Bloodlines And Bad Seeds

Barry Adamson has spent more than three decades moving between genres, stepping in and out of artistic worlds the way other musicians might move to the next song on a well-worn setlist. His career began in his late teens as bass player for former Buzzcocks singer Howard Devoto's next band Magazine. The post-punk pioneers split after four albums and the Manchester-born artist went on to work with another ex-Buzzcock in Pete Shelley and the godfather of punk Iggy Pop, as well as enjoying a stint as a Bad Seed behind the inimitable Nick Cave. Amid countless collaborations Adamson began releasing solo material, leading to a Mercury Music Prize nomination and soundtrack work for visionary film directors such as David Lynch and Oliver Stone.

An artist in the true sense of the word, Adamson was quick to reach outside the musical landscape, adding award-winning author and burgeoning filmmaker to an already phenomenal resume. “I've always got a lot on,” admits Adamson down the line from Brighton. “Inspiration is a great thing, and I love, being in my later years, that I've done enough to trust what comes along. I've been finishing off a screenplay I've been working on and some mixes for somebody else, and then you've got the live shows coming up. I've just done a single for a charity, I just did some work with Nick on their new record… Things just come along and if they feel like that's a place I want to go and they're pushing me in the right direction that I feel is appropriate for me, then great.”

Adamson has seen his career come full circle of late, rejoining Magazine for a series of shows between 2009 and late 2010. The reunion was met with widespread critical acclaim, and the time back with the band that he started out with all those years ago remains a latter career highpoint for Adamson himself. “Well it was shortlived on my part,” laments the notoriously busy bassist. “I was a bit sad about that. I mean it was great. To play those songs again, with the same people, it was bizarre. It was also great to see how it was being received by people who wanted it. They could actually show their kids the thing that they had been going on about when they were their age. So we saw like, families in a sea of bald-headed forty year olds.”

The reunion unintentionally influenced the writing of Adamson's latest solo album, I Will Set You Free. A typically innovative release, the album breaks new ground while taking a look back over his long career. “It's a very strange thing to do, after thirty-odd years, to go back to the place where you started – it gives you this very strange perspective again. It was almost like I Will Set You Free is the album that I might have made after leaving Magazine the first time round. It was really quick, a few months, and all of the songs just came like, boof! They flew out and I had to chase them down the road and pin them down. And I think the style of them and the way it was as a positive reaction to being in that circumstance. It gave me a sort of new bloodline, or one that I forgot was there in the first place.”

Having made regular visits to Australia over the last few years, this tour is a chance for Adamson to take his music across the country in a full band setting. The musician has nothing but great things to say about Oz. “I've had a great relationship with Australia. It's been going on since [Magazine] came the first time and it carried on through Nick. I know the scene in Australia, I've been coming back and forth – they're the best people in the world and they know music much better than we do. It'll be great!”

Barry Adamson will be playing the following shows:

Tuesday 11 September - The Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Wednesday 12 September - Factory Theatre, Sydney NSW
Friday 14 September - The Promethean, Adelaide SA
Saturday 15 September - The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart TAS
Sunday 16 September - Beetle Bar, Brisbane QLD