Having recently been part of the Totally Tubular Festival tour, pioneering electronic musician and singer-songwriter Thomas Dolby will soon embark on another headlining tour of his own. Continuing his Iconic 80s Recollections shows, Dolby will bring his musical journey to life, blending songs, stories, and reminiscences from the 1980s.
Best known for “She Blinded Me with Science” (1982), Dolby had a string of other hits in the ’80s, including “Europa and the Pirate Twins” and “Hyperactive.” Beyond the singles, Dolby has always released strong albums that showcase his songwriting and his talent for using technology as a creative tool. He has also done session and production work with other artists, as well as composing music for films, video games, and other media. In the 1990s, Thomas Dolby founded Beatnik, which developed a polyphonic ringtone engine widely used in mobile phones of the era. He released his memoir, The Speed of Sound, in 2016.
Dolby often performs solo, but over the years has toured in a variety of different formats. For these upcoming shows, he will once again be joined onstage by Gail Ann Dorsey and Andrew Lipke. Dorsey is best known as David Bowie’s longtime bassist and vocalist, and she has also worked with Lenny Kravitz, Tears for Fears, Gang of Four, and many other artists. Andrew Lipke is an Emmy-nominated composer, producer, arranger, conductor, vocalist, and educator based in Philadelphia. He has released seven self-produced albums, conducted orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra, and most recently completed a concept album trilogy inspired by Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.
Dorsey, who recently released a new single and will soon be unveiling a long-awaited solo album, will open the shows.
I’ve interviewed Dolby a few times for Chaos Control. In a 2013 interview, he discusses The Invisible Lighthouse, a transmedia event, his career, and even his thoughts in retrospect on creating music for Howard the Duck. In a 1995 interview, he talks about The Gate to the Mind’s Eye and other soundtrack work, as well as video game music. I’ve also done a series of in-depth interviews with Dorsey about her career, her time with Bowie, and other projects. These can be found here and here.
TOURDATES FOR APRIL
14 Plymouth, MA Spire Center
15 New York, NY Racket
16 Kingston, NY Assembly
18 Lansing, MI Grewal Hall
19 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue
20 Chicago, IL House Of Blues
21 St. Louis, MO City Winery
For more info, visit thomasdolby.com/tour-dates
