Download your copy of James Walsh – Time Is Nigh
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/time-is-nigh-ep/id59140148

Hi Folks,

Just thought I’d check in and let you know what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. Since arriving on the 4th September I have been on the other side of the world in sunny Australia. The picture you see is the view from my apartment in Bondi Beach.

Its been an amazing trip which has taken in some fantastic writing sessions with some great artists such as Lakyn Heperi and Megan Washington. This week I’m part of an international songwriting week organised by the folks at APRA(Australia’s answer to PRS they collect royalties for Australian artists and writers and offer all kinds of support) which brought me together yesterday with U.S producer/writer Premo Danger and Top Australian artist Timomatic.
Earlier on in the month I had a great time up in Brisbane for Bigsound. It was an honour to meet Powderfingers Ian Haug,watch Steve Earle give an inspiring speech and  discover the vocal talents of Catherine Britt. My own show at The Black Bear Lounge was a great success and I’d like to thanks everyone for coming down. During my time in Sydney I’ve also been playing every Thursday at Rock Lily and played a couple of packed out shows at The Beresford in Surry Hills. I’m in the home straight now and I’m getting ready to see my wife Lisa and kids Cillian and Niamh but  I’ll leave with great memories and look forward to the next trip down under!

See You Soon
James W

James recently covered one of his favourite songs ‘Have you ever seen the rain’. Check it out by clicking below:

The Lullaby music album is now available to download – featuring new music from James Walsh, including the single ‘Start Again’ and ‘Helen’s Song’. Download the album here:

iTunes: http://bit.ly/Ri4WbS
Amazon: http://amzn.to/PJn81S
Play: http://bit.ly/S369bq
HMV: http://bit.ly/RZek48

Hi Folks,

Most people go to the Isle Of Wight for the weekend or over to Paris if they are feeling adventurous. Not us. We arrived at Incheon Airport,Seoul early friday morning and returned back to London Heathrow at 8.30pm Monday night. The most amazing whirlwind weekend I’ve had in a long time.

We were greeted at the airport by our host Nam Young-Ji who got us to our hotel safe and sound. First up was a little lunch and our first helping of ‘Kim Chee’ (A pickled spiced cabbage,we would be seeing a lot of this as the trip went on!). Then after a few hours off and a nice interview with F.OUND magazine it was out for dinner and drinks. The Korean BBQ was top draw. Succulent beef you cook at the table yourself. After dinner we were taken to an upstairs bar where they played some great music and the Soju (Korean drink) flowed. Upon hearing the rapturous response from the crowd to ‘Bring My Love’ coming on the stereo I remembered I’d better put that in the set! (Better late than never).

The following morning we traveled over the venue AX Korea. After a sweltering drive we were grateful that the venue was fully air conditioned. A soundcheck and a press conference later it was show time. I was expecting quite a good response after our last few trips to Korea. The crowds are always amazing. What was a surprise though was how many knew the new songs and sang along. All in all it was a great experience.’Here Comes The Sun’ with Mick on BV’s was good fun too.It was good to work with FOH engineer Mark Clements again who had us sounding brilliant.

The signing afterwards was an incredible thing.The fans were so happy to see us. It was great to see that the attention wasn’t all focused on me either. I’m pretty sure the Jim Duguid Korean Fan Club is being set up as we speak!(See also Donnie Little and Mick McDaid). We were presented with a bottle of Korean Fortified Wine by our friend Miny who I knew from EMI Records from previous trips. She explained that this was good for ‘virility’ and made you strong but it was only for men. Viagra wine anyone? After a few sips of this strange potion(not too much!)we jumped into the bus for a 4 hour bus journey to Busan which is a good bit further south than Seoul. We got there just in time to see Team GB’s mens football team crash out to South Korea!(Who else?). It was 5am by this point so after a few hours sleep it was over to the Busan International Rock Festival for soundcheck. The response from the crowd was mind blowing! 30,000 Koreans going crazy. The reaction to ‘We Could Try’ a particular highlight(most of them hadn’t heard it before!). It is a wonderful thing to know that the music has traveled so far and means so much to people out here. The show wasn’t quite over after the encore. We performed an acoustic set especially for the volunteers who’d worked so tirelessly over the weekend and deserved to let their hair down too. Drummer Jim Duguid even had them copying his dance moves like Glasgow’s answer to Mr Motivator!

The 5.30am lobby call came around very quickly but everyone was still in good spirits(or was it still drunk?) the following morning. The 6 hour drive back to Incheon was another highlight of the trip with some spectacular scenery along the way. South Korea is a beautiful country with some of the best architecture in Asia mixing with rolling tree filled hills. So there you have it. Not your average weekend away eh?

Special Thanks to Nam Young Ji and everyone at Gummi Bear Productions
The organisers,volunteers and everyone at Busan International Rock Festival and the band Human Race who supported us in Seoul

See You Soon
James W

“Stick and stones may break your bones… But now words can kill too”

James is excited to announce the release of his brand new project “Lullaby”, which is an album of songs inspired by the film script and characters from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name.

Previous novels written by Palahniuk (including Fight Club) have been successfully transformed into groundbreaking feature films, and now Lullaby will be the next to hit the big screen. It tells the story of investigative reporter Carl Streator and Helen Hoover Boyle who are on a mission to rid the world of an ancient African spell disguised as a children’s nursery rhyme that has the power to kill… If it falls into the wrong hands.

