, you know!

“So yeah, I kind of enjoyed the first bit of the lockdown. I quite enjoyed being able to walk down the middle of the street in Glasgow with no traffic – that was quite something. But it was a bit frustrating, just on a really selfish level, that the album should have come out in the [UK] autumn of 2020 and it didn’t come out till the spring of 2021. So that was a bit frustrating – but, yeah, there was stuff to do.”

Currie has said in other interviews that he couldn’t write anything of substance during lockdown. It’s a sentiment shared by many artists – all that free time, we thought we’d finish a novel or another album of songs, or paint a masterpiece, when in actual fact the insular fishbowl we were in did not lend itself to creative pursuits as we thought it would.

“Yeah, I did write things. But they were just… they were what any – every – other songwriter in the world would be writing and what every other person in the world is thinking, which is ‘why are we locked up?’, and ‘this is very odd’, you know? So, what I said was that it seems to me that the whole point of writing songs is to write from a personal perspective, but hopefully, find something universal in that. Whereas lockdown was the opposite thing: where the private experience WAS universal, because everybody was experiencing it all over the world, the same thing – they were all leaving the house to exercise once a day, and then we’re going to the bloody shop every five days to buy food.

“So, I just didn’t think there was any space in there to find something unique to write about, you know, and I’ve heard other people say the same thing. I’ve also heard some people say they loved it, and they got loads of work done. I found that I just kind of froze – I found it really tricky. I generally I tend to write after I’ve been in the pub, you know, talking to a stranger. And the one thing I found very odd about Glasgow during lockdown is that Glasgow’s not a city about buildings and architecture and infrastructure. It’s really just about the people. And it’s quite a villagey sort of town, so when you go out – and if you go out a lot – you meet a lot of different kinds of people. And that that really helps songwriting because you’re meeting people that you wouldn’t normally meet, whereas in lockdown everything’s reduced to your close circle of friends and there’s nowhere new to go. So, I found it very uninspiring.

“You’ve got that low-level anxiety all the time, which I don’t think is particularly helpful creatively. And the focus was on domesticity as well, [and] domesticity is not inspiring!”

Never a truer word said. Especially during lockdown, when your faithful scribe was regularly leaving home to buy booze more often than food!

“Yeah – every three or four days, I was running to the off licence, which is not like me,” Currie agrees. “Normally I would go to the pub twice a week, but I just couldn’t take it, I was running to the off licence to get more wine!”

The very long-awaited Fatal Mistakes album did well for del Amitri, rising to the UK Top 5. A couple of years before recording it Currie was on record as being unsure if people even wanted new music from the band. Did that result answer his question positively?

justin currie tour blog

“Yeah. I think when the news came out that we were making another record, then people seemed genuinely excited about it. In fact, I didn’t want to make a del Amitri record at all – Iain did. It took me like a year or so to make up my mind, and one of the things that persuaded me was just speaking to my friends in the pub.

“I thought all my friends were gonna be like, ‘don’t do that, that’s a bad idea.’ But, to a person, they were very enthusiastic, and thought it was a great idea. So really, it was other people’s enthusiasm for it that kind of got me thinking maybe it was a good idea. And it was a joy for me, I have to say, I’m really glad we did it – though it was slightly tough to write because I’d been making solo records. So, it took me a few months to get my head into that space of writing for those specific musicians and writing in a way where you’re singing from a collective point of view, rather than seeing it from a very personal point of view. But once I got my head around that I found it quite easy and quite fun.”

Having had a few people in and out of the band over the years, is it hard work to make sure that no matter who’s playing in the line-up, it sounds like del Amitri and it’s got that del Amitri vibe to it?

“Well, no, because the players that come in are hired because the kind of noise that they make suits us. And they also know what del Amitri is: It’s melodic, it’s guitar driven, there’s a lot of 60’s influence and a lot of 70’s influence, and it’s got a kind of roots element. I can’t think of any musician that we’ve played with over the years that hasn’t come from that sort of a background in terms of what they listen to and how they play.

“Also, when we made this record, we decided who from which line-up was going to be in this line-up. So we knew who the musicians were when we were writing the songs, that was quite helpful, because we were thinking, oh, Ashley could do something really interesting with this, or Kris could do something really interesting here. So that really helped actually, knowing who it was we were writing for.”

Researching an interview is always a deep dive, and a band’s website is a good place to start. From the eloquent and detailed biography on www.delamitri.info, a link took me to Currie’s own website, www.justincurrie.com where the self-proclaimed “attention seeking desperado punting inoffensive balladry” has a wealth of travel diaries, photography, a hilarious complaints page where random fans have sent in rants and he responds with short, laugh-out-loud retorts, and much more. It’s enough to spur the question: does he feel a frustrated travel writer-slash-photographer-slash-stand-up comedian sometimes, or want to have a crack at some long-form prose?

“I’ve not looked at [the Complaints page] for six years! Oh, God, no. I’m a terrible prose writer. But writing a tour diary is a brilliant way of killing dead time. I started doing it just to try and get my website up and running – d’you know what, it was partly because of Myspace. I really loved MySpace, because it was just about music – that was the only social media I ever really got involved with. So when MySpace started failing, my website became kind of the only portal through which I could communicate. So I thought I’d better write something, you know, other than just daft wee jokes and things.

“I don’t find writing prose easy, but I find that easy, because you’re just describing what’s in front of you – you’re just opening the van door and going, ‘oh, there’s a man being sick,’ you know, whatever it is. So, yeah, really brilliant way to kill time. I still quite enjoy doing those. I don’t do them if I don’t feel a sort of calling to do it. I just do it if there’s something in my head that I want to get out, or if I look out the window and see something I want to describe, I’ll do it. But there’s a few gigs I’ve just thought, I’m not going to do that. And often if you’re having a really good time, like if you’re doing a festival and you’re hanging out with a lot of people, then I’m not going to write about that stuff. I don’t want it to be about my private life. I just want it to be about what you can see from the road basically.”

The Human Condition as seen through the eyes of a touring musician, or some such cliched wanky label?

“Yeah, exactly!” Currie grins. “It’s just a sort of diary, you know? I wrote a lot of poetry as a teenager – and then I realised that I wasn’t a very good poet, but I could sort-of write lyrics. I haven’t been tempted [to write any long-form prose]. I mean, I’ve been asked. And I’ve written a few things for newspapers over the years.

“The problem with songwriters whenever they write prose, they just tend to overdo it, you know? I mean, have you tried reading Morrisey’s book?” he laughs. “It’s about economy. You know, it’s not about floweriness. If I look at my tour diary stuff from a couple of years ago, I just… I’d just take most of it out. It’s like, why? Why two adverbs? Why three adjectives? You know, that’s just wanky!

“And the kind of stuff I like to read, it’s not like that: it’s economical, and it really hits you. So no, it’s not something I would be competent at at all.”

justin currie tour blog

Wrapping up, I ask Currie if he and his bandmates felt that it was all going to work out when they first struck the by-now-familiar formula in the early days of del Amitri – when they found their sound, found the voice that John Peel would soon champion, and got their first record deal?

“Well, hmmm… there were two things that were happening. We were an indie band in the early-mid-80’s, with a very niche audience, a very small, niche audience. And we weren’t really making any money. And we had a record deal for a couple of years, and then we had a publishing deal. For a lot of the 80’s we were working full-time, part-time jobs just to pay the rehearsal bills. But then when we started writing quite commercial sounding songs, I think we realised we belonged in the mainstream, we didn’t really belong in that kind of indie ghetto.

“So, then it became a case of how do we do that? How do we get there? And that was quite difficult, because we didn’t know, you know. We knew how to be an indie band. We didn’t know how to be a sort of mainstream rock band.

“We were helped along the way by our managers, and by the record company, and we did some stupid things. But eventually, we found this sort of place to be in the mainstream, which wasn’t cool, and wasn’t to do with style, and was just… we kind of presented ourselves as pub rockers or something. We sort of sold ourselves as just blokes, you know. We weren’t artistes or anything, and we tried to look like we weren’t taking ourselves terribly seriously – of course, we WERE taking ourselves very seriously!

“And the thing that that made everything easy for us was having radio hits, because that meant we got paid, and it meant we could make a living without being famous. We weren’t an MTV band, we were a radio band.

“And that was really fortuitous because it allowed us just to do what we wanted: we could do the kind of gigs we wanted. We didn’t have to dress up and go to poncey award ceremonies, and we didn’t have to talk to the tabloids. So we always kind of had the best of both worlds, really, and that was just because we loved radio and radio loved us. So that was really fortuitous.”

Finally, I suggest that it’s fair to say that del Amitri like a drink. I certainly didn’t expect Currie’s very responsible answer.

“Yeah! Well, I’m too old to party before or after gigs now! The last time I had a drink on the road it was pretty disastrous: I nearly blew a gig in Canada. So I won’t be having a drink ‘til after the last show, sadly – but I’ll make up for it at that point, I’m sure.”

Tour Dates 18 February, 2023 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide 15 February, 2023 – Astor Theatre, Perth 16 February, 2023 – Astor Theatre, Perth 21 February, 2023 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane 23 February, 2023 – Palais Theatre, Melbourne 25 February, 2023 – Town Hall, Auckland 26 February, 2023 – Town Hall, Christchurch 28 February, 2023 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Some other stuff you might dig

JULIEN BAKER ANNOUNCES AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Category : Interviews

' src=

About the Author ( Author Profile )

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.

Subscribe via RSS Feed

Leave a Reply

Name ( required )

Email ( required; will not be published )

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

FEATURED VIDEO

KILLINGTON PIT - Riding On The Wind

BEASTO BLANCO - Run For Your Life

KERRY KING - Idle Hands

Website Hits Since August 2012

Buy us a beer!

web analytics

The Rockpit

INTERVIEW: Del Amitri – Justin Currie

Australian tour interview.

8 February 2023 Mark Diggins

It’s been 30 years since Del Amitri last played Australia and the host of sold out shows in February shows that either party has forgotten about each other in the interim.  The tour will also see founding members and songwriters Justin Currie (vocals/bass) and Ian Harvie (guitar) reunited with former members Andy Alston (keyboards/accordion), Kris Dillimore (guitar), as well as Jim McDermott (drums).  Touring off the back of their 2021 release ‘ Fatal Mistakes’ , which saw them return to the charts hitting no. 5 in the UK albums charts, it’s bound to be a memorable return. We caught up with Justin Currie to talk about the tour and ask the big questions! 

Mark: Great to see you coming back to Australia again after such a long time I guess the first question must be what did we do wrong last time that made you leave it so long?

Justin: Well you never asked us back!

Mark: (laughs)

Justin: Nobody ever asked us back after 1990! We must have pissed somebody off.

Mark: You open the tour in Perth in just a few short weeks now, I’m not sure if you played the Astor before, but it’s a lovely old theatre with a wonderful sound.

Justin: We did a theatre in Perth before but I’m not sure it was the same one.

Mark: It’s been a while for the band now…

Justin: Just a bit!

Mark: 43 years can you believe it!

Justin: I can believe it! It feels longer!

Justin: It’s a whole lifetime of fun and anxiety.

Mark: What a great way to describe being a working musician! You must have seen so much wonderful music during that time, the start of the 80’s was a wonderfully rich and creative time for music, so much texture, so much variety. What sort of things were you listening to in the early days of the band to get the sound that you had?

Justin: Well in this country there was a famous show on the BBC called The John Peel show which played Alternative Rock, it kind of played everything: a bit of Reggae, a bit of Soul, but with the emphasis of the obscure and the new. And that’s what we kind of came out of, so from about 1978 onwards I was listening to what you would call Punk and Post-Punk  and that’s what we came out of.  There was a record label in Glasgow called postcards that had a kind of Post-Punk DIY aesthetic  and crossed it with a kind of Motown sensibility and that had a huge impact with guys like me at school in the early 80’s.

Mark: So let’s put the pieces together. Why did you choose the bass? Now we all know the bassist is the most important member of the band…

Justin: Absolutely.

Mark: But what led you to it? You mentioned Motown and I love the drive and the basslines that people like James Jameson gave a lot of those old songs.

Justin: Yeah, but to be honest I think the main reason I played the bass Mark was my big sister had a friend who bought a bass that he couldn’t play. He lived in a bedsit and he was worried that it was gonna get stolen so he kept it at my parent’s house. And he was quite happy for me to play it so I had a bass in the house, and also at the time I was listening to a lot of really bass-driven things like ‘Echo and the Bunnymen’ and especially Joy Division. I remember learning all the Joy Division bass-lines from ‘Unknown Pleasures’ which are kind of like very simple lead guitar parts. And I found the bass so much easier than the guitar, I’ve always struggled with the guitar. And also I’m a huge Paul McCartney fan as well, I love melody and his bass-playing. But I think the main reason was just that I got my hands on a brand new Fender Precision and had unlimited use of it.

Mark: A nice instrument. It’s been great to have a new Del Amitri album to listen to ‘Fata Mistakes’ were we just lucky that we had a pandemic?

Justin: No because it was written and recorded before the pandemic, in fact the last day of recording was the first day of the UK lockdown at the end of March 27th or 28th or whatever it was in 2020. So it’s not in any way influenced by the pandemic the only effect the pandemic had on that album was that it took ages to mix because we couldn’t be in the same room as the producer.

Mark: Before we dig into the new record let’s look back to the early days. How do you look back at them now, and did you have a plan?

Justin: Well we learned quite quickly that any plan that you formulated would go disastrously wrong so we gave up designing masterplans in the mid 80’s, or maybe the late 80’s! I sort of think of that early Indie band Del Amitri as a different life. You know, we just looked so different then, we were so…. we were kind of desperate in a lot of ways: desperate to try and be original, desperate to forge our own unique path; and I think we made it quite difficult for ourselves. And it wasn’t until we went to America in 1986 and met a whole load of people who listened to different kinds of music, that we became a bit more relaxed about what we were doing, and threw out the rule book and kind of followed our noses a wee bit, and didn’t worry so much about writing songs that sounded like somebody else. So we started to relax and grow our hair towards the end of the 80’s and everything became a lot easier.

Mark: Was there label pressure constantly throughout that period to make you sound a certain way or fit their ideas about you?

Justin: Yeah there was on the first album with Chrysalis, that first album didn’t do anything commercially but they picked up the option on the second album and then tried to mold us into something that we couldn’t really be and that was extremely painful. We then… we went on strike! (laughs)

Justin: We went on strike because they were forcing us to write Pop songs that we weren’t capable of doing. We staged a sit-in, we got some fans to stage a sit-in at the Record Company offices in the West End of London. And when the Record Company heard of that they very quickly got rid of us which was the plan all along. so that worked! And then after we left Chrysalis we spent a few years in the wilderness just kind of reconfiguring who we were and what we were doing.

Mark: I love how a mythology has grown up over the years about the name Del Amitri, from obscure Greek translations to Ice Cream men, what’s the real story?

Justin: Well there is no real story it’s just a made up name t sound a bit foreign. We liked the idea of calling ourselves Dimitri Gonzalez or something, we thought it sounded like a Mexican Cruise Ship singer or something.

Mark: I’ve seen him he was sensational! (laughs)

Justin: (laughs) And that idea just morphed into Del Amitri, and it’s quite weird because in the late 80’s and early 90’s there were loads of bands with ‘Del’ in their names. The Del Vikings and the Del-Lords and the Delgardos and I’m sure there were more. So you would go to Record Shops in the United States and there would be all these ‘Del’ bands, so there must have been something in the air in the early 80’s that this word ‘Del’ just got adopted by various different Indie groups.

Mark: It is something I shall have to look into and report back on! (laughs)

Justin: (laughs)

justin currie tour blog

Mark: I was just watching the live DVD the other day ‘Every Night has a Dawn’ are things like that going to be available on the tour? It’s been hard to find over here.

Justin: That’s on a DVD that we did last summer – we shot a couple of nights of Barrowlands concerts, then we put some extra acoustic songs on the DVD. I guess it might be available online somewhere.

Mark: I shall track it down and let the good people of Australia now, it’s well worth a watch.

Justin: Than you.

Mark: Now let’s get down to the serious stuff – if you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any album in the history of rock and roll what would you have like to have seen being made – just to see how the magic happened?

Justin: I would like to have been in the control room for the recording of ‘Hard Day’s Night’ which I regard as the greatest Beatles record that they made. Just because it would have happened so fast and most of it was played live. I think it would have been incredibly exciting watching these four people move from being a pretty crazy rock band to be something else entirety – a Brill Building meets Folk meets Elvis kind of thing. And just to watch them record the first suite of songs that were all self-written as well. That would have been quite amazing I think. Just to watch those Abbey Road engineers in their white coats moving big levers about you know (laughs)

Mark: It’s incredible when you think about it and everyone has their own particular period for The Beatles and I guess a lot of that comes from what you heard first. We get a lot of musicians who answer with a Beatles album but it tends to be towards the end of their career like Sergeant Pepper.

Justin: I do go through periods when I really adore Sergeant Pepper but the last time I listened to Sergeant Pepper I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous time I listened to it in fact a couple of things really annoyed me about it, but I expect the next time I listen to it I’ll absolutely love it again.

Justin: I had a couple of years where I was completely obsessed by the ‘White Album’, I just couldn’t stop listening to it which is strange because it’s such a strange disturbing record in a lot of ways. Full of sarcasm and satire and kind of hellish expressions of disillusionment and alienation. But ‘Hard Day’s Night’ for me is just so perfect and to me it’s also the one that’s most dominated by John in a really good way, not in a self-indulgent ‘oh woe is me’ way. It’s a very positive record but it’s also very full of pain and a kind of anguish in a very accessible way. I just think it’s perfect from start to finish ‘Hard Day’s Night’.

Mark: Certainly right up there with the best records of that great decade. Let’s wind it all the way back now:- when was it in your life that you realized that music was going to play such an important role? I know some always know, some stumble into it and some have a defining moment. what was it for you?

Justin: Well I was always kind of musical. I sang a lot around the house and I sang to records a lot even when I was quite young – about eight or nine. I would learn the lyrics to a whole album. I listened to a lot of Cole Porter, I remember ‘Ella Fitzgerald sings the Cole Porter songbook’ – my mum had a reel-to-reel of that. But it wasn’t until Punk happened that I thought music was a cool thing, before that all the local bands, the guys were just idiots. They were playing Led Zeppelin covers to impress girls which I just thought was so uncool.

Justin: And they weren’t very good, and they were trying to do all these complicate things they weren’t capable of. Whereas Punk was all self-expression and being: making art for art’s sake and saying what you wanted to say without being a virtuoso, or without being particularly skilled at anything. Punk Rock really opened the door for me and everybody that I know that is in music now is in music because Punk said “Anybody can do this and you don’t need to be a virtuoso”.

Mark: Do you think that your writing has changed much over time, particularly with regards the things that you want to write about? The lyrical themes?

Justin: Yeah, I mean my writing has probably changed less that I would perceive it having changed. The subject matter definitely changes in that as you get older you’re not writing to impress as much I donlt think. I think when you’re young you’re writing to try and dazzle people. You use a lot of wordplay and you write a lot more words (laughs) and you try and inject a lot of energy and intelligence in what you do. Whereas when you’re older you’re just trying to get ‘feeling’ out a bit more – you try and get emotions out. And I guess it depends what you listen to – the stuff I’ve been listening to in the last 20 years is a lot slower and probably more expressive than what I was listening to when I was in my teens. And also you wrote about adult themes – you write about disease and dying and regret and loss, and you just haven’t experienced those things when you’re a teenager.

Mark: You’re right, things change so much as you get older and it’s great to see those themes change over time as a fan looking in. We always tend to close our first chat with the easiest question of the evening

Justin: Oh good.

Mark: What is the meaning of life?

Justin: (laughs) I have been pondering that a lot recently, I have to keep reminding myself there is no meaning and the search for meaning is illusory and utterly futile. I think older people do tend to think about that question. Because they go through more stuff  they do tend to start clutching around for meaning, and I repeat myself, you have to remind yourself it is completely pointless. So just try and enjoy the day.

Mark: A great sentiment to leave with. Over 14 years I’ve asked over 400 people that question, and I’m slowly getting there!

Mark: Thank you so much for your time, it’s been great to talk to you.

Justin: My pleasure Mark.

Mark: I shall be photographing you on the night so I shall see you soon.

Justin: I will give you some good poses.

Mark: (laughs) Thank you! It’s funny because I was just talking about photographing bands and how some come out and it’s all dark for three songs and others come out like Kiss and they just pose for the first three songs.

Justin: (laughing)

Mark: So I shall be expecting you to come out more like Kiss.

Justin: Yeah I think that’s definitely not gonna happen! (laughs)

Justin: Having seen Kiss and watching them appear out of a Sphinx’s mouth, that will never be topped!  (laughs)

Mark: (laughs) You’ve still got two weeks to come up with something.

Justin: That’s not fair it’s in my mind now! (laughs)

Mark: Thanks Justin, safe trip!

Justin: Thanks Mark.

Del Amitri 2023 Australian tour

Astor Theatre, Perth: Thursday February 16

Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide: Saturday February 18

Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane: Tuesday February 21

Palais Theatre, Melbourne: Thursday February 23

Enmore Theatre, Sydney: Tuesday February 28

york calling logo

York Calling

Promoting music & the arts in york & beyond.

justin currie tour blog

The Dark Brilliance Of Justin Currie  

As Del Amitri return to York, we examine the life and lyrics of the band’s charismatic front man Justin Currie.

By Miles Salter

Way back in the early months of 1990, when the UK music chart was a wasteland of ghastly pop procured by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or The Pet Shop Boys, a song rang out of the radio one day that instantly grabbed me. Simon Bates, then part of the old guard of BBC Radio One, played it amid the other dross that was doing the rounds. At first I thought I was listening to some buried classic from the early 1970s. What was this? I was intrigued. Was Bates playing Crosby Stills and Nash, or some other song I’d never come across? I had no clue. I’d just got into Bob Dylan and U2, after years of listening to over-produced ‘80s rock and pop. The song Bates played, with its acoustic guitars and accordion, sounded like nothing else that was in the charts. When I saw my (similarly music obsessed) friend at school a day or two later, I told him about this brilliant new song.

The track was Del Amitri’s Nothing Ever Happens , a song that knows life is out there somewhere, but not in the town you’re in. Living in a sleepy Buckinghamshire town as a teenager in the 1980s, it struck a chord with me. The track helped to break the band in the UK. Justin Currie, the band’s brilliant vocalist and songwriter, has said that the moment the band appeared on Top Of The Pops, everything changed for the band. Even the chirpy Steve Wright interrupted the song to comment. ‘Great line,’ said the DJ, when the song arrived at the line about American businessmen snapping up Van Goghs ‘for the price of a hospital wing’. Wright was right – Currie had nailed the absurdities of western commerce in a few caustic words. The song ends with a subtle reference to the holocaust, and a bleak prediction of human apathy – ‘we’ll all go along like before’.

The band went on to produce four more albums across the next twelve years, tour the world, and produce several chart hits. Releases like Change Everything and Twisted were superb rock albums, crammed with great songs and soaring melodies. There was a lengthy break after Can You Do Me Good? in 2002. Did I say lengthy? I mean epic. 19 years after they went away, Del Amitri finally returned this year with Fatal Mistakes , their seventh studio album. Currie is aided by Iain Harvie (guitar), Andy Alston (Keyboards / accordion) Ash Soan (drums) and Kris Dollimore (guitar), who have been mainstays of the band since 1998.

