Andy White’s forthcoming new live album The Night Is Approaching Though Some Would Say It Was Morning is due for release May 30th, alongside an UK with shows coming up in Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.
40 years after the release of debut EP Religious Persuasion, Irish songwriter Andy White is back home in Belfast and touring the UK and Ireland May–June 2025 in support of new live album The Night Is Approaching Though Some Would Say It Was Morning (Floating World Records). The tour started at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in his hometown on May 8th.
The story of the live album begins with the friendship between Andy and producer John Leckie (The Bends, Muse, Roy Harper, Baba Maal). The two met during one of Peter Gabriel’s recording weeks at Real World Studios and immediately hit it off, with John mixing and producing many of Andy’s recordings (including the recent AT album with Tim Finn). After one of Andy’s concerts, John told him he wanted to buy an album of what he had just heard. A solo album recorded live. No band. No overdubs. “Where are we going to record it?” “The best- sounding room in the world – Studio Two at Abbey Road.”
On July 14, 2023, Andy and John met at Abbey Road. John got his first job there in 1970. The day of his interview the Beatles were wearing suits, getting ready to cross the road. Andy had listened to albums recorded there and looked at photos taken there since Revolver played at school parties. Giles Martin was driving out as they drove in. Andy brought three guitars and an amp. John organised everything, and when he took Andy down the stairs into Studio Two, told him to stop and smell the room. Nothing had changed since those great records had been recorded. You could feel it in the equipment, the fabric, the floorboards.
John had asked Andy to write his best set list. In the afternoon they recorded the first half, in the evening a small group of friends and family arrived, and they recorded the second. You can see what it looked like on the album sleeve, you can hear the room on the record. Everyone went to the café afterwards and sat drinking and talking under the photos of Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren, Cilla and the Beatles. Andy White said goodbye and walked across the crossing on the way to the hire car. It was done.
Dedicated to Janice Long and Joanna Beckitt, the double-CD set has both evening and afternoon sessions, one on each disc, and includes songs from throughout Andy’s songwriting career – including ‘Religious Persuasion’, ’James Joyce’s Grave’, ’Street Scenes From My Heart’ and ‘Italian Girls On Mopeds’. There’s an unreleased song, ‘Theresa Theresa’, and you can hear all of these and selections from his recent spoken word album Good Luck I Hope You Make It on tour next month. The Belfast troubadour has come home.
Artist’s website: https://www.andywhite.com/
Tour Dates
19 May BRIGHTON The Greys
21 May LEYTONSTONE What’s Cookin’
27 May BIRMINGHAM Kitchen Garden Café
29 May LEEDS Northern Guitars
30 May COATBRIDGE Georgian Hotel
31 May GLASGOW Partickhill Bowling Club
1 June EDINBURGH Leith Depot
5 June LONDON Half Moon Putney
Where it all started – ‘Religious Persuasion’ – official and rather old video:
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