Sea and be Scene

Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann AKA GREAT BIG SEA will celebrate 20 years with a Greatest Hits 2 CD set and an Anniversary Box Set entitled XX PLUS a 32-date tour that will have the award winning band doing there thing in 28 cities throughout Canada and the US - including 2 here in Atlantic Canada.

GBS has slated the last two shows of the tour for the Maritime dates - playing Moncton, NB on April 25/13 and Halifax, NS on April 26/13. We're thinking (and hoping) a few more East coast dates will be added - stay tuned.

Tickets for the tour can be pre-ordered tomorrow (10/23/12) though the GreatBigSea.com Store

CBC Music is offering a LIVE stream of this album until October 30th click here for that!

A complete tour schedule can be found at the bottom of this post.  What follows is the official press release as issued by Sonic Entertainment earlier this morning in support of the Halifax, NS show. 

Note about A/V Support - we thought we'd share one of the hits that started it all for the NL super group - "Mari-Mac"

For more on the band visit www.greatbigsea.com

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A Sweet Release

Newfoundland’s most popular band releases first Greatest Hits and Box Set, XX, on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

(Halifax, NS) – Celebrating their 20^th anniversary, Great Big Sea are heading out on a North American tour and will perform at The Metro Centre in Halifax on Friday, April 26.

In celebration of their 20 years as a band, Great Big Sea are releasing their first Greatest Hits 2 CD set and a full Box Set which includes bonus audio and a DVD of the band’s early career edited together by founder Sean McCann.  XX (Warner Music Canada), the two CD package and full Box Set will be released on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.

20 years is a long time in anyone’s life.

Few bands last more than an album or two — a few tours, a song played on the radio, and then they’re quickly forgotten. Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett have somehow managed to keep the dysfunctional-family-bar-room-brawl-student-art-project-musical-pirate-crew known as Great Big Sea going for two decades. And more often than not, they have done it with more than a bit of flair.

For the hundreds of thousands of fans who sang, danced and celebrated with the band, Great Big Sea has been a constant factor in their own lives.  While musical fashions have come and gone, Great Big Sea has maintained an unswerving commitment to their original ideals — a belief that a marriage of their own creativity and the joyous folk music of their home in Newfoundland would be an unbeatable combination.

Time, and their own stubbornness and persistence has proven them right. Compiled by the band members themselves, XX is a special two-disc set, which captures the many highs in a recording career that has produced ten full-length CDs and two DVDs.  In order to express the band’s two sides, one disc covers the biggest hits from their more pop-oriented repertoire, while the other contains some of their most loved traditional and folk songs. To balance out the discs, the band recorded six new songs — almost a new album in itself — which run the gamut of their varied stylistic approach. “Heart of Hearts” is classic Great Big Sea, the sound of three men singing and playing acoustic instruments together in their own kitchens. “Live This Life” is a majestic epic, hearkening back to the sonic experimentation of albums like Fortune’s Favour.  “Le Bon Vin” is a hearty Newfoundland version of an old French folk song, one the band has sung live for years, and finally committing it to tape for this collection.  “Josephine the Baker” recreates the earliest years of the band, in the rough and ready sailor pubs of St. John’s. “Born To Believe” is a powerful radio anthem, while “Let My Love Open The Door” is the band’s take on the Pete Townsend solo hit, re-imagined through the lens of some questionable characters from Newfoundland.

The XX box set that accompanies this release is packed with bonus material that both the casual and truly committed fan will enjoy. Beyond the two-disc greatest hits collection, it includes another disc that contains some of the band’s lesser known excursions and experiments. Over a 20-year career the band has sometimes gone astray, and these embryonic ideas and mis-steps will be fascinating to all those who have followed the band’s varied journey. Another audio disc features one of the band’s first interviews, recorded in the fall of 1993 for CBC St. John’s, which includes rare and unheard songs from the band’s earliest days. The box contains a special book covering the many ups and downs of their career, along with lyrics, stickers, and a calendar covering a year in the band’s life. True fans are eagerly awaiting the set’s DVD, which contains a movie edited together by Sean. Containing a wealth of early interviews, backstage foolishness and general craziness, it captures the madness of the band’s first few years, but without the bruises, bad food and hangovers of the real thing.

Tickets for this show go on sale this Friday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m.  P1 tickets are $79.50, P2 tickets are $59.50 and P3 tickets are $39.50 (including tax) PLUS service charge.  Tickets will be available at the Ticket Atlantic box office, by phone at 451-1221 (1-877-451-1221) and online at www.sonicconcerts.com.

For more information, visit: www.greatbigsea.com

GREAT BIG SEA XX Tour 2013

MAR 05, 2013 - Los Angeles, CA
City National Grove of Anaheim

MAR 06, 2013 - San Francisco, CA
The Fillmore

MAR 07, 2013 - Portland, OR
Alladin Theater

MAR 08, 2013 - Seattle, WA
The Moore Theatre

MAR 09, 2013 - Victoria, BC
Save On Foods Memorial Centre

MAR 10, 2013 - Vancouver, BC
Orpheum Theatre

MAR 12, 2013 - Edmonton, AB
Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

MAR 14, 2013 - Calgary, AB
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

MAR 15, 2013 - Calgary, AB
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

MAR 16, 2013 - Regina, SK
The Brandt Centre

MAR 17, 2013 - Winnipeg, MB
MTS Centre

MAR 19, 2013 - Saint Paul, MN
Fitzgerald Theater

MAR 20, 2013 - Chicago, IL
House of Blues Chicago

MAR 21, 2013 - Omaha, NE
Waiting Room

MAR 22, 2013 - Boulder, CO
Boulder Theater

MAR 23, 2013 - Boulder, CO
Boulder Theater

APR 10, 2013 - Hamilton, ON
Hamilton Place Theatre

APR 11, 2013 - London, ON
Budweiser Gardens

APR 12, 2013 - Kingston, ON
K-Rock Centre

APR 13, 2013 - Montreal, QC
Metropolis

APR 14, 2013 - Buffalo, NY
UB Center

APR 16, 2013 - Ann Arbor, MI
Michigan Theater

APR 17, 2013 - Washington, DC
Warner Theatre

APR 18, 2013 - Philadelphia, PA
Keswick Theatre

APR 19, 2013 - New York, NY
Town Hall

APR 20, 2013 - Boston, MA
The Wilbur Theatre

APR 21, 2013 - Boston, MA
The Wilbur Theatre

APR 23, 2013 - Burlington, VT
Flynn Center MainStage

APR 24, 2013 - Portland, ME
State Theatre

APR 25, 2013 - Moncton, NB
The Centre at Casino New Brunswick

APR 26, 2013 - Halifax, NS
Halifax Metro Centre

APR 27 2013 - St.John's, NL NEW SHOW ADDED TICKETS ON SALE Dec. 7/12
Mile One Centre

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1 Comment »

1. 

   Just wondering when Great Big Sea will be coming to PEI? The tickets were all sold out in Moncton NB

   Comment by Irene Gallant — April 5, 2013 @ 7:39 pm

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