Paul Rodgers to perform Free songs only on May 2017 tour

As the title suggests, this special May 2017 tour will see Paul perform strictly Free songs only and will culminate with an epic show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Tickets go on sale from Planet Rock Tickets at 9am on Friday 27th January.

The tour calls in at the following dates:

MAY 2017
Glasgow Clyde Auditorium – Fri 5th
Newcastle City Hall – Sun 7th
Manchester O2 Apollo – Mon 8th
Bristol Colston Hall – Wed 10th
Plymouth Pavilions – Fri 12th
Oxford New Theatre – Sun 14th
Leicester De Montfort Hall – Wed 17th
Sheffield City Hall – Fri 19th
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall – Sat 20th
Southend Cliffs Pavilion – Mon 22nd
Ipswich Regent – Tue 23rd
Portsmouth Guildhall – Thu 25th
Birmingham Symphony Hall – Sat 27th
London Royal Albert Hall – Sun 28th

Reflecting on the tour, Paul Rodgers said: “It was 50 years ago in 1967 when Paul Kossoff and I met and later formed Free. We first jammed together at the Fickle Pickle Blues Club in Finsbury Park, we wanted exactly that, to be free to play the music that we loved, blues and beyond. We knew we had something special between us when people told us that when we played time stood still. He brought in the rhythm section, Simon Kirke from his band The Black Cat Bones and found the advertisement at the Nags Head Battersea for a “Bass player ex-John Mayall looking for a gig” Andy Fraser.

“Not only was Koss the soul of the band, playing every note deeply…from his very soul he also had great organisational skills, everybody loved him and rightly so.

“The first song that Koss and I wrote together was “Moonshine”. I remember him playing the music and he asked if I could write the melody and lyrics. In fact it was that song we were playing when Alexis Corner walked in to our rehearsal and gