Following last week’s CMA awards performance where Eric Church gave a live debut to his 1st single ‘The Outsiders’ taken from upcoming 4th studio album, Eric Church will be returning to the UK in 2014 for the following dates:
February 2014
Thursday 27th O2 ABC, Glasgow
March 2014
Saturday 1st The Ritz, Manchester
Sunday 2nd O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 15th November priced £20 in Glasgow Manchester and £24.50 in London (subject to per-ticket charge plus order processing fee) and will be available from Festivals For All.
Revolution has cast a spark in mainstream country music, and relentless outlier Eric Church is to blame. Since the release of his first album, Sinners Like Me (2006), Church has led his pack one-by-one through retrospective songwriting, invigorating live shows, and a hard-boiled attitude soaked in blood and sweat, and ice-cold beers.
His “don’t-back-down” attitude and “road-less-traveled” approach helped earn his latest groundbreaking studio album CHIEF the coveted Album of the Year title at both the 2012 CMA Awards and 2013 ACM Awards in addition to its RIAA Platinum certification with over one million copies sold. CHIEF debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Top 200 and Billboard Country Albums Charts, and has produced No. 1 singles “Drink in My Hand” (RIAA Platinum-certified), “Springsteen” (RIAA Double Platinum-certified) & Top 5 fan-favorite “Creepin’” (RIAA Gold-certified). Not to mention, his first-ever headlining arena tour, aptly titled Eric Church: The Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour, which sold over one million tickets in the U.S. alone in 2012. The New York Times helped shed light on those mega ticket sales when they named The Blood, Sweat & Beers Tour one of the “Best Concerts Of 2012” (of all genres) and called it “a mean show,” adding, “Mr. Church has clawed his way into the country mainstream with a series of post-outlaw anthems, and delivered them with verve and tension, as if he might not be allowed to for much longer.”
With no shortage of accolades surrounding him as he came off of two 2013 GRAMMY nominations, Church wrapped The Blood, Sweat and Beers Tour and hit the road in 2013 on select dates with Kenny Chesney on his No Shoes Nation stadium tour. During that tour, The Boston Globe referred to Church as “a jacked-up force” when he performed too over 100,000 fans at Gillette Stadium this summer.
Rolling Stone included Church in their list of “50 Greatest Live Acts Right Now” in its Aug. 15, 2013 issue, and Spin Magazine ranked Church as No. 4 out of 10 on their “Best Things We Saw on Saturday” list from Lollapalooza 2013.
Rolling Stone, SPIN, iTunes, and The Los Angeles Times also joined the crusade in granting Church coveted end-of-the-year ‘top album’ accolades the year of its release; and furthermore, positioned at the apex of life-long achievements for Church, he experienced the exhilaration of his first-ever GRAMMY nomination with CHIEF for Best Country Album in 2012 followed by two nominations for Country Song and Single in 2013 for “Springsteen.”
"Normally, you have No. 1 singles before you have No. 1 albums and arena tours, but for us, it was the other way," says Church who began planning the arena tour months before ever reaching the singles summit with “Drink in My Hand" and the two-week No. 1, “Springsteen” – both Church personally co-wrote. Cultivating a devoted fan base without sacrificing musical integrity and self-expression, Church has built up his following slowly, but the hard work is finally proving to have paid off.
It’s that fearlessness both on stage and in the studio that continually sets Church apart--earning him performances on stages opening for Metallica at Orion Festival, the ACL stage, Lollapalooza, and alongside top names at CMA Music Festival’s LP Field.
If there is one thing country music needs more of, it’s the attitude that is driving Eric Church, the approach behind every song on CHIEF, the fearlessness that lets an artist swing for the fences and attempt to change the musical landscape. “There were safer choices I could have made for sure, but I just can't feel that helps anybody,” he says. “If you have any respect for the music, you'll use each chance you get to try to be one of the ones who moves the flag.”
