ARENA GO RETRO ON NEW ALBUM
Clive Nolan and co revisit themes from The Visitor on their eighth studio release and celebrate the original 90s recording with a deluxe anniversary reissue and live shows across Europe and beyond.
Arena’s Double Vision is due out in May via Verglas, and it’s packed with Easter eggs that pay tribute to one of their biggest releases.
“This year we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Visitor so we thought it would be fun to look back over everything we’ve done,” explains co-founding keyboard player and songwriter Clive Nolan. “There are seven tracks, and one of them addresses some of the questions that were never answered on The Visitor. That one is called The Legend Of Elijah Shade and it’s 22 minutes long.”
That’s not the only nod to their back catalogue on there. The musician says, “I’ve made a point of putting little references to previous albums, whether it’s musically or lyrically. It’s not totally retrospective in sound but it’s retrospective in attitude.”
The album is Arena’s first new release in three years and follows on from Nolan’s recent musicals, which include Alchemy and King’s Ransom. His hectic schedule meant working to a tight deadline with his Arena band
“I’ve made a point of putting little references to previous
albums.”
mates Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion), Kino/Lonely Robot’s John Mitchell, bassist Kylan Amos and vocalist Paul Manzi.
“After [2015’s] The Unquiet Sky we had quite a big tour and I think after that, it just felt like we needed a little break from things,” says the keyboard player. “We’ve all been busy so I promised myself that I’d lock myself in my room on January 2 and wouldn’t leave until it was done.” Nolan also confirms that the tracks move away from the song-orientated albums of recent years.
“The last few albums have been quite vocal-heavy and there haven’t been masses of the instrumentals that we used to do,” he says. “We’ve brought some of that element back into the operation and expanded the songs a little bit just to take a different attitude. But in terms of production, we try to stay as modern as we can.”
The new studio album is preceded by the remastered edition of 1998’s The Visitor, which is available on double CD and vinyl from Arena’s website. It’s also the theme of their 22-date anniversary tour, which kicks off in April at
St Helens’ The Citadel (20). The band will then play at Montgomery Hall in Wath (21), London’s The Borderline (27) and Winter’s End festival in Chepstow (28), before heading out to mainland Europe and on to Canada.
“Playing the whole of The Visitor again is going to be very interesting because we haven’t done it for 20 years,” says Nolan. “When I went out with Arena that time, I had nine keyboards, a set of bass pedals and two 12u rack units full of samplers. Now I’m going out with just two keyboards and I think I can do pretty much everything I did on the nine keyboards on these two! So much of what I do means I’m pretty much locked in a room so the tour gives me the excuse to get out, visit countries and meet people – I always enjoy that part.”
Although the set will focus on The Visitor, fans will also be treated to a preview of some of the new material, and there are plans to tour Double Vision in full at a later date.
Meanwhile, Nolan’s musical King’s Ransom will be returning to the stage this autumn with a special performance at Cheltenham Playhouse on September 8. The event has been set up in memory of director Ian Baldwin, who died at the beginning of the year. There are also plans to perform the musical in Norway.
For the full list of Arena’s live shows and to visit the band’s online shop, head over to their website www.arenaband.co.uk. NRS