The back catalogue, with cheery, feel good songs such as Roll To Me or their 2021 hit You Can’t Go Back can be deceiving: you are never far from the shadows with a Del Amitri album. Their 1992 hit  Always The Last To Know is a case in point. It’s got plenty of swagger and chutzpah, and sounds, if you don’t listen to the lyrics, like a triumphant song. But pay more attention, and it’s something else entirely, a tale about two lovers who cannot be faithful to the other, and whose relationship unravels amid secrets and betrayal. It is, according to The Scotsman ‘…a desperately sad lyric…’

Much of Del Amitri’s oeuvre is like this: you tap your foot to the brisk rhythms and happy go lucky choruses, before realising the songs are shot through with melancholy.  Nothing Ever Happens  is a hymn to boredom and urban wastelands. Its parent album, Waking Hours (1989)  offered similar comments in songs such as Move Away Jimmy Blue. That track decribes a wretched scene of addiction, despair and petty theft, but still contains a soaring chorus that is impossible to resist. Currie finds melancholy hard to resist. It’s like gravity in his songs, always pulling him down to earth and into the shadows.  The First Rule Of Love  (from  Change Everything ) uses the metaphor of addiction to talk about romance: ‘You’ll get hooked, you’ll get drugged’. Substances are a part of the landscape of Currie’s writing. Many of his lyrics contain references to drinking. Recent band T-Shirts have declared ‘Del Amitri – Drunk in Glasgow since 1982.’ There may have been periods of rehab.

After Can You Do Me Good , their 2002 album, Currie sat at home watching TV before boredom got the better of him and he embarked on a solo career. His first solo album, 2007’s What Is Love For?, contained songs that were even darker than his band songs. Currie has become adept at exploring a baffling world, and his own psyche, with panache. The brutal No, Surrender (from the same album) is like a J G Ballard novel compressed into several verses, a vicious denunciation of consumerism, bordering on conspiracy theory: ‘terrible tales of kidnapped kids keep you focused on the family and filling up the fridge’.

Currie may not be pompous about his talent, but he knows what he’s good at. ‘I Write Better Songs Than You’ declares his Twitter profile, and he has a point.

To his admirers, he is amongst the best songwriters in the world: literate, witty and always one step away from cliché. He’s in a superior league, alongside Bob Dylan, Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen. Who else could slip the word ‘remonstrate’ into a lyric, as he does on new song ‘Missing Person’? It’s not a word you’ll find in anything by Dua Lipa, or Oasis, or a hundred other acts.

Currie’s humour (and he can be very funny) is laced with acidity, and consumerism is frequently a target of his displeasure. He’s been known to have a pop at (Amazon founder) Jeff Bezos. Tweeting about the Eurovision song content recently (May 22 nd 2021), he summed things up pithily: ‘The tension mounts, nations across the continent bite their nails to the quick. Patriotism swelling in breasts like a lung infection. It all makes you proud to be alive in the age of the glittering backdrop hiding a dysfunctional world going to shit in a shopping trolley.’

His vision is staggering, with an artist’s eye for encompassing everything. ‘I’ve always wanted to contain a book that contains everything,’ wrote the poet-cum-monk Thomas Merton many years ago, and Currie’s songs occasionally have the same universal vision. At Home Inside of Me , from his second solo album, is particularly powerful, as the singer meditates on the whole universe being harboured in his chest. ‘A fistfight at a wedding, a killing on the stairs, the brilliant spark at the start of love affairs…’ he sings. It’s transcendent, moving stuff. Elsewhere, there are occasional glimpses of real tenderness. Check out Tell Her This , a gorgeous love song from Twisted , where the narrator admits his failings and his love: ‘Tell her something in my heart needs her move than even clowns, need the laughter of the crowd.’ Every time I hear this vulnerable and tender love song, it gets me.

Currie appears to have settled down in the last couple of decades, although there are hints that his long-term relationship may have suffered some upheaval. The video to Sydney Harbour Bridge (from his fourth solo album, released in 2017), shows Currie sitting on a train, looking sad and desolate, while the lyrics contain the words ‘…I should have treated you better…’  It would appear, though, that things have worked out, as You Can’t Go Back  from the new album states: ‘I’m back here at your side…that thing between us, that we knew was something special and it seems it still is.’

A theme that occurs across several albums is the battle to be authentic. Currie has written several songs that allude to his struggle with the two sides of himself: the funny, charismatic, good natured side (you see and hear this version whenever he does a TV or radio interview, embodying the cheerful, witty pop star who doesn’t take himself too seriously), and the darker, despairing, narcissistic side that he keeps more in the shadows.

Such a duality is common in creatives, who can struggle to reconcile their independent, dreamy spirit with a more communal, ‘feet on the ground’ approach to living. Half Of Me from Lower Reaches, explores this duality, and the temptations to exchange cosy domesticity for something wilder. ‘Half of me wants to leave the life we’ve made, and go out blazing trails in a haze of rock and roll.’ The song Two People  from his last solo album, This Is My Kingdom Now , continues this theme of duality. The track sent chills up my spine when I heard it for the first time. ‘I’m two people,’  Currie sings. Later in the song, there’s a distressing, riveting lyric as he unmasks the brutal side of masculinity: ‘…is it me that waits behind the door, holding out a hammer like a rose?’ The subject was repeated yet again on the new band album, Fatal Mistakes . The song Second Staircase  seems to suggest that Currie is finding his way to deal with his demons. The song acknowledges his darker side, but also an apparent awareness that to go there will not help him, as it threatens to destroy the things he most values.

Currie’s father, John Currie, was also plugged into music, albeit of a different sort. He was chorus master for the Scottish National Orchestra. John died last year, and Justin talked briefly about their relationship in a recent (2021) interview with Radio 2’s Ken Bruce. ‘It was a bit tricky,’ Currie said, ‘as I didn’t really get classical music, and he didn’t really get pop music.’ This may have been the polite version describing their uneasy relationship. Fatal Mistakes includes the song Musicians and Beer , with a cutting line about the Currie Senior’s funeral: ‘We lowered him down, without a tear, so he died like a pauper, without musicians and beer.’ (Currie’s parents split up when he was young, and this disconnection seems to have left a lasting mark. Currie vowed he would never have children after seeing his mother, an actress, struggle to balance family and career. He writes of his reluctance to have children in the song No Family Man  on Some Other Sucker’s Parade .)

If you’re interested in where great song writing can take you, check out Fatal Mistakes . Or Twisted . Or Change Everything . Or any of the 11 albums Currie has been involved in. Del Amitri play York on 18 September. It’s 19 years since they were last here. Do yourself a favour, and buy a ticket. A brilliant singer, a brilliant band, and lyrics and melodies that scale the heights (and Lower Reaches) of what it means to be fully alive. It could be 19 years before they come back.

Del Amitri play York Barbican on Saturday 18 September 2021 .  A brand new documentary  Del Amitri, You Can’t Go Back will premier on Sky Arts on Saturday 4 September 2021 at 9pm

Discover more from York Calling

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Music + Concerts | Del Amitri’s Justin Currie talks about…

Share this:.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Food & Drink
  • Amusement Parks
  • Theater & Arts

Things To Do

Music + concerts, music + concerts | del amitri’s justin currie talks about touring america as band comes to la’s roxy, 'we love making money but having a new record makes it feel like we’re touring for the right reasons,' says currie..

justin currie tour blog

If you’d mentioned the Scottish band Del Amitri to most American rock fans back in the 1990s – even at the band’s apex when “Roll to Me” was a Top 10 single – the odds were good you’d be met with a blank stare.

And yet… they’d developed a strong and loyal following here and had four Top 10 albums in the U.K., along with a dozen Top 40 singles.

And yet… that wasn’t enough, changes in the music business led their record label to reject dozens of demos which kept them out of the studio for four years until the band “didn’t know where we were going,” according to singer and main songwriter Justin Currie. Where they were going was into the ether: the band ceased simply vanished soon after their fifth record in 2002.

And yet… changes in the music business led to a 2014 reunion tour in the U.K. and another in 2018, and then last year came “Fatal Mistakes,” Del Amitri’s first album in nearly 20 years.

Now the band is even touring America again, including a show at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on March 29th. Currie, 57, spoke recently by video about the strange arc of the band’s career and how he measures success. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. You stopped playing in 2002 then got back together in 2014 and toured again in 2018. What changed?

Back then everything had turned to crap – audiences weren’t turning up, the record company turned into a corporate behemoth and we were under a lot of pressure. It was horrible.

Then the music industry turned on its head with streaming – all the money went into the live shows, with ticket prices going up exponentially. In 2014, we were offered a ton of money for a reunion tour. So we thought, “That’s quite a good job turning up and playing old songs and getting paid thousands and thousands of pounds.”

And with no record company and no pressure, we were just playing a bunch of old songs to our loyal fans. We ended up really enjoying it, which we didn’t expect to.

Q. Last year, you released the first Del Amitri album since 2002. Why now?

We toured twice and you’d start to feel like a bit of a heel if there’s no artistic merit in what we’re doing then that’s not what we got into this for. We love making money but having a new record makes it feel like we’re touring for the right reasons, bringing new shades and colors into the picture.

We might be kidding ourselves but it feels more justifiable. And this time we reduced ticket prices, we figured let’s do more gigs for less money, that’s a better experience for us and the audience.

Q. How are your Del Amitri songs different than your solo songs?

My solo songs weren’t vivacious enough for Del Amitri, they were too introspective. The Del Amitri music is more optimistic and decorative. The solo stuff can be quite bleak and without a second voice you strip out color and tension in the music. It’s the great thing about bands, you have these other musicians doing their own thing and you can’t stop them or mold them into something else.

Q. Is it fun knowing your bandmates might change your songs?

It is, and it’s also very practical. If you’re writing a song for a solo album and it’s a bit boring for a solo album you’d immediately throw it away, but with a band, you might think, Andy [Alston, the keyboard player] could do something quite interesting there or Kris {Dollimore, guitarist] could come up with a riff to make it more interesting. Sometimes those become the most fun or successful things on a record, because they’re rudimentary they leave room for the band to add things.

In the ’70s, the music press got obsessed with songwriting craftsmanship but that’s all a bit Cole Porter for me. It’s not just about songwriting, it’s about record-making with the musicians’ parts.

Q. But your lyrics are thoughtful and your songs are well crafted.

I think that’s the reason we’re not more successful (laughs). If the songs were simpler and more fun, the whole oeuvre would be more enjoyable to people. But I’m proud of the fact that what we’ve done is interesting. I wouldn’t want to be Foreigner. That was never our mission.

Q. Your lyrics are often dark or sardonic. Are you that way? 

An awful lot of what you’re doing as a songwriter is inhabiting a character and their worldview. With girls I was in relationships with back then, I’d say, “Don’t listen to that song and think it’s me and I’m so sad and sensitive.” I’m not that sensitive and I’m quite happy-go-lucky and weirdly optimistic despite knowing the world is screwed and is a cruel place.

Still, as a writer, you do put your attitudes and suspicions about the world in your songs, though they may not be things you’d talk about at the pub with your friends. That way you can just write the song instead of obsessing over something.

Part of being a singer and writing lyrics is that you’re trying to get attention. But even though it sounds pretentious try making the world a better place, with a bit of originality, or at least not fill the world with bland wallpaper paste. It’s arguable whether we’re achieving that.

Q. Is Glasgow still central to your songwriting soul?

I wrote almost everything from our early albums in Glasgow and a lot are situated in Glasgow. But I don’t write songs here anymore because I live with somebody and I need an empty house. I’ve been writing on an island off the northwest coast of Scotland where there’s nothing to do except look at sheep and the sea. If you’re by the sea you do end up using natural imagery a lot that you might not if you were in the city.

Q. But there’s no sheep imagery.

No, the sheep have not made it into any of the songs yet.

Q. Is it different touring in America than the U.K., where you’ve always been more popular?

Back when “Waking Hours” went platinum in the U.K., we were on TV a lot – we weren’t pop stars because we were too old and ugly to be in the tabloids, but we got known and we’d tour theaters. But in the States we played in clubs to 350 people and we loved it. It was quite nice having both, constantly changing the nature of the performance and the setlist. Just doing clubs all the time would get really tiring but doing bigger shows all the time would feel impersonal and alienating.

Q. Squeeze and Crowded House, who I see as your musical and lyrical kin, also fared far better in the U.K. Why?

What the bands have in common is that we’re ambitious in terms of the songs and the work we want to do more than we’re ruthlessly ambitious commercially. I think you need to be viciously focused on that to get to the top of the pile commercially in the States.

We did a huge amount of work there in the ‘90s, but we didn’t take it that seriously. Doing things like morning radio shows was so commercial and so vulgar – we shook all the hands, but our tongues were firmly in our cheeks. It’s not for us. If you want to go big-time in America, you’d need to have a steely cold determination. We were on the radio in America and that felt great. We were just happy with less and we didn’t push that hard.

Q. Looking back, do you see a satisfying career with millions of albums sold and a loyal following who can sing all the lyrics at the concerts, or do you wonder about those missed opportunities for more?

I can see both sides. We never wanted to look hungry for more so we were self-deprecating and quick to assure journalists we were perfectly happy when we got asked that weird question, ‘Shouldn’t you be bigger than you are?’

We’d been on the road for years when we had our first hit, so we were pretty cynical, but we also gratefully accepted what we got and didn’t moan about the stupid things we had to do, because it was just so much better than being failures. It’s rough being a failure.

Now, we’re not millionaires, but we don’t care. We’re paying the bills, royalties bought me a house. I can’t complain. Still, everyone has an ego and we believed strongly in what we did. So, I’d have been interested to have gone to another level to see what it was like, even though we might have hated it.

  • Newsroom Guidelines
  • Report an Error

More in Music + Concerts

The post-punk band will lead the fest in Anaheim alongside Intervals, A Lot Like Birds, Being As An Ocean, Night Verses and more on Saturday, March 23.

Music + Concerts | Hail the Sun talks new music ahead of Kill Iconic Fest at House of Blues Anaheim

The six-piece band from Solvang will release its latest album, "Arrows Room 117," ahead of tour stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim.

Music + Concerts | California ska-punk band Mad Caddies drop a new record this week, announce several local shows

The music festival at WeHo Pride returns to West Hollywood Park on June 1-2.

Music + Concerts | Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monáe and Diplo are set to play Outloud Music Festival

The author of 'I'm With The Band: Confessions of a Groupie,' looks to take her spoken-word show on the road after a one-off in West Hollywood on Sunday, March 17.

Music + Concerts | Pamela Des Barres brings her Led Zeppelin, Doors and Jimi Hendrix stories to the Whisky

Music Republic Magazine

  • Track Record
  • Reviews Zone
  • Features Zone
  • Undiscovered Zone
  • Competitions
  • Comedy Zone

Justin Currie: Happily Stuck In del Amitri World!  

justin currie tour blog

  • Google Plus

Scottish band del Amitri (stylised lower case ‘d’) were the darlings of the 80s and 90s, with 15 UK top 40 hit singles, seven studio albums – five top 10 albums, one live album, four compilations, one top ten and three top 40 US hits and at least six million records sold.

The band who formed in 1980 until 2002, and then reformed in 2013 to the present day, are experiencing a second lease of life with their 2021 album “Fatal Mistake” being their sixth album to go Top five in the UK chart, and a recent 23-date US tour, their first on American soil for 25 years, which was a big success.

They are the subjects of a fascinating Sky Arts documentary “You Can’t Go Back”, broadcast in September 2021. Their second documentary.

Towersey Festival headliners…

They are booked for festival appearances this summer, including headlining the UK’s longest running independent festival, Towersey, on the August bank holiday Monday, which has moved to a new site near Milton Keynes this year from its usual Oxfordshire base.

justin currie tour blog

Music Republic Magazine caught up with del Amitri front man, singer and songwriter Justin Currie on the ‘phone from his Glasgow home, for a natter about all sorts, from the band’s festival slot to the US tour, background to their two biggest hits, “Nothing Ever Happens” and “Always The Last To Know”, and lots more.

So, first of all, Justin, your first appearance at the Towersey Festival this year. Do you approach festivals differently to normal gigs? “You tend to condense the set a bit more, it’s a lot tighter and there’s less waffle. We’ll be playing the hits and the newest stuff from our current album, ‘Fatal Mistakes’.

justin currie tour blog

Will we hear “Nothing Ever Happens” at Towersey? “We are quite happy performing things we feel audiences want to hear. We don’t do that song every night in Britain, and we certainly don’t do it every night outside of Britain, so it doesn’t feel like a duty.

“I am proud of the song, and I was proud of it when I wrote it, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe some of the lyrics I wouldn’t have written the same way now. I was 21, 22 when I wrote that song.

“I had the title for a while and I knew I wanted to write a song about my generation’s apathy in the 80s, where we didn’t really do anything to oppose the political order of the day.

“We just went to nightclubs and got drunk and danced, which is a very 80s reaction to what was going on.

“I had the title and it all kind of came out in a rush, in a flat overlooking a long road crossing a bridge which kind of stuck in my mind. Quite a lot of lines in that song I have taken from me looking out of my flat window in Glasgow.

“It recorded quite easily. We stuck with acoustic guitar and a drum machine and added bits. Recorded in Chipping Norton studios, in the Cotswolds.

“It had a great juke box in a little games room with loads of old 7” singles from the 50s, which was fantastic. A song called ‘Garden Party’ I remember listening to quite a lot.

“Our song, ‘Always The Last To Know’. That was written when we came back from Australia, late 1990. Just another one of del Amitri’s infidelity songs, which we wrote quite a lot of under the direct influence of country and western music.

“Infidelity songs are a major trope of country and western music. We wrote a lot of them, especially on that album, actually.” (1992’s “Change Everything”, the band’s third album).

Justin tells me how the band wanted to sound when they started out was nothing like what they ended up sounding like!

“Yeah, del Amitri wanted to sound like a cross between Television and Captain Beefheart, with Beatles harmonies. Of course, we ended up sounding nothing like that.

“We were also massively influenced by two Scottish groups, Orange Juice and Josef K. We would always do covers of those bands’ songs, so they were a huge influence.”

A Bit Of A Rant…

When you wrote “Nothing Ever Happens” that was a bit of a rant. Has your writing mellowed since? “Well, there’s a rant on the latest album called ‘Nation Of Caners’ and there’s a rant on the B-Sides album that’s coming out in August, called ‘Happiness Is It’. So I still like a good moan.” (The del Amitri album “Outtakes & B-Sides” is out on 12th August 2022.)

justin currie tour blog

Having notched up 15 Top 40 hit singles, and hits in the UK too, but not for a while, I want to know if Justin is still seeking hits when he sits down to write.

“No. You reach a certain age, and you know you’ll never have a hit again. It was in my late 30s that was a big concern on the second solo album I put out. I put a couple of very radio-friendly things on the record, which is probably a mistake because at that sort of age, you are extremely unlikely to have hits.

“It’s a young person’s game to have hits. So we gave up the thought of having hits a long time ago.”

So, what are you wanting from what you write and put out, if not hits? “I just want to move people. You just hope that someone somewhere hears that song and is moved by it. That’s about it, I think.”

Justin reveals he had a crack at penning new songs during lockdown, but eventually waved the white flag and gave up. Why? “I did write in Lockdown, but I ended up giving up because all the songs I was writing were all about sitting in the house and worrying that I was going to die.

“I realised that’s what everyone else would be writing about, so I just thought there was absolutely no point in writing about an experience that everyone else in the world is going through at the same time.

“That sort of global emergency is almost impossible to write about, even in a personal way without sounding trite or glib, so I just gave up.”

justin currie tour blog

His newest songs helped make del Amitri’s latest album, “Fatal Mistakes, released in May 2021 a top five chart hit. Was he surprised at such a high chart position?

“Personally, I was hoping to get it number one, and if we’d released it a month beforehand it would have gone to number one. But we had to put it back so many times. But Top five is fine.. It was number five for a whole week, so Yee Haa!”

Big Regret…

OK, with that fatal mistake theme, name me a mistake you have made in your career/life that you regret – apart from agreeing to do this interview with me? Justin laughs…

“Probably allowing ‘Don’t Come Home Too Soon’ to be used as the so-called official Scotland football song in 1988. I got an absolute pounding for that song not being sufficiently jingoistic and triumphalist enough, so yeah, I regret doing that.”

I was curious as to how Justin and the band described their music back at the start and would that description still be the same for the del Amitri of today?

“Not quite. I think we sold ourselves as a pop band, because in 1982, 1983, pop was a word that had been re-claimed by indie groups, because it had been a kind of dirty word in the late 70s.

“It was kind of re-invented by the postcard bands ***, and pop became a positive attribute, so we sold ourselves as being a pop band when we weren’t really a pop band, we were really an art school indie group.

“Then later on in the 80s, we started to become a lot more rock. The guitars got a bit more distorted, and everything got a bit more solid and built on standard structures; you know, verse chorus, verse chorus, middle eight. So we kind of moved from being an indie pop band to being a sort of mainstream rock-pop band, I guess.”

*** Postcard Records is a British, Glasgow-based, independent record label founded by Alan Horne in 1979, as a vehicle for releases by Orange Juice and Josef K. The label’s motto was “The Sound of Young Scotland”.

justin currie tour blog

In the days of Spandau Ballet and Wham! having huge hits, Justin is on record as saying that his band del Amitri were “obscure and misunderstood in most places.” Why did he feel that/say that?

“I couldn’t possibly explain anything that came out of my mouth in my late teens and early 20s. I’ve got no idea why I said that. I guess I probably thought at the time that calling us obscure was self-deprecation, whereas it sounds more like false modesty to me.”

Successful 2022 US Tour…

We move on to discuss the recent North American tour of March and April 2022. 23 dates, their first tour there for 25 years. How’d it go? Any tales from the road? Fave gigs ?

“We were quite nervous about doing it, because none of us had lived on a tour bus since 1997, which is a long time ago. But we adapted to it really quickly, or re-adapted to it, and at the end of the tour, Ian and I didn’t particularly want to go home; we could quite happily done another month.

“A lot of the band got sick in the last week, some sort of virus made people extremely sick which wasn’t Covid. So, there were a few people diving off stage to go the toilet towards the end of the tour, which was not particularly amusing. I managed not to get it. Jim the drummer and Ian Harvey the guitar player got it.”

“My favourite gig was Atlanta. The Vic Theatre (sic) – Editor’s note: It was The Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. The Vic was in Chicago – which we’d done before. That was a gig where the band scored a 2-1 victory over the audience, where most of the other gigs the audience probably won the match!

“I thought the band were extremely good that night, the stage was the right height so you could see everybody in the audience and see people smiling. Chicago and Minneapolis gigs were really good too. They were also in theatres and I’m not usually a huge fan of playing theatres, I prefer standing areas.”

New live DVD…

Closer to home, the band have sold out three nights at Glasgow’s famed Barrowlands venue, tonight (9 th June) and the next two nights. First night is a free show for NHS workers. Justin reveals two of those gigs will be filmed and recorded for a live DVD.

justin currie tour blog

Plans for new music/album since 2021’s album? “No plans at the moment. We are touring into next year, so I guess next spring we’ll have a think about what to do next”

Justin has released four solo albums – the last one 2017. Plans for more and/or solo shows?

“No, not at the moment. I’m still kind of stuck in del Amitri world, although there are songs in the can that probably wouldn’t end up on a del Amitri record, so possibly. But I haven’t quite formulated that yet. There will probably be another del Amitri record before I did a solo record.

“Solo dates….Definitely nothing happening there, as the foreseeable future is all del Amitri stuff, which I am happy about.” The band has an extensive European tour kicking off in September this year.

Has he ever wanted to quit del Amitri for good, or even the music business itself? “ Playing in a band and making a living out of it is the best job in the world. I can’t think of any better job, you don’t have a boss, you get to do pretty much what you want, and you get to stand in front of people smiling at you every night or singing your lyrics back at you.

“No, I never wanted to quit. I wanted to keep going, keep going, keep going. When we got to 2002, we’d reached a natural pausing point where we’d been dropped by our record label, so for the first time in 20 years, we didn’t have a record deal or a prospect of a record deal.

“And we were looking at playing smaller venues and smaller audiences, and we collectively decided just to pause at that point, which in retrospect probably was the right thing to do. I wanted to keep going, but I think that would have been the wrong decision in the long run.”

The band took a hiatus from 2002 to 2013. The 2022 line-up is Justin, Iain Harvie, Ash Soan and Kris Dollimore.

Scottish Independence – yes or no?

To close our chat, I get a wee bit political with the last question. Scottish Independence, yes or no?  “I voted yes in 2014, because I got carried away in a tide of optimism.

“But since Brexit, it has become a much more complicated proposition, in that being outside of the UK and outside of Europe looks like a pretty scary place to be from my perspective.

“That being said, I am 57, and I am not going to stand in the way of people 40 and younger, if they want an independent Scotland. If they want that, I don’t see why I should stop them, because I’m going to be dead in a few years.”

  • Chart star Imelda May has been added to the headliners of Towersey Festival, which has moved to a new location at Claydon Estate, Buckinghamshire for the 2022 August Bank Holiday weekend.

The festival has come a long way since the first event in Grandpa’s back garden in 1965. Now a firm favourite of the local communities throughout Bucks/Berks and Oxfordshire, and lovers of folk and alternative music from across the UK.

With a mix of contemporary and traditional acts, such as sea shanty band The Longest Johns (who made the news on Tik Tok last year), folk royalty Kate Rusby, acoustic indie trailblazers Turin Brakes, Grammy and Tony award-winning singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and comedy legend (and Strictly Come Dancing star) Bill Bailey.

80s pop icon Howard Jones will be performing a fresh take on his best-known hits, as part of the Howard Jones Acoustic Trio. Imelda May replaces previously announced Tom Odell to appear on day one.

justin currie tour blog

Other confirmed additions to the music and comedy line-up include Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader, alt-folk artist This Is The Kit, Scottish rock band Skerryvore, Celtic folk-punk band Ferocious Dog, comedian Rob Deering, folk band Talisk, the Americana-influenced Police Dog Hogan and contemporary Highlands fiddle band Blazin’ Fiddles.

Lots more….folk singer-songwriter Kris Drever,  London’s Hackney Colliery Band, Peter Knight’s Gigspanner Big Band, London-based song-writing duo Ferris & Sylvester, comedian Laura Lexx, English roots band Edward II, festival favourites The Langan Band, ‘bloke-folk’ band Faustus and another 50+ music and comedy acts across 10 stages and venues.

Established in 1965 as a one-day event to raise funds for the repair of Towersey Village Hall, the festival has grown to become one of the UK’s major arts and music festivals. Run by three generations of the same family (with a fourth in training).

  www.towerseyfestival.com

Words: Steve Best

Imelda may photo:  eddie otchere.

Follow us for all the latest news!

This function has been disabled for Music Republic Magazine .

justin currie tour blog

  • Manage Account

Del Amitri’s Justin Currie: It used to be all rock‘n’roll and parties after gigs… now nothing ever happens

Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie at the Wickerman Festival in 2014

They lived the rock‘n’roll lifestyle, touring the world on tour buses and indulging in the excess that came with being in one of the country’s most successful bands.

But now Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie only wants one thing after a gig – to be tucked up in bed within the hour.

“When we toured America earlier this year, I was in bed an hour after we came off-stage, straight into my bunk on the bus,” said the 57-year-old behind the Glasgow band’s string of hits including Roll To Me, Always The Last To Know and Kiss This Thing Goodbye.

He said: “Our guitarist Chris was the same. We were the grandpas of the tour, but it has its benefits. I lost my voice on tour in the 90s, because I sat up drinking beer and smoking. It happened again when I went to see Scotland play Morocco in the World Cup in 1998, drank too much beer and shouted the whole match. So I’ve nipped all that in the bud.”

Del Amitri returned last year with their first album in two decades, Fatal Mistakes, which landed them a top-five place on the UK album charts. They brilliantly lampooned their status as elder statesmen of rock‘n’roll with the single You Can’t Go Back, and a hilarious video featuring the band done up as pensioners gone rogue.

But time waits for no man, even in a world where the Rolling Stones are still playing football stadiums as they approach 80.

Currie has 20 years on Jagger, Richards and co, but knows he needs to play it differently now.

“I find playing bass and singing takes much more effort than it used to,” said the singer, from Glasgow. “Iain (Harvey, the band’s co-founder and guitarist) still throws himself around, trying to make up for my lack of animation. But for the last 10 years I’ve really felt a big difference. I’ve done solo acoustic gigs in the interim and they’re less of a challenge. I’m reasonably strict about not drinking on tour now, until the last night.”

The Dels have maintained their loyal fanbase on both sides of the Atlantic. They toured coast to coast in America in the spring, where they were one of the few Scottish bands to have a bona-fide hit with 1995 single Roll to Me. Currie was surprised to find the audience still turned out for them, having released only one record since 2001 and not having played in the States since 1997.

He said: “They were there in larger numbers than expected. The American audience has mellowed a bit, they used to be crazy, but they’re terribly polite now. Maybe just less drunk, or maybe it’s just age. We haven’t toured America since 1997. In your late 50s you age really quickly, but the crowd all looked younger than us. They actually weren’t as old as I thought they might be.”

Chroniclers of heartbreak Del Amitri share their Brexit blues on long-awaited seventh LP after Britain kissed the EU goodbye

The US tour also afforded him insight into the different attitudes towards public health across The Pond.

He said: “There was a lot of mask-wearing on the coasts, but once you came in from the coast people looked at you like you were some sort of socialist revolutionary because you were wearing a mask.”

The band almost completed their extensive UK tour last December and were due for three highly-anticipated festive nights at the Barrowland in Glasgow, considered by many fans to be the band’s spiritual home. But they were one of a raft of acts forced to postpone after the rise of the omicron Covid variant.

Currie said: “I was thanking people who wore masks at the end of the night on that tour, because they were protecting others and us, but also not judging those who weren’t. Maybe 20% of the audience were wearing masks. But if you go to a gig and nobody is wearing a mask, it’s hard to keep yours on.”

Among those intended Barras dates was a free gig for NHS staff – first announced weeks into the pandemic in spring 2020, when nobody could have imagined how long restrictions would last. It’s been rearranged three times, and will, finally, take place on Thursday.

Currie said: “We decided to offer free tickets to NHS staff then see what happens. And the fact that the tickets went so quickly gave us something to work towards.

“The original idea was to raise money for NHS charities, but I wasn’t into that because I don’t think any part of the NHS should rely on charity. The idea morphed into giving tickets to staff,” said the singer who lost his father, John – known as Scotland’s choirmaster general – during the pandemic.

He added: “I’m not into gestures like standing outside our front doors and clapping. I don’t see what good it did other than allowing people to smile at their neighbours for 10 minutes, which I suppose is a good thing.

“But if I’d been working in a Covid ward when that stuff was going on I’d have hated it. There’s a slightly nationalistic tinge to that sort of thing, which makes me cringe. Why not just train more people and pay them more? That would be the natural response for people who are going beyond the call of duty during a national emergency.”

It’s a gig that should have been a distant memory by now, but a recent brush with the NHS himself left Currie reassured that the sentiment behind the band’s gesture has not been forgotten.

He said: “I was visiting a hospital a few weeks ago, the woman who took me in said she recognised me, and said she was coming to the gig. I asked if she thought anyone would still come, because it was so long ago.

“She said they definitely will. It was encouraging to hear that after it had been rescheduled three times. We just felt we had to do something.”

Currie joked that some of his biggest hits aren’t exactly party tunes, but is determined to give the workers a chance to leave their cares on the wards.

He said: “It’s not going to be all Del Amitri fans, it’s people who have been offered a free ticket as a gesture towards supporting the idea of the NHS in an emergency. It might feel different.

“We’ll rejig the set list to try to keep it as positive as possible, which isn’t always easy with our repertoire.”

Del Amitri play Albert Halls, Stirling, on Wednesday, Barrowland, Glasgow, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; Making Waves Festival in North Ayrshire on 23 July and Party in the Palace, Linlithgow on August 13.

SP-Subs-epaper

Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.

Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.

  • News Archive
  • Bulletin Board

Justin Currie Dates:

Upcoming Shows & Events

Get email updates.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Del Amitri Fan Twitter
  • JustinCurrie.com
  • The Official Del Amitri Twitter
  • The Official Del Amitri Website

Get Tickets

  • GigsAndTours.com
  • TicketMaster
  • TicketSoup.com (Glasgow)

Copyright © 2024 DelAmitri.com

Classic Pop Magazine

Register for full access

By Rosie Pankhurst | February 6, 2023

There is a reading limit of two articles per month. To gain unlimited access to the Classic Pop website, please register below or log in here .

By registering, you agree to receive the weekly Classic Pop newsletter and occasional marketing messages from Classic Pop and our selected music industry partners. You can opt out of these emails at any time.

 alt=

Rosie Pankhurst

Search classic pop.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Privacy Overview

Del Amitri

Fatal Mistakes

Llangollen international musical eisteddfod.

justin currie tour blog

justin currie tour blog

delamitriofficial

‘Every Night Has A Dawn’ is OUT NOW!

Del Amitri

  • FROM THE ARCHIVE

Sign up for more info

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Del Amitri

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates.

A Conversation With Justin Currie About Life, Love & Craig Ferguson

TV Writer; Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone; Co-Author, 'Everybody's Brother'

By virtue of the splendid and strange life that I lead, I've been lucky enough to speak with most of the singer-songwriters whose music I love. One glaring exception is John Lennon, who was killed before I started conversing with great musicians for a living. Recently, I got the chance to finally meet one of my favorite artists who I've somehow missed over the years. Interestingly, Justin Currie -- the Scottish singer-songwriter best known as the longtime front man of the perennially undervalued band Del Amitri -- has always reminded me just a little bit of John Lennon, as well as another of my favorite writers named John -- John Updike. Read on to find out why the hell I would say such a thing.

And so it was during a recent family vacation in Boston, I selfishly dragged my wife and kids out of the single greatest hotel in the world, the Mandarin Oriental Boston, just so that I could grab a few minutes to meet Currie during his soundcheck for a gig later that night at Boston's Paradise Rock Club while on tour to promote his excellent new album entitled The Great War .

When we got to the venue, we first ran into Currie's opening act for the night, a gifted young singer-songwriter originally from Oklahoma named Graham Colton. It turned out that Colton, like me, has long been a massive fan of Justin Currie's music. Indeed, Colton had willingly left his honeymoon early to have the honor of opening up for Currie, one of his own true musical heroes. Finally, the man himself arrived. Here then is my brief but meaningful conversation with Currie about The Great War and other topics:

Justin, I've loved your music since I was in college, but my own theory is that you are consistently undervalued and misunderstood. For instance, even the name Del Amitri always sounded less like a great Scottish rock band and more like some groovy Spanish surf club.

