Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls to play five shows in Germany from October
The tour is presented by Ox-Fanzine, livegigs.de, Rock Antenne and curt
Support: Skinny Lister
Frank Turner is back - again, you could almost say. Just two years after his last album "FTHC" - also his first, which shot from zero to the top of the charts in England - possibly the most likeable British musician is back with his next longplayer "Undefeated" on May 3rd. This is all the more astonishing given the almost inhuman tour schedule, even by his standards, that he completed following the release of "FTHC": In addition to countless major open airs around the world, Turner's world tour with his Sleeping Souls included playing 50 shows in 50 US states within 50 days. All this is just further proof that there really are hardly any comparable musicians who play every concert stage where a guitar and a microphone can be plugged in almost non-stop with such commitment and drive (in figures: around 3,000 shows in front of more than two million people in total).
His tenth studio album "Undefeated" marks a partial return to his stylistic beginnings, as well as revealing some completely new aspects for Turner. For example, "Undefeated" is the first album in his career that he not only recorded in his own studio in his newly created, nature-based retreat in Essex, but also produced himself. At his side, as always, is his trusted band the Sleeping Souls, consisting of Ben Lloyd (guitar), Tarrant Anderson (bass), Callum Green (drums) and Matt Nasir (piano). The album is guaranteed to follow the same path as its five predecessors - straight into the Top 3 of the British album charts and soon into all album hit lists throughout Europe.
And by no means with an accessibility aimed at the masses, but with Turner's very own, uninfluenced tonality and stylistic signature, in which punk and folk, alternative rock and singer/songwriter merge into a refreshingly unpolished, yet anthemic amalgam. Initial listening impressions such as the pre-released singles "Girl From The Record Shop", "No Thank You For the Music", "Do One" and the recently released "Letters" promise even more: for example, a selective return to his original brute hardcore roots on the one hand, but also a bow to some of his greatest heroes on the other. In terms of content, "Undefeated" will once again be at least as close to everyone who hears it as Frank Turner is to the fans at his concerts: in the new songs, Turner also proves himself to be a linguistically trenchant chronicler of life, its resistances and losses. Mostly described from an intimate, autobiographical perspective and yet told in such a way that everyone can find an individual reference. Turner himself succinctly summarizes the attitude of his most recent lyrics in the song "No Thank Your For the Music": "Now I'm surprised to report that as I enter my forties, I've returned to being an angry man." ("Now I'm surprised to report that as I enter my forties, I've returned to being an angry man.")
It is precisely these emotional truths - alongside his constantly revitalized second name "the hardest working man in showbusiness" - cast in captivating lyrics and melodies that always make Frank Turner seem like your best, most understanding friend. Even if, as on the upcoming tour, you are surrounded night after night by several thousand other people who are likely to feel exactly the same direct connection to their hero.
A connection and closeness that Turner always knows how to use productively and charge with highly progressive work. For example, during the corona pandemic, where he raised almost 300,000 British pounds during his countless, sometimes spontaneous live video sessions to support and save countless small live clubs across the UK (as well as some international clubs, including Hamburg's Molotow) - a commitment for which he was awarded the prestigious "Music Venues Trust Award" for his "Outstanding Achievement for Grassroots Music Venues". Or his own annual four-day "Lost Evenings Festival", whose program he curates himself and which took place in San Francisco last year and is moving on to Toronto this year. In short: whatever Frank Turner does - he remains, quite simply, "Undefeated".
Anyone who wants to see him and his band live will have the opportunity to do so in five German cities in October.