On April 22, BC Camplight, the purveyor of some very fine, exceedingly smooth pop, will be beginning a stretch of dates at Band On The Wall in his adopted hometown of Manchester. It’s fortunate for both Brian Christinzio and his audiences that the musician can head out on tour, seeing as he’s only just been able to return to the UK following a one-year ban. Christinzio, originally from New Jersey, was told that he had to leave the country on the day before the release of his third album, How To Die In The North, on Bella Union last January. A serious leg injury had meant that he had overstayed his visa as he was unable to travel, with his doctors advising that he "should not fly". However, immigration officials disputed that the medical evidence did not state that he "could not fly", meaning that the singer was forced to fly back to the States. Following his arrival there, the musician subsequently received the ban owing to the overstay and is only now able to take his band on the road.
As Christinzio tells us: "This tour was cancelled last year when the powers that be at UK immigration punted me 3,500 miles west. I was subsequently banned from entering the country. Through some hard work and non-stop, booze-fueled harassment of immigration lawyers and government officials I am now back in the Kingdom. I think I’ve read, ‘Sir, how did you get my email address?’ and heard ‘You can’t just walk in here!’ about 100 times in the past 13 months. It was a truly awful year because I had released a record we were all very excited about… but I wasn’t here to support it. The time away gave me a chance to reconnect with all of the fears, insecurities and addictions I attempted to escape four years ago. Lovely stuff. I could not come unstuck from Manchester in my mind. The time did, in all honesty, allow me a means to write the next record, which is sounding ridiculous. I had the hardest time being away from my band, Manchester and playing for the people of the country I love. I’m so thrilled to be doing this tour after the absolute toilet that was 2015. I’m filled with so many very potent emotions left over from that year’s hangover. I’m going to take all of it, crumple it up, shove it into my stupid heart, and burn it all up on stage. I cannot wait."
Take a look at the full dates for the tour at the foot of the piece, with tickets available via his website.
In a tQ interview with John Freeman last year, Christinzio explained how Manchester had a massive effect in shaping the record: "The city has been a huge influence on me. I wrote all the songs in Manchester. I haven’t had a bad day since I’ve been in Manchester. It was about being here and finally having a sense of newness, which I hadn’t had in years and years. I was excited. When I’m down, I’m different to other songwriters – I don’t write. I need to be excited and feel that I have something to prove. Once I got here, I just felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off me and I slowly started to think that I had something really good in my head. Nothing had been in there in years." Read the rest of the interview here and play How To Die In The North‘s ace single, ‘Just Because I Love You’, below.
APRIL
Fri 22 – Band On The Wall, Manchester
Fri 29 – Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny
MAY
Sun 1 – Upstairs at Whelan’s, Dublin
Sun 29 – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
Mon 30 – The Lexington, London
Tue 31 – The Louisiana, Bristol
JUNE
Wed 1 – LEAF, Liverpool
Thu 2 – The Hug and Pint, Glasgow
Fri 3 – Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