Funnily enough that was the sort of idea behind the name. We deliberately chose a really obscure name that wouldn't in any way point towards what we really were -- which was a post-punk white Scottish band heavily influenced by the Postcard Records acts of the time. So if we'd called ourselves the Wildflowers or the Kingfishers that would have been more painfully obvious. All the bands around at the time had incredibly pretentious names like Teutonic Veneer and Aztec Camera, so our name was a kind of bad reaction against that. We originally wanted to call ourselves something like Dimitri Papadopoulos so that we'd sound like an obscure Southern European night club singer. The only problem with calling ourselves Del Amitri is that . . . it's a terrible name. It doesn't give anyone a clue and it's not even memorable.

Then again, The Beatles is arguably not a great name either, and I hear they did pretty well for themselves.

True, that pun is particularly poor. Sure, it worked out pretty well for them, but it possibly would have been better as just the Beetles. And actually come to think if it, the Quarryman may have been a better name.

Justin Currie, on the other hand, is pretty nice ring to it.

Actually, I have an issue with my name too. Seeing my two names together always makes me think of being in school, or filling out a passport form or something else unpleasant. So when I see my name on a marquee somewhere, I don't get an ego rush from it at all -- only a vague sense that I'm in some sort of trouble. I thought of changing my name, but I suppose I'm a little too late for that.

I really love your latest solo album "The Great War." After the very different musical texture of your previous album from 2007, "What Is Love For," this latest record seems much closer to what Del Amitri fans have come to expect from you .

Yes, it should be closer to what Del Amitri is because I didn't do what I did on my first solo album and deliberately censor absolutely anything that sounded vaguely like the band. But this time around I felt that I didn't want to make another album of piano ballads, so inevitably The Great War sounds more like the band.

Another misconception about you as the result of the considerable commercial success of Del Amitri's "Roll To Me" is that you are a relatively sunny pop artist. Yet part of what made both Graham Colton and I love your work were the darker romantic themes you've explored so well, especially on an album like Del Amitri's 1992 effort "Change Everything."

You're right. Most of the Del Amitri singles that did okay were pretty upbeat songs like "Roll To Me," "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" and even "Here and Now." But the truth is that I'm not remotely a sunny artist. Songwriting is quite a lonely and introspective pastime and inevitably most of the things that you write are quite reflective or at least investigative.

As a writer, you've always reminded me of two all-time greats Johns who I also admire -- John Lennon and John Updike. The former John for more obvious musical reasons, the later John because, like him, you seem to write exceedingly well about bad male psychosexual behavior.

I have always been really interested in male unreliability, and that sort of dubious nature of men's motives. I'm fascinated by that subject, partly because I have the arrogance and confidence to talk about those things and sing about them without being embarrassed by it. Which I think puts me closer to those male and female stand up comedians who are very comfortable exposing the negative sides of themselves because they trust others will relate to that too. I generally don't write about women being unreliable, but more about men just not understanding women or not giving them what they want. Sometimes I write from a downright nasty perspective, and often it makes the audience laugh if I sing two or three of my misogyny tunes in a row.

Why do you think you think you write so well about this subject?

It may just be the function of being raised by a feminist mom and two sisters and getting a hard time from them. So I suppose I found it very liberating leaving home and having my own crazy relationships. I've realized it's all good and well being a male feminist until you get involved in the nitty gritty of life -- when there are things that you do and things that you feel that do not in any way fit in with a feminist ideal.

How's that impacted your life?

In my own personal life, music will always be more important to me than anything else, and I always say that upfront: "You're going to be #2, and I'm not going to lie about that." And a lot of the time, when you do what I do, you're not really all there. You're half there living your life, and half thinking about how to write about it.

There's also the fascinating, dangerous pathology that the great Randy Newman's spoken about -- causing problems in your life so you can write about them.

Everybody does it. I denied for years that I did it, and now I've realized that sometimes subconsciously, but also probably consciously too, I'll create trouble to write about it. I sort of mention this in one of the songs on The Great War called "The Way That It Falls." It reminds me of a great quote from a woman novelist I heard years ago. She said that most prose writers have to "manufacture their own loneliness."

One of the many standout songs on "The Great War" is "A Man With Nothing To Do." But with the current state of the music business, it seems like you probably have even more to do these days as an artist. For instance, recently, you've been doing some dates with a band, some dates solo, a number of TV appearances like the one you just did the other night with your fellow Scotsman Craig Ferguson the other night. So is there actually quite a lot for a man like you to do these days?

Well, there are more things to do these days that are not my job -- or at least things that were not in the job description when I formed a band in school back in Glasgow. Okay, we made some posters then, and we got our own gigs, which I enjoyed. But we didn't have to run a fan club or spend much time in any kind of office situation. Most musicians today spend the majority of their time in front of a computer dealing with the narrowcast media.

What's that like for a musician?

On some levels, this is wonderful because bands can now find an audience directly and circumvent the major corporations. But on the other hand, a lot of what you have to do today has nothing to do with the music. You're developing a relationship with your audience that is outside of the music and personal, sometimes becomes very personal with people writing about their domestic situations. Personally, I kind of like the fourth wall, not because I'm arrogant or a snob, but because I don't really want to meet my own heroes on that level. I kind of like some mystery, and there's no mystery today. Fans on Facebook or MySpace sort of want to track what you're doing every moment. I really just do it because I'm told to do it, but I find the social network side of what I do I find to be quite hard work and I'm not good at it. Playing music I love -- I totally subscribe to the Keith Richards view that the only peace you get is when you're onstage. Everything else is domestic irritation -- the French door doesn't shut and the washing machine isn't working. But you get onstage and it's quite blissful because you are in charge of your own destiny, and that's exciting and scary in a good way.

Finally, you did Craig Ferguson's show the other night. Did you two know each other when he was a musician in Scotland too? No, Craig's band the Dreamboys were just a bit ahead of my time. He's a few years older than me, but even that's a big gap in terms of punk rock. Craig was an early adopter of punk; I caught up a little later, but all my friends really rated the Dreamboys. It was great to see him and I'm quite proud of him as a Scott who's made a big success in America -- not an easy thing to do.

Support HuffPost

Our 2024 coverage needs you, your loyalty means the world to us.

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.

Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.

Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way.

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.

Dear HuffPost Reader

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.

Popular in the Community

From our partner, more in entertainment.

justin currie tour blog

Welcome to UK Music Reviews - The greatest music reviews and interviews in the UK

INTERVIEW: Justin Currie

Welcome to UK Music Reviews » INTERVIEW: Justin Currie

justin currie tour blog

Justin Currie, singer, songwriter and bass player with Del Amitri, chats with Kevin Cooper about his views on streaming platforms, playing his first gig after lock down, the release of their latest album Fatal Mistakes and their forthcoming tour of the UK

Justin Currie is a Scottish singer and songwriter, and is the founding member of the alternative rock band, Del Amitri. As well as being the chief songwriter he is also their lead vocalist and often plays bass for them.

Between 1985 and 2002 Del Amitri released six studio albums of which five reached the top ten in the UK charts.

Del Amitri grew out of Currie’s Jordanhill College School band and included guitarists James Scobbie and Donald Bentley and drummer Paul Tyagi. Scobbie and Bentley, who left the band to go to university, was replaced by Iain Harvie and Bryan Tolland after Currie placed an advert in a music shop for band members. From then on only Currie and Harvie have remained the constant members of the band.

In 2002 the band went on a hiatus but in 2013 were back together for a tour and a new album, Into The Mirror was released. They were back on tour in 2018 with the promise of yet another new album. That album was completed the night before the UK went into the Covid pandemic lockdown. Fatal Mistakes was released in May 2021 and a tour in support of it in September 2021 was also announced.

In addition to his work with Del Amitri, Currie is also a solo artist. Between 2007 and 2017 he has released four studio albums.

Whilst busy promoting Del Amitri’s latest album, Currie took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.

Justin, good morning, how are you?

Hi Kevin, I’m good thanks. How are you?

I’m very well thank you and before we move on let me firstly thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

Not at all, it’s my pleasure to once again be speaking to you.

And just how is life treating you?

Fine, I guess. It’s been very pleasing for us to be able to get three gigs out of the way. We recently did three gigs at the Edinburgh Festival so for us to have actually done something that was in the diary that actually happened really was a massive relief.

How did it go? How did you feel actually stepping out onto the stage after such a long period of time?

In all honesty, I felt like I did many years ago now when we played our very first gig. It was really odd. I would have to say that it was a case of blind panic more than anything. It was really odd simply because you are not match fit. We were pretty well rehearsed and all that kind of stuff; we could play the songs, but we hadn’t prepared for that adrenaline surge at all. We were all just so completely rusty. It really was very odd, but I have to say that the audience were totally understanding of that fact. When we went onstage the first night I just said, “look, this is really fucking weird” so the first night’s audience were most probably the best and we really did go out of our way to let them know that for us, the gig really was going to be a bit of a struggle.

For me, it was nice to get that pre-gig buzz once again. That was a nice thing because there is nothing else that you can really replace that with. The only way that you can get that feeling is by playing a gig and pacing around in the dressing room. It was terrifying and was a bit like stepping out into the unknown. It had been so long since any of us had been on a stage. Even between tours, most of us would be on a stage somewhere, doing a gig in a pub or somewhere, which just keeps your hand in. It just stops you getting completely seized up. So, yes, the whole thing was terrifying. I wouldn’t say that we were immensely relieved even after the first night; I would say that it took us at least three nights for us to learn to relax a little. So, on the last night we were almost there. For me, personally, if we go out on the road, it will take me about ten gigs to actually start to feel comfortable, so I was actually nowhere near yet.

Despite that, do you still get that buzz from touring?

(Laughter) don’t get me wrong, I love touring. I love touring and I love being away from home. I especially love being somewhere different every day. I absolutely love it. I actually found it very frustrating going to Edinburgh three nights on a row for the Edinburgh Festival (laughter). As I said earlier, I just like being in a different place every day, looking at different people and different shops. I find that really stimulating. I love it. The only caveat is if you get a cold while you are on the road then it all becomes a complete drag. If you get any illness on the road, it is a complete drag. Of course, we are now in a situation with Covid where any kind of illness is going to bring everything to a grinding halt. That is another thing that we have to consider.

I asked Fish the same question and he has a conspiracy theory that whilst he is out on tour, his local Asda move everything around so that he cannot find anything when he gets home.

(Hysterical laughter) I couldn’t possibly comment on that (laughter).

We really must speak about the latest album; Fatal Mistakes and I have to tell you that I have been playing it now for the past couple of weeks and I think that it is great.

That’s great Kevin, thanks for saying that. It is always nice to hear that someone likes what it is that you are doing, so thank you.

Are you happy with it?

Yes, I am, I really am. I don’t think that we would ever release anything that we were not one hundred percent happy with. Having said that, I have not listened to it for a while now but the last time that I listened to it, I really did enjoy it. We are enjoying rehearsing the songs and we are really looking forward to playing them live.

I must ask, where does the title come from? Does it refer to one particular fatal mistake?

No, not at all I just wanted something that would generally refer to the band, the audience, the songs, something that would not colour the songs too much. I think that it is a very general title that could refer to any number of things.

I understand that there is some significance to the album in the cover; is that right?

(Laughter) just who the hell have you been speaking to; I’m going to have somebody’s arse for this. Yes, that is absolutely correct; each item on the cover refers to one of the lyrics in each of the songs. However, we didn’t like some of the objects, so we changed them around quite a lot, and I have to be honest with you and say that some of the references are extremely obscure (laughter). It really is quite difficult working out just what’s what (laughter).