The music and lyrics on the album were inspired by the movie’s script  and briefed in detail by the film director who supplied the images and song titles for the album. The first single is the haunting ‘Start Again’, which is accompanied by a dark and unusual music video starring James as Oyster, one of the characters from the film and made by Smith and Jones Films.

Start Again is available to download from iTunes here and there will be more information on the album coming soon. You can find out loads more about the upcoming Lullaby movie and album by liking the official Facebook page here

The official video for James’ brand new single for LULLABY ‘Start Again’ premieres Monday 30th July. Click here to find out more information about LULLABY

I will be helping kick off Hard Rock Calling in Style in London’s Hyde Park on Thursday 12th July for an exclusive Hard Rock gig! I am offering some lucky fans a chance to win a pair of tickets to join me. All you need to do is answer the following question and email your answer to julia@solo.uk.com

James performed at the opening of Hard Rock Cafe in Florence last year alongside which seminal Scottish band who rose to fame in the 80′s?

Winner will be chosen on Monday 9th July and will need to be able to travel to London

Here are a few photos and coverage from James’s performance at this years Isle of Wight Festival

Secret Oxfam gig- http://www.oxfam.org.uk/fashion-blog/2012/06/oxfam-fashion-at-isle-of-wight-festival

Interview with Absolute Radio- http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/player/James-Walsh/9757/Interview.html

http://www.metro.co.uk/music/903127-isle-of-wight-festival-2012-top-10-moments

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Hi Folks!

Hope you are all well. The last few days for me have been amazing,exhausting and satisfying. It all started with a support slot in the lovely city of Odense,Denmark where I was invited to support none other than Sting! This involved two 4am starts but it was well worth it. The sun was beating down,the catering was great and the crowd was fantastic. Despite being an international superstar Sting forgoed the international chef for catering with the rest of us and even stopped by my dressing room to thank me for coming. A great gesture and much appreciated. After closing my eyes for a few seconds near Copenhagen Airport it was up with the lark for the long journey to the Isle Of Wight Festival. Upon hearing the stories we were expecting the worst but our train/ferry/car journey was pretty straightforward. We arrived in time to see Noah and The Whale and Elbow who were great and of course Tom Petty who was incredible.

Between him and Bruce Springsteen the old timers really showed us how it was done this weekend! Friday night was fairly low key for me as I knew I had a big show the next day. And so at 12pm me,Dominic,Mick and Donnie took to the stage for our first ever gig together! Considering this it went really well.(Apart from a few minutes where nobody including myself seemed to know what the capo position was for one of the new songs) this resulted in an ‘extended intro’ but we got through it and ended with a rousing ‘Time Is Nigh’ and ‘Good Souls’.

While everyone was rocking out to Pearl Jam I trudged up to the Garden Stage to see The Charlatans play one of my favourite albums of all time “Tellin Stories’. They didn’t disappoint and the triumphant opening chords to ‘North Country Boy’ made everyone around me forget the rain. Sunday was a day of recovery and music.

It was great to catch up with Matt Cardle,Suzanne Vega,Christina Perri and Melanie C all of whom I have worked with in some way or another. Performing ‘One By One’ with Melanie is always fun although I’ll need to work on my dance moves for next time! If anything the Garden Stage set was even better than the main stage one as we were a lot more relaxed and had an hour to showcase the best songs. I was lucky to have such an amazing band. Mick and Donnie are regulars in Paolo Nutini’s group and Dominic is in Reef. I’ve admired their playing from afar before so it was great to be onstage with them. Apart from the ‘official’ gigs there was an acoustic performance in the Oxfam tent which was very well received and made the Metro top 10! And of course the late night pub sing a long this time featuring Paolo Nutini who was great. I have to finish this so I can get over to the airport for another date with Sting. This one’s in Portugal. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!

See You Soon
James W

Hi Everyone,

So after an amazing trip to Oz and a nice little gig at St Paul’s Arts Centre Worthing (lovely venue) it was off to Zermatt Switzerland. I have been lucky enough to play here on quite a few occasions both on my own and with Starsailor so I was excited to return and catch up with some old friends. Zermatt is a picturesque ski town in the Swiss mountains. Every year in April however it becomes Music town during Zermatt Unplugged. Its always a great and eclectic line up (This year had Lauren Hill, Chris De Burgh and Aloe Blac). My own gig was at a little cafe high in the mountains for the Sunegga sessions. Probably the highest gig I’ve played! We had to go up in an ancient ski train that went diagonally up and down inside the mountain. Quite a hairy prospect especially on the way down! But the views are spectacular so its worth it! I spent the morning preparing a track for my new song ‘We Can Try’ and I was really happy with the reaction. Following the sad death of Levon Helm I thought it appropriate to play ‘The Weight’ in tribute and judging by the reaction I think a lot of people in Switzerland were also huge fans of The Band.

We then went onto The Vernisage to catch Brooke Fraser. A New Zealand singer songwriter who I’d never come across before. I’m happy to say she was excellent and I’m now a fan. Despite it being well into the early hours the night wasn’t over and we headed to the jam night at Hotel Post. I got up and did a few songs including ‘Don’t Let Me Down’,then Jonathan Jeremiah did his soothing track ‘Happiness’. Highlight of the evening though was a spine tingling acoustic set from Ms Lauren Hill. The perfect end to a memorable night. I’m happy to say I’ve got a day off so I intend to enjoy the scenery,the fresh air and the soulful sounds of Aloe Blacc. Finally big thanks to Thomas Sterchi and his team for inviting me to the festival once again and looking after us so well.

See You Soon
James W