Glasvegas - 'The Best New Band in Britain' (NME) - Ready for First-Ever North American Concert Tour

Glasvegas - 'The Best New Band in Britain' (NME) - Ready for First-Ever North American Concert Tour

Glasvegas US Debut Tour To Include Headline Performances & Radio City Music Hall Gig with Echo & the Bunnymen

NEW YORK, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently signed to Columbia Records, the newly emerging UK rock ensemble Glasvegas, proclaimed as "The Best New Band in Britain" by the NME, will launch its first-ever North American tour this fall with a series of headline clubland performances. Glasvegas have been personally selected by Ian McCulloch to directly support his band Echo & The Bunnymen when they play the legendary Radio City Music Hall on October 1 (please see full itinerary following).

   Glasvegas -- 1st US Concert Tour    9/29/08       Boston, MA          Great Scott (headline)   9/30/08       Philadelphia, PA    North Star Bar (headline)   10/1/08       New York, NY        Radio City Music Hall (w/Echo &                                      the Bunnymen)   10/2/08       Baltimore, MD       Ottobar (headline)   10/3/08       Washington DC       Rock 'n' Roll Hotel (headline)   10/4/08       New York, NY        Mercury Lounge (headline)   

Glasvegas' upcoming autumn mini-tour of the states marks the group's first US concert appearances since forming in Glasgow, Scotland in early 2006. An early Glasvegas performance at Glasgow's mythic King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (a 300 capacity hall renowned throughout the UK as a new talent showcase and prescient host to shows by then-emerging artists like Oasis, Radiohead, Beck, Travis and others) caught the attention of British music mogul and tastemaker Alan McGee, who heralded Glasvegas as "The most exciting thing I've heard since Jesus and Mary Chain." McGee's "Death Disco TV" was the first television outlet to broadcast Glasvegas.

Glasvegas released its first DIY single, "Go Square Go!," on October 30, 2006. The group's 2007 follow-up single, the limited edition 7" "Daddy's Gone" was voted the #2 Single of the Year by the NME. Shortly after releasing the band's third limited edition single, "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry," on Valentine's Day, 2008, Glasvegas took home the Philip Hall Radar Award (a prestigious new band prize voted on by the NME staff) at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.

Glasvegas came in at #4 on the BBC News Sound of 2008 Top 10 poll of the UK's brightest new acts as selected by approximately 150 of UK-based music writers, editors and broadcasters. According to the BBC, "Glasvegas draw on rockabilly and pop from the 1950s and '60s, using a backdrop of brooding guitars to create their own wall of sound, a bit like the Jesus and Mary Chain playing the Grease soundtrack."

Glasvegas has spent much of 2008 building a reputation as one of the UK's top live bands. The group's concert dates in Scotland sold-out in under a week and the UK music press lathered praises on Glasvegas for the group's performances at a number of high profile festivals including SRO shows at Glastonbury and T In The Park.

The songs of Glasvegas have been played nearly 800,000 times on the group's MySpace page (www.myspace.com/glasvegas) where the Glasvegas profile has been viewed close to 900,000 times.

The members of Glasvegas -- James Allan (vocals, rhythm guitar), Rab Allan (lead guitar, backing vocals), Paul Donoghue (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Caroline McKay (drums) -- were in America earlier this year recording the band's self-titled debut album at Brooklyn Recording Studios with production by Glasvegas frontman James Allan and Rich Costey (Interpol, Muse, Franz Ferdinand, Mew). The album premieres new recordings of the group's early singles "Daddy's Gone" and "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry," as well as new songs including "Geraldine," the debut single from the album. Released in the UK on June 16, "Geraldine" reached #16 on the UK charts and #1 on the NME singles chart.

Glasvegas, one of the year's most heavily anticipated UK album debuts, is slated for stateside release on Columbia Records in early 2009.

   www.glasvegas.net   www.myspace.com/glasvegas   www.columbiarecords.com  

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Columbia Records

CONTACT: Benny Tarantini, Columbia Records, Media, New York,
+1-212-833-5858, Benny.Tarantini@sonybmg.com

Web Site: http://www.columbiarecords.com/
http://www.glasvegas.net/
http://www.myspace.com/glasvegas

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Profile: International Entertainment