You recorded the album over a three-week period. Is that normal for Del Amitri?

Well, the first album that we recorded for Chrysalis took us just three weeks, so it really was kind of going back to those early days. Having said that, when we joined A&M the budgets got bigger, and if I remember correctly, Twisted took us around four months, but it has to be said that we were working on it on and off. In fact, thinking about it now, Change Everything took us quite a while as well. I personally feel that three weeks is about the ideal amount of time to record an album. I feel that you have just enough time in three weeks especially if you have twenty songs. There is just enough time for you to experiment and fanny about.

Whereas, if you have just got a week, you would have to put everything down pretty much as it was in the rehearsal rooms. So, I personally feel that three weeks is just about the ideal amount of time, and we certainly used all of the time. We still had a couple of things to do on our last night, the Saturday night.

The album was all finished and ready to go in March 2020, the day before the country went into lockdown. There must have been a collective sigh of relief?

Well, we were all watching the encroaching virus and we realised in the last week that Boris (Johnson) was most probably going to shut the whole country down in the next couple of days, so we all began to panic, and we got our guitar tech to come down to the studio and get all of the gear out on the Thursday. So, we got all of the heavy lifting done on the Thursday, and we still had a few bits to do, vocals and suchlike, on the Friday and the Saturday. We then ran home on the Sunday and the lockdown started on the Monday. So you could say that the timing was actually perfect. The only thing that we were worried about was that we were all worried that all of our equipment might have got stuck in the studio during lockdown, which really would have been a pain.

And then, at one point we were fantasizing that we might have all got stuck there and we could have started writing and recording another album, which thinking about it, might have been pretty good (laughter). It was weird for us because we are all urban creatures, but we weren’t living in an urban environment. We were in the middle of the Midland countryside, and we weren’t near anywhere. We weren’t near to any town; the nearest being over a two hour walk away from us. It was quite an odd experience seeing stuff on the news, empty shelves, toilet roll shortages and the like, from this idyllic rural perspective, where nothing seemed to have changed very much.

Okay, there were some empty supermarket shelves in the local town, but that was about it. We really did feel as though we were all in a weird TV drama where the end of the world is happening, but it is not happening here, it’s not happening where you are. I don’t think that it is behind us just yet but let’s just hope that the worst is. I feel that it is here to stay, we just have to learn how to live with it.

You completed the album in March 2020; you released it in May 2021. Are you a meddler; did you get frustrated with the length of time that you couldn’t get the album out there?

(Laughter) what can I say. That has happened to us many times before, so you just tend to get on with things. I have to say that it doesn’t really bother me anymore, but in the past, it really did used to drive me mad. Whenever we had finished an album, I was desperate to get it released. However, with Covid, it took quite a while for us to mix the album, which gave us more time to do all of the other stuff. I have realised in the last couple of years that there is so much admin involved in releasing an album. You find yourself basically doing an office job for six weeks, which I find to be a thunderously boring thing. So, it gave us time to spread that out so that was quite good.

Would you agree with a lot of the fans that it is your best work to date?

You know me, I would never say anything like that about anything that we have ever recorded and released. I’m really not in the ideal position to evaluate it. I love what we do, and I sometimes listen to it, usually over a glass of wine, but I couldn’t critically evaluate it at all. On any given day I will think that it is all great or it is all shit (laughter). I’m simply not that person to evaluate that at all.

You were recently quoted as saying that “no one listens to our new songs” when the album went straight into the charts at number two in both Scotland and England. Sure, that must have allayed a few fears?

Yes, it has, but what you have to remember is that the charts are now no longer as significant as they were. Yes, as you rightly say, the album went straight into the charts at number two, but it went straight back out the following week. So, number two is a nice number to have, but it really doesn’t mean that much. You would need to have sold ten times the number of copies we did to get to number two, to actually get to number forty back in the day. So, it really is a bit mystifying to us (laughter). We were looking at the numbers that we had to sell to get to number one and we all looked at each other and said, “is that right, that’s fucking nuts” (laughter).

So, it’s nice that we can say that we had a top five album, but the charts are simply not as significant as they were. The only significant numbers in the charts are those albums that are never out of the charts; Dark Side Of The Moon and Rumours for example, which are still in the album chart after forty fucking years (laughter).

Do you think that the audiences will eventually find their confidence and start going to live gigs?

To be honest with you, prior to Covid, ticket sales for live gigs was looking healthy. The three shows that we did in Edinburgh were all socially distanced, and I have to say that the audiences seemed comfortable. I suppose that they would be simply sitting there with people who they know, being a metre or so from people who they didn’t know; that is just a natural thing. So, I have no idea just how people will feel sitting cheek to jowl in theatres; it’s an unknown phenomenon.

As you know better than most, this could change overnight, but at the moment I have got four go to tracks on the album. The first is the track which I would have thought would have been the single from the album had there still been such beasts, and that is You Can’t Go Back which I feel is fantastic. Secondly, it is Musicians And Beer, thirdly we have Losing The Will To Die and lastly I love Missing Person. I personally feel that those four songs are fantastic.

That’s good, I see that you have chosen four all rather up-tempo songs.

That’s right. I like to pick up-tempo songs otherwise I find myself trying to throw myself under a bus (laughter).

It’s funny you say that because we have had a fair few hecklers on a Friday night in Edinburgh where the crowd have asked us, “can’t you play any fucking cheery songs” to which I usually reply with, “no, sorry, we are not into cheery songs” (laughter).

Do you any idea yet as to which of the new songs will make it onto the set list for the forthcoming tour?

I think that we will be playing You Can’t Go Back and Musicians And Beer on the forthcoming tour. We already know quite a lot of the new songs, simply because we recorded them all live in the studio, and apart from Its Feelings they are all quite easy to play. So, I think that we will just alternate them; so probably not less than four but no more than six. We played quite a few the other night but that was more of an experimental thing.

Do you have a favourite song on the album?

No, not really. I like Otherwise, for personal reasons, and I also like Nation Of Caners but no, I don’t really have a favourite song. I love the way the album is sequenced; Iain (Harvie) did the final sequence and I really love the way it is put together. That really does satisfy me.

I’m of the old school and I believe that if you buy an album then you should listen to it from start to finish. Would you agree with that?

I totally agree, unless the first two songs are rubbish then I probably wouldn’t listen to it at all (laughter). No, I totally agree with you. During the first lockdown I spent quite a few hours every day just listening back to all the stuff that I have got on vinyl, and I actually found it to be really interesting. There was a whole load of things that weren’t nearly as good as I remember them, and a whole bunch of things that I had forgotten about that were much better that I remembered. Some things have really dated badly; in particular, things from the 1990s had dated badly although there was a big hole in the 90s as I had started to buy CDs in the 90s.

Most of my vinyl collection runs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and then it sort of ran out in the 90s which I actually found a bit odd, and then it stated again in the late zeros. But yes, sitting on a couch listening to sides one and two just idling away the afternoon was actually quite a pleasant way to spend lockdown.

And actually being able to read the sleeve notes without the help of a magnifying glass (laughter).

Exactly (laughter). It was great not having to fiddle around on my bloody mobile phone in order to find a writing credit.

I find it strange whenever I go backwards, as I have singles and albums which I have never played on stereo. I have only ever heard them in mono, and that always puts a different perspective on it.

I know what you mean, but I have to say that I still only listen to the mono versions of the early Beatles albums. Most of the mono versions were recorded far better than the stereo versions. I personally don’t think that there is anything wrong with mono actually. In fact, I have always been very tempted to make a mono record. I must tell you that one of the mixes on Fatal Mistakes was mistakenly delivered in mono; it was mono left side only, so the left side was on both channels. Iain noticed it but the producer and I didn’t notice it; we thought that it sounded great, but I had to come clean and tell them that it was the left side on both channels (laughter). It was pure mono and it sounded fucking fantastic.

What a story, but the kids wouldn’t have a clue what you were talking about.

(Laughter) how right you are. I suppose that if you use headphones all the time then you will most probably get quite a lot out of stereo. However, there are certain things that you can’t do with stereo on headphones. For example, you can’t hardpan vocals on headphones as it just doesn’t make any sense. There is a lot to be said for mono, a hell of a lot.

What are your views on streaming platforms?

As a consumer I would have to say that I am for them because the convenience is totally amazing. Professionally, it is incredibly handy to have your whole catalogue at your fingertips, no matter where in the world you are. Back in the day, whenever we went out on the road, we would have to carry around sacks and sacks of cassettes, together with loads of CDs just to ensure that we had enough material with us. So, yes, I would have to say that they are highly convenient. I think that they sound okay; I don’t think that they sound awful, but I feel that sites such as Spotify could do well to up their bit rate. I have always thought that the quality was alright, and I honestly feel that the arguments regarding the royalties paid to artists will eventually sort themselves out.

If you own your own masters, you are running your own record label, and you own your own recordings, then yes, you can make money from streaming platforms. My main concern with streaming is, in the long run, it will prove to be more damaging to the environment, than making bits of plastic, simply because every time that you listen to that Rolling Stones song, you are burning up energy. And let’s face it; the energy must come from somewhere. So, I would like to see someone do an audit on the actual environmental costs on streaming platforms. That would be my main concern. Is it less environmentally damaging for someone to buy a record once, or to use packets of electricity listening to things thousands of times?

It would be interesting to see the figures on that. But yes, it is massively convenient, and I think that the royalty rates will get there eventually. I think that the subscription fees are, at the moment, a little bit low. I personally subscribe to Tidal because the quality is a lot better and that is twice what it costs on Spotify. Most people don’t give a shit about quality, and therefore they are just going to pay the ten pounds to Spotify to have the complete history of recorded music at their fingertips. I think that it probably should be more expensive, but whether the market will pay that, I don’t know. There are good things and bad things about it.

It is an ideal model for new music because every time that a fan listens to a record, they pay for it again and again, so they are paying for it over and over again. Take it from me; the music industry loves that (laughter). The one thing that I feel is a real shame is that it has invalidated the need for a second-hand market. If your brother likes Thin Lizzy, then you will listen to Thin Lizzy on your Spotify account rather that going out and buying a second-hand copy of the record in a second-hand record shop. I like the recycling side of the second-hand market, and obviously streaming gets rid of that. Streaming is most probably completely evil, but I’m not entirely sure (laughter).

You and I last spoke in May 2018 and at that time you said that you didn’t consider Del Amitri to be a going concern. You felt that it was something that you could dip in and out of. Is that still the situation?

Back then, at that point, we weren’t considering making a record, but as soon as you make a record it automatically feels like a going concern; you are doing work outside of the touring schedule, you have got new material and so it becomes a contemporary project because you have got new songs. Whereas, back in the 2010s we did two tours which were four years apart. So yes, that was just an occasional thing, and I would never have called that a going concern whereas now, I would. We are now looking at doing as many things as we can next year including another album so, yes; it exists at this point, yes.

Looking back to 1984 when Del Amitri signed to Chrysalis Records. Would a fifty-six-year-old Justin Currie have any advice for the youngster signing his first professional contract?

(Laughter) probably just to try and enjoy it a bit more and don’t take everything quite so seriously. To be honest with you, we had a pretty horrible experience whilst we were signed to Chrysalis. We were like a lot of young bands who were chewed up and spat out rather viciously by a major label. The annoying thing was that we were completely misunderstood by Chrysalis. That stuff made me righteously angry at the time, so I wouldn’t have any advice to give myself on that point. I would just say try and enjoy yourself a bit more, and remember, it’s not all life and death; its only music (laughter).

Are there currently any thoughts on a solo album and tour?

