Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew: Remain in Light
"Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew: Remain in Light" is a series of live performances by Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew that began in 2022, mostly based on the 1980 Remain in Light Tour by Talking Heads, which featured an expanded lineup with Belew on guitar.
Background and Development
Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison have remained collaborators since Belew contributed guitar to the 1980 Talking Heads album Remain in Light, and joined the band's expanded lineup for the 1980-1981 tour. When meeting up, the two would often find themselves talking about their Live in Rome performance and expressed interest in trying to do something like that again.[1] Jerry has said that, "We regularly talked about how fantastic the Talking Heads tour was that we did in 1980 and also the YouTube video that documents playing in Rome in 1980 [...] We wanted to use it as a blueprint for a tour."[2]
The project purposefully started out by playing music festivals, as Jerry put it, "we knew that we would provide something that was very interesting for fans of a festival, but it was a little hard to gauge exactly what our draw would be." The success of the festival shows lead to a more extensive touring production.[3]
Personnel
Belew and Harrison are joined on stage by a backing band who were originally members of a group called Turkuaz, which later became Cool Cool Cool. Harrison had been contacted previously about producing an album for Turkuaz. While the album project fell through, Harrison still had a good feeling about the band. According to Harrison, Turkuaz was chosen because "They’ve got the kinks worked out for me. It’s like they know who wanted the top bunk and who likes the lower bunk on the bus. A tour with brand new people takes some time to work out and sometimes there are incompatibilities. With Turkuaz, I realized we could just walk in and begin.”[2]
In early 2024, Josh Schwartz announced that he would be stepping back from both Cool Cool Cool and the backing band in order to tour less and focus more on his JOSCH solo project.[4] However, he continued on tour performing with both groups during the Summer 2024 leg.[5]
Current Tour Personnel
Source: liveforlivemusic.com [6]
- Jerry Harrison (Lead Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar)
- Adrian Belew (Lead Vocals, Guitar)
- Craig Brodhead (Guitar, Keyboard)
- Chris Brouwers (Trumpet, Keyboard)
- Mikey Carubba (Drums)
- Shira Elias (Vocals)
- Yahuba Garcia-Torres (Percussion)
- Sammi Garett (Vocals)
- Greg Sanderson (Saxophone)
- Julie Slick (Bass)
- Josh Schwartz (Saxophone)
Setlist
The setlist for shows on the tour stays the same from show to show. Occasional changes were made during the shows where the act was opening Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. At these shows the songs Rev It Up, The Great Curve, Once in a Lifetime, Slippery People, Thela Hun Ginjeet, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On), Cities, and Drugs were sometime omitted.
Sources
- ↑ Rosen, Steven. “Adrian Belew Remains on Stage and on Tour.” Cincinnati Magazine, 2 July 2024, www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/adrian-belew-remains-on-stage-and-on-tour/. Accessed 10 July 2024.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Niesel, Jeff. “Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew Bring Their Remain in Light Tour to the Agora.” Cleveland Scene, 5 July 2024, www.clevescene.com/music/jerry-harrison-and-adrian-belew-bring-their-remain-in-light-tour-to-the-agora-44561380. Accessed 18 July 2024.
- ↑ Benson, John. “Talking Heads Alums Harrison, below ‘Remain in the Light, Are Agora-Bound.” News-Herald, 28 July 2024, www.news-herald.com/2024/07/28/talking-heads-alums-harrison-below-remain-in-the-light-are-agora-bound/. Accessed 30 July 2024.
- ↑ Liveforlivemusic.com. “Josh Schwartz Announces Departure from Cool Cool Cool Following Ongoing Tour [Update].” Liveforlivemusic.com, 9 Mar. 2024, liveforlivemusic.com/news/josh-schwartz-departure-from-cool-cool-cool/. Accessed 10 July 2024.
- ↑ PinkishCube. “Cincinnati Last Night!” Reddit.com/R/Talkingheads, 27 July 2024, www.reddit.com/r/talkingheads/comments/1edsu8m/cincinnati_last_night/#lightbox. Accessed 30 July 2024.
- ↑ Broerman, Michael. “Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew Open “Remain in Light” Tour with Cool Cool Cool [Photos/Audio].” L4LM, 17 Feb. 2023, liveforlivemusic.com/news/jerry-harrison-adrian-belew-remain-in-light-cool-cool-cool-2-16-23/. Accessed 18 July 2024.