Wallis Bird announces NZ tour
/Irish dynamite Wallis Bird has announced her debut New Zealand tour in March 2019.
Wallis Bird’s expressive vocals and driving guitar rhythms have been taking audiences by storm in the UK, Australia, Japan and Europe. For the first time in March 2019 she will be bringing her thrilling stage show to New Zealand - performing in Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch.
Every performance is characterised by a startling passion and commitment that frequently leaves Bird breathless. Simultaneously honest and raw, powerful and gracious, humble and hilarious, her concerts are like no other. After seeing her performance at Woodford Folk Festival, Amanda Palmer cited Bird as her “discovery of the year .... Wallis Bird at Woodford folk festival f*&$ing destroying it”.
Wallis Bird burst onto the trans-Tasman scene with her first ever appearance in Australia in the summer of 2017, which included a standout performance at the iconic Woodford Folk Festival. She returned in November 2017 for a national tour, which was praised by audiences and critics alike. Bird will return to our shores in March 2019, stopping off in NZ for three concerts.
The Irish born artist cut her teeth as a teenager playing cover gigs in pubs, dealing with drunken hecklers by way of cheeky comebacks and good-natured banter. Bird moved to Germany in 2005 and self-released the single "Blossoms in the Street", which spent 20 weeks in the airplay charts. It grabbed the attention of Island Records who signed her almost on the spot. Her debut album hit the Top 5 UK digital album charts. Over her next three records she continued to chart in various European countries and toured constantly, headlining over 700 shows in the past 8 years, with over 30,000 people attending her last album release tour.
Bird prides herself on an energetic, dynamic and always-musical live performance. Her startling passion and energy levels are unmatched by any other artist. Moving from delicate whispers to explosive cries in a heartbeat, Bird weaves her magic around audiences of every kind. Whether she’s dancing, laughing, screaming or crying, anyone who has experienced one of Bird’s live concerts knows that music is her lifeblood.
When she hit a roadblock during the writing of her fifth studio album Home, she decided to do something that would be precisely un-thinkable to most artists. “I figured a twelve hour free concert would fix all the issues I had,” she chuckles breezily. Bird stepped onto the stage of Berlin’s Auster Club at 1:30pm one cold January afternoon and stayed there until the early hours. During her performance she also raised money for refugee charities. Afterwards she even found the energy to play two encores; “It was terrifying, demanding, but ultimately beautiful... I was okay after that, I learned a lot!”
Born left handed, Bird lost all the fingers on her left hand in a bizarre lawnmower accident as a baby. Though most of her fingers were saved through surgery, one was lost for good. Luckily it didn’t stop her picking up a guitar, flipping it upside down to strum with her damaged hand, and carrying on as if nothing had ever happened. Today she’s a veritable virtuoso on the instrument, and she credits that fateful lawnmower incident with having given her “her mojo”. That mojo carried her to record deals with Island Records and Columbia Records, several high profile awards and nominations, and tours across the world with the likes of Gossip, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Billy Bragg and Emiliana Torrini.
Now based in Berlin, Bird’s 2014 album Architect celebrated her relocation to the creative capital and laid a foundation for her most recent album Home. As Bird describes, “Architect was the blueprint to this great life and musical plan I was hatching: girl meets girl, girl falls in love, and happy ending ensues. Home is the happy ending!” In fact, Home is such a celebration of the love Bird now enjoys with her partner that she not only refers to it as a ‘thank you letter’, but its cover also features the two of them locked in an affectionate embrace.
Wallis Bird
● Fri March 22nd - Tuning Fork – Auckland
● Sat March 23rd – San Fran – Wellington – In conjunction with The Wellington Fringe Festival
● Sun March 24th – Blue Smoke – Christchurch
Tickets via Eventfinda