The short answer to that is no. I am not even thinking about anything like that. All of the stuff that I have recently been writing has been geared towards Del Amitri. The Cooking Vinyl deal is a two-album thing, so I wouldn’t at this moment in time, have any great hunger to make a solo record. So I’m not even thinking about it.

Is there one song in the world that you wish that you had written?

Oh, there are quite a lot really. The question is do I want to be rich or just really pleased with myself (laughter). There are countless songs out there that I wish that I had written. If I had written Like A Rolling Stone, the Bob Dylan track, then I think that I would be fairly happy. Or if I had written Yesterday, or I Am The Walrus, there really are countless things. If you look at the really great songs, and then you look at your own songs, you just have to admit to yourself that you have never written a decent song; you have not even got close (laughter). However, you are not even trying to get close simply because that’s impossible. You cannot write a song better than Like A Rolling Stone or Here, There And Everywhere. They are just timeless fucking songs. The job of song writing is just about writing the best songs that you can and if you start comparing your songs to something that Cole Porter has written, you will just get suicidally depressed because you are so fucking useless (laughter). So, I would definitely never make comparisons. If I woke up one morning and I had written Like A Rolling Stone I would be very chuffed.

On that note Justin let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, it’s been enlightening. You take care and I will see you in Nottingham.

It’s my pleasure Kevin. You take care and bye for now.

justin currie tour blog

GIG REVIEW: del Amitri

justin currie tour blog

Cancle Replay

Recent posts.

  • INTERVIEW: Ged Graham March 5, 2024
  • JOHN ROBB TO EMBARK UPON AN EXTENSIVE UK TOUR March 4, 2024
  • TRAMLINES 2024 LINE-UP JUST GOT BIGGER March 4, 2024
  • SIMPLE MINDS ANNOUNCE GLOBAL TOUR 2024 March 4, 2024
  • YARD ACT ANNOUNCE UK SPRING TOUR March 4, 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • February 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • Album Reviews
  • Announcements
  • Gig Reviews
  • Musical Theatre
  • Uncategorized

justin currie tour blog

Del Amitri in Melbourne 23 February 2023 photo by Winston Zekelman

Del Amitri’s Justin Currie Reveals Parkinson Diagnosis

by Paul Cashmere on March 6, 2024

Justin Currie of Del Amitri has revealed he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and has agreed to discuss the condition with the BBC this weekend.

Currie was diagnosed two years ago just before the Del Amitri world tour, which brought the band to Australia in 2023 for the first time since 1990.

Watch the Noise11 interview with Justin Currie:

A post at the Del Amitri socials reads:

We expect by now you will have read the stories about Justin’s diagnosis with Parkinsons. This coming Sunday March 10th, Justin will be interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on her BBC One show. Tune in at 9am GMT. On Sunday afternoon, Justin narrates his own story of the diagnosis, and how it has affected his life, in a new 30 minute documentary called ‘Tremolo’ on BBC Radio 4. Listen live from 4:30pm, or shortly after broadcast at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001x49y

In 2021 Del Amitri released ‘Fatal Mistakes’, their first album in 19 years. Their first hit was ‘Kiss This Thing Goodbye’ in 1990.

Stay updated with your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert.  Subscribe to Noise11 Music News here

Be the first to see NOISE11.com’s newest interviews and special features on YOUTUBE and updated regularly. See things first SUBSCRIBE here: Noise11 on YouTube SUBSCRIBE

Noise11.com

Share this:

Tagged as: 80s , 90s , Del Amitri , Justin Currie , rock , Scotland

Related Posts

Bon Jovi, Photo By Damien Loverso

Bon Jovi have announced their 16th album ‘Forever’ is coming in June. Today you get to hear ‘Legendary’.

Eric Bazilian and Tania Doko

Eric Bazilian, co-founder of US rock band The Hooters, and Tania Doko from Australia’s Bachelor Girl, will head out on Australian dates together in April.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Plenary, Melbourne, Australia, Noise11,Ros O'Gorman, Photo

Neil Young is bringing his music back to Spotify.

Bon Jovi, Photo By Damien Loverso

The Bon Jovi Story will be told through the Disney+ docuseries ‘Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story’.

justin currie tour blog

Jimmy Buffett will be honored when a massive line-up gathers to pay tribute to the superstar on September 1, 2023.

The Edge, U2 perform at Etihad Stadium.

U2’s ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere’ has become the third show ever to sell more than $200 million in ticket sales. The other two are both Celine Dion shows ‘A New Day …” and ‘Celine’.

Elton John at Mt Duneed Winery 7 Dec 2019 photo by Jackson

David Furnish has said Sir Elton John is due for knee surgery within weeks.

Mark Wilson of Jet

Jason Singh 25 Years of Taxiride

IMAGES

  1. May « 2022 « Justin Currie

    justin currie tour blog

  2. Del Amitri's singer Justin Currie talks about the band's return with

    justin currie tour blog

  3. Justin Currie

    justin currie tour blog

  4. Justin Currie Concerts & Live Tour Dates: 2024-2025 Tickets

    justin currie tour blog

  5. August « 2014 « Justin Currie

    justin currie tour blog

  6. JUSTIN CURRIE

    justin currie tour blog

VIDEO

  1. Justin Currie Inside Me

  2. 2012 Justin Currie Surrender

  3. Justin Currie at The Pony Club

  4. Justin Currie

  5. Justin Currie of Del Amitri the Noise11.com interview 2023

  6. Justin Currie "Something So Wild"

COMMENTS

  1. Justin Currie's Tour Diary

    The foliage crowds around, exuberant after two months of sunshine. Blue dales lie lazily in the distance, cradling dark villages. Small fields line the the road, hemmed by hedgerows. This is Hadrian's Wall country, as far as the legions dared to venture. The Pennines to the south, the north beyond - savagery.

  2. Justin Currie

    An ancient Chinese woman sifts through a garbage basket, her trove of refundable cans and bottles in an enormous plastic bag at the end of a pole (with a counterweight at the other) that she balances on her shoulder. A twenty-something couple straight out of a…. —More Tales. —Posted by justin in Tales.

  3. Justin Currie

    Official Website | New Album - Lower Reaches - Includes single 'Bend To My Will' | Out now | Pick Up a Copy Here | More

  4. INTERVIEW: JUSTIN CURRIE, del Amitri

    Chief songwriter, singer and bassist Justin Currie steered the ship along with guitarist Iain Harvie as other musicians came and went, most notably Andy Alston on keyboards since 1989. Currie's established a successful solo career since, releasing four albums under his own name, and reunited with Harvie and Alston, as well as former del ...

  5. INTERVIEW: Del Amitri

    8 February 2023 Mark Diggins. It's been 30 years since Del Amitri last played Australia and the host of sold out shows in February shows that either party has forgotten about each other in the interim. The tour will also see founding members and songwriters Justin Currie (vocals/bass) and Ian Harvie (guitar) reunited with former members Andy ...

  6. Del Amitri's Justin Currie: 10 things that changed my life

    4 Access to music technology. WHEN we lived in Leicester, my parents bought a Crown Japanese stereo system. If I had an empty when I came home from school, I would listen to my sisters' pop record on my own, which I really loved. Back in Glasgow, my dad gave me his Ferrograph reel-to-reel tape recorder.

  7. The Dark Brilliance Of Justin Currie

    The Dark Brilliance Of Justin Currie. As Del Amitri return to York, we examine the life and lyrics of the band's charismatic front man Justin Currie. Way back in the early months of 1990, when the UK music chart was a wasteland of ghastly pop procured by Stock, Aitken and Waterman or The Pet Shop Boys, a song rang out of the radio one day ...

  8. Justin Currie

    Justin Currie. A founding member of Del Amitri (along with Iain Harvie), Justin has been a constant fixture since the band's founding in Glasgow, in 1981. (It is said that a teenage Justin, wanting to form a band, put a card up in a music store looking for people who could play; an unspectacular beginning!) Considered the chief songwriter ...

  9. Del Amitri's Justin Currie talks about touring America as band comes to

    Del Amitri's Justin Currie talks about touring America as band comes to LA's Roxy 'We love making money but having a new record makes it feel like we're touring for the right reasons,' says ...

  10. A Q&A with Del Amitri's Justin Currie

    Over the course of 13 songs, core members Justin Currie and Iain Harvie join up with newer recruits Kris Dollimore, Andy Alston, and Ash Sloan to unearth the formula on which the Scottish group always relied: bouncy melodies played with sure-handed soulfulness in service of Currie's piercing lyrics. In a phone interview from his Glasgow home ...

  11. Justin Currie: Happily Stuck In del Amitri World!

    Justin and friend. Music Republic Magazine caught up with del Amitri front man, singer and songwriter Justin Currie on the 'phone from his Glasgow home, for a natter about all sorts, from the band's festival slot to the US tour, background to their two biggest hits, "Nothing Ever Happens" and "Always The Last To Know", and lots more.

  12. Del Amitri's Justin Currie: It used to be all rock'n'roll and parties

    Currie said: "I was thanking people who wore masks at the end of the night on that tour, because they were protecting others and us, but also not judging those who weren't. Maybe 20% of the ...

  13. Tour Dates

    Justin Currie Dates: September 14 * ... Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Links. Del Amitri Fan Twitter; JustinCurrie.com; ... Home / Tour Dates. Tour Dates. Justin Currie Dates: September 14 * 3rd & Lindsley: Nashville, TN:

  14. Fatal Attraction: Del Amitri interviewed

    In 2021 Del Amitri returned with Fatal Mistakes - their first new album in 19 years. "If anyone can make a great Del Amitri record, it should be us," Justin Currie and Iain Harvie told Classic Pop in this interview to mark its release…. Del Amitri finished recording their new album shortly after midnight on Sunday, 22 March 2020 - one ...

  15. Del Amitri

    Del Amitri are excited to announce their return to the USA this summer for a huge 31 date tour supporting Barenaked Ladies. The tour kicks off on June 2nd in Columbus Ohio, taking in cities across the states including Chicago, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, before...

  16. A Conversation With Justin Currie About Life, Love & Craig Ferguson

    Interestingly, Justin Currie -- the Scottish singer-songwriter best known as the longtime front man of the perennially undervalued band Del Amitri -- has always reminded me just a little bit of John Lennon, as well as another of my favorite writers named John -- John Updike. Read on to find out why the hell I would say such a thing.

  17. justin currie on Twitter: "More US tour blog: https://t.co/BgUNoDuSyA

    Log in. Sign up

  18. INTERVIEW: Justin Currie

    INTERVIEW: Justin Currie. Justin Currie, singer, songwriter and bass player with Del Amitri, chats with Kevin Cooper about his views on streaming platforms, playing his first gig after lock down, the release of their latest album Fatal Mistakes and their forthcoming tour of the UK. Justin Currie is a Scottish singer and songwriter, and is the ...

  19. Del Amitri singer Justin Currie: I know Parkinson's will stop me

    Justin says he knows the point is coming that he will have to stop performing. Del Amitri singer Justin Currie, who has revealed he has Parkinson's disease, has spoken about the "grim" prospect of ...

  20. Justin Currie: Del Amitri frontman reveals Parkinson's disease

    Justin Currie: Del Amitri frontman reveals Parkinson's disease diagnosis ahead of European tour😆😂 Thank you again!😂😆💗📌 London

  21. Del Amitri's Justin Currie Reveals Parkinson Diagnosis

    Currie was diagnosed two years ago just before the Del Amitri world tour, which brought the band to Australia in 2023 for the first time since 1990. Watch the Noise11 interview with Justin Currie ...

  22. Del Amitri singer Justin Currie reveals Parkinson's disease diagnosis

    One of Scotland 's leading pop and rock singers has revealed he has Parkinson's disease. Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie has discussed the impact of the condition in a Radio 4 programme to be ...