VIDEO PREVIEW: Del Amitri roll out Greatest Hits & Fatal Mistakes UK tour

ROLL To Me hitmakers Del Amitri are to roll out a greatest hits and new album UK tour after admitting their latest comeback was a 'stunning surprise'.
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Fatal Mistakes is the Scottish pop rock band’s first album in almost 20-years but it charted in the UK at number five and left them amazed that anyone gives a damn about them anymore.

But give a damn they do. The forthcoming tour is already selling out and another album won’t take another 20-years, they promised fans in our exclusive interview, writes Graham Walker.

Singer, songwriter and founding member Justin Currie and longtime guitarist Iain Harvie today also gave the real reason why it’s taken so long to record again. as they revealed lockdown secrets and challenges behind making the album and preparing for the tour.

VIDEO: Watch the full video chat - CLICK HERE.

BUY TICKETS: For Del Amitri Greatest Hits and Fatal Mistakes UK tour dates and tickets, including an extensive Scotland tour, see links below and also visit www.gigsandtours, www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.delamitri.info.

The Del Amitri 2021 UK tour promoted by SJM Concerts – click on venue links for tickets – plays September 13th - Cardiff, St. David’s Hall; 14th - Southend, Cliffs Pavilion; 15th - Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall; 17th - Blackpool, Opera House; 18th - York, Barbican; 20th - Manchester, Bridgewater Hall; 21st - Sheffield, City Hall; 22nd - Newcastle, O2 City Hall.

MUSIC VIDEO: Check out Del Amitri’s current single It's Feelings from new album Fatal Mistakes - CLICK HERE.

BUY DOCUMENTARY: Del Amitri, You Can’t Go Back, a Sky Arts TV premiered documentary exploring how Fatal Mistakes was written, recorded and released in a quarantined world, is out on Blu-Ray on October 8. Watch the trailer here. Pre-order it and buy other merchandise at youcantgobackdoc.tmstor.es.

Del Amitri frontman Justin today revealed one of their biggest live challenges – long before the pandemic – was playing a "passable version" of their biggest radio hit, writes Graham Walker.

The Scottish pop rockers released Roll To Me as the third single from their 1995 album, Twisted.

It became a global sensation and helped to turn them into household names with plays on TV shows and in movies including Family Guy, Dating the Enemy, Beavis and Butt-Head and Hollyoaks.

But Justin has revealed how it took almost 20-years to get it right live.

"It's a good laugh to do, it's so fast and short. But it is the trickiest thing for us to play and for me to sing, which seems to be the inevitable thing - that your biggest radio hit is the thing that's the most challenging to actually get right," laughed Justin, who fronts the band now consisting of longtime guitarist Iain Harvie, keyboard player Andy Alston, guitarist Kris Dollimore and drummer Ash Soan.

Del AmitriDel Amitri
Del Amitri

"It actually took us until 2014 to do a passable version of it. We rearranged it so many times in the Nineties to try and get it right, because it was a bit of a studio construction, that song. So yes, it's challenging, but we can just about still do it."

Now comes another challenge after lockdown – learning how to play live again, three years after their last tour, with shows selling out to hear greatest hits, including the likes of Nothing Ever Happens and Always The Last To Know, plus songs from new album, Fatal Mistakes.

Justin admits: " I mean, there's muscle memory from all those songs we've played thousands of times, in days of yore. But yeah, playing new things and figuring out how you do all that again it is a bit like starting again. It's quite terrifying.”

Ian laughd: "Time is precious because we have to make sure we know the flaming material for this."

Fatal Mistakes is a classic Del Amitri record, mixing rootsy rock ‘n’ roll with bruised world-weary remorse – that's how Classic Pop described it. Most fans and critics agree.

If Del Amitri needed a confidence boost they got it. The album, their first in 19 years, smashed into the UK charts at number five.

Del Amitri Greatest Hits and Fatal Mistakes Tour 2021Del Amitri Greatest Hits and Fatal Mistakes Tour 2021
Del Amitri Greatest Hits and Fatal Mistakes Tour 2021

Guitarist Iain said: "That was absolutely stunning.

"We never expected anything like that when we started to make the record, we just thought it would be the few people that still love the band and still buy concert tickets who would buy it but no, we got songs played on the radio, it charted and that was just fantastic."

Justin added: "It's immensely gratifying to stick a new album out and you get loads of people on social media so excited, saying how much they love the record. That's just a constant source of surprise to us, that anybody gives a damn anymore. That's a lovely thing."

He explained good reason for the long wait between albums.

Del Amitri, formed in 1980, had a 12-year hiatus, from 2002 to 2014, during which its members pursued solo projects. Justin played with a fiddle band, called No Strings Attached, and performed jazz standards with a big band.

Following sold-out reunion tours in 2014 and 2018 they decided fans should be rewarded with new songs and began writing again. Then along came the pandemic and put the entire industry on pause.

They actually finished recording Fatal Mistakes the day before lockdown began in March last year but then faced all the challenges of mixing, producing and marketing it during lockdown.

Fans won't have another 20 years wait for the next offering.

Ian confirmed: "That certainly won't be the case.

"We're writing songs in the way they used to write them. It works great with the musicians that we are working with now so I think it will just naturally flow into another record.

"Recording it was a joy. We were kind of unsure that we could make a record in the way that we had in the past; that it would still work . But the recording process was great, so yes we're chomping at the bit."

He added: "To be honest I'm most looking forward on tour to playing the new material, tracks like I'm So Scared of Dying or All Hail Blind Love. I mean, I'm really looking forward to taking those out."

They have three Glasgow Barrowland homecoming concerts to top off the upcoming tour - including a sold out free show for NHS and key workers. And along the way they even play the likes of the London Palladium.

They have played hundreds of venues on previous tour and are expecting the forthcoming live shows to rekindle special memories.

Justin laughed:" I'm sure we do have fond memories, if only our memories were still functioning."

Ian said: "Why should people come to see Del Amitri? Because it's a great band. We're damn good and we've made a really good new album.

"It's gonna be really exciting for us to play these new songs on stage and it will give us a new perspective on all the material we wrote all those years ago, which still seems amazingly relevant."

Contemporary heartland rock quintet The Byson Family will support on all dates. Fronted by former Temperance Movement vocalist Phil Campbell, the soft release of the band’s debut album, Kick The Traces, topped the Independent Breakers chart and went to number three on the Scottish Albums chart when it was released in January.

GREATEST HITS & FATAL MISTAKES 2021 UK TOURSEPTEMBER13th - Cardiff, St. David’s Hall14th - Southend, Cliffs Pavilion15th - Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall17th - Blackpool, Opera House18th - York, Barbican20th - Manchester, Bridgewater Hall21st - Sheffield, City Hall22nd - Newcastle, O2 City HallOCTOBER11th - Hamilton, Townhouse12th - Aberdeen, Music Hall13th - Inverness, Ironworks14th - Perth, Concert Hall15th - Dunoon, Queen’s Hall16th - Oban, Corran Halls18th - Birmingham, Symphony Halls19th - Southampton, O2 Guildhall20th - London, PalladiumDECEMBER16th - Stirling, Albert Halls

17th - Edinburgh, Usher Hall

19th - Glasgow, Barrowland (free show for NHS and key workers)20th - Glasgow, Barrowland

21st - Glasgow, BarrowlandLINKS: