Bell X1 UK Tour

• 10th Mar 2009

Bell X1 release their fourth studio album, Blue Lights On The Runway, on March 16 2009, following the multi-platinum Irish success of last set ‘Flock’, sold-out shows in their native country’s biggest venues, and a breakthrough in the US, where their songs have featured on Grey’s Anatomy, One Tree Hill and the O.C.

‘Blue Lights On The Runway’ is quite simply the band’s finest statement yet. Continuing the musical evolution of its predecessor, it’s a timely release that, like The Flaming Lips ‘Soft Bulletin’, Mercury Rev’s ‘Deserter’s Songs,’ or Elbow’s ‘Seldom Seen Kid,’ should finally cross Bell X1 over to a mainstream UK audience. At a first listen, both lyrics and melodies might sound deceptively simple, but pay it some attention, massage the back of its neck a little, and sonic experimentation, witty vignettes and rhythmic invention come purring through.

Echoes of critically-adored previous hit ‘Flame’ abound in two impossibly catchy future singles, the Talking Heads-influenced ‘The Great Defector’ and the soaring ‘The Ribs Of A Broken Umbrella’ [release dates TBC]. Other highlights include ‘Blow Ins’, an existential gasp at transience and inconsequentiality, and the stunning ‘Better Band’ which, with its three ‘movements’, typifies the band’s style of insistent, multi-layered hooks and careful layering. Closing the album is ‘The Curtains Are Twitching’, a crepuscular elegy polished by funereal brass flown over from the Big Easy herself, New Orleans. It’s sunshine pop with a heart of darkness. Or is it, perhaps, dark pop with a hopeful heart?

The band started recording ‘Blue Lights’ in October 2007 in the 17th century Ballycumber House, Co Offaly, a freezing cold castle with, according to singer Paul Noonan, “wonderfully awful patterned carpet and wallpaper.” Other recording spaces included a disused factory in Inchicore, and bassist Dom's garage in Meath, Ireland.

After securing a North American deal with Yep Roc, Bell X1 spent much of 2008 in the US on promotional duties, which included a sell-out at Bowery Ballroom in New York, shows in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Toronto, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Fergusen. Their music was also used on Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill. Meanwhile they continued to consolidate their position in Europe with ever more successful headline shows and sold-out tours, returning to Ireland (and County Kildare) in July for a performance at Oxegen 2008, where they headlined the Green Room on the Friday night.

MAY:

05 – London, Barfly – SOLD OUT

16 – Brighton, The Great Escape, venue tbc

18 – Birmingham, Barfly

19 – London, Scala

20 – Manchester, Club Academy

21 – Glasgow, King Tuts