Following his sold out ‘King of the North’ shows last year Manchester grime icon Bugzy Malone has announced a huge UK tour for October/November 2018. The ‘B. Inspired’ tour is the biggest headline tour to date by any grime artist and will see him perform to a total of 38,000+ people.
The run of dates includes a massive London show at the Printworks and two 4000-capacity homecoming shows at Manchester’s Mayfield Depot. Bugzy Malone has also unveiled the official video for his brand new track ‘Drama’ taken from his debut album ‘B.Inspired’ which is due for release on August 17th.
‘Drama’ finds Bugzy’s incendiary rhymes exploring a narrative based around the anticipation and intensity of the preparations for a major heist. It’s also a cautionary tale. Had events in his life unfolded differently, the criminal world might’ve been Bugzy’s reality – an existence that’s glamorous for the disenfranchised but with dangerously high odds of mortal failure. Instead he’s on a mission to champion young people who’ve been dealt a bad hand in life.
“‘Drama’ is what my life could’ve been like if I didn’t turn things around,” says Bugzy. “There are other ways out than crime. I’m now in a place where I can speak to a lot of people and my whole ethos is switching on the belief switch in people's heads. If people take inspiration from that then it's priceless.”
Backed by production by Diztortion (Stormzy, Kano), the track’s spaghetti western-style introduction and searing guitar solo from Alastair O’Donnell (Tinie Tempah, Krept & Konan) infuses ‘Drama’ with a cinematic scale atmosphere that evokes Bugzy’s love of the gritty Netflix crime drama ‘Narcos’ and the visionary directors Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan.
The official video for the track was put together by Bugzy with his regular collaborator Connor Hamilton and filmed at various locations in Dubai. Extending Bugzy’s track record for high end, conceptual visuals, it interweaves an intense film-within-a-film crime narrative with performance footage shot at the top of a skyscraper.
Manchester born wordsmith Bugzy Malone is fast developing a reputation as one of the UK's brightest independent grime talents. Bugzy has had a busy summer of shows so far and is gearing up for further festival performances at Nass, Pier Jam, Kendall Calling and his biggest London festival appearance at SW4 in August. He’s also been confirmed to support Liam Gallagher at his Manchester Lancashire County Cricket Club show on 18th August.
2018 UK TOUR DATES
Thu 18 October Liverpool, O2 Academy
Fri 19 October London, Printworks
Sun 21 October Oxford, O2 Academy
Thu 25 October Leeds, O2 Academy
Fri 26 October Birmingham, O2 Academy
Sat 27 October Norwich, The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA
Thu 01 November Nottingham, Rock City
Fri 02 November Bristol, O2 Academy
Sun 04 November Cardiff, University Y Plas
Thu 08 November Manchester, Mayfield Depot
Fri 09 November Manchester, Mayfield Depot
Wed 14 November Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
Tour presale starts at 10am on Tuesday 10th July http://listings.ticketweb.co.uk/bugzymalone
Tickets go on general sale from 10am on Thursday July 12th. They’ll be available from www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk.