Ruarri Joseph with Full Live Band
Saturday 1st Oct @ Mello Mello Liverpool
Sunday 2nd Oct @ Ruby Lounge Manchester
Monday 3rd Oct @ Milo Leeds
Ruarri’s rather peculiar music career began, in part, when his mother - a practicing witch – relocated her young family from Cornwall to New Zealand, away from his alcoholic father. A childhood was spent living on a farm in the middle of nowhere, where it was common practice to make explosives, drive at fourteen, swim in the ocean and shoot possums. When Ruarri’s family wanted to move to a bigger field, they simply sawed the house in half and took both bits with them.
With a growing love of music, Ruarri headed back to England. He met his wife--‐to--‐be at seventeen, and soon found himself a Teenage Dad, working as a nurse for the elderly and mentally ill. Joseph found musical solace gigging in a Jazz Cabaret band, and in 2007 – after buying ten Tom Waits albums to locate the one song he’d heard of – Ruarri stumbled into a solo career, and a Major Label deal. He was, he now concedes, completely unprepared for the music industry, having never really experienced one in his homes of New Zealand and Cornwall. One album and a good deal of critical acclaim later, following support slots with the likes of David Gray, Seth Lakeman and Paolo Nutini (with whom he remains close), Joseph quit his recording contract.
Ruarri returned to his roots, writing songs for the fun of it. His wife helped him found a record label and release a follow--‐up album, effectively acting as his A&R. Just as the record, ‘Both Sides of The Coin’, started to get going, the campaign was dealt a hammer blow: Ruarri’s son, Alfie, had to undergo emergency brain surgery, while his wife gave birth to their third--‐born, Harper. ‘Shoulder To The Wheel’, then, was written following the eventual (and full) recovery of Alfie. It is a hopeful record, somewhat unusually shaped by Gospel (or Joseph’s idea of gospel music: like Cobain’s introduction to Punk, Ruarri notes, he is more influenced by the attitudes than the aesthetics). Ruarri’s 4th album will be released in early 2012 and has released an EP ‘Til the luck runs dry’ with 2 new songs taken from the record, which is released through his web site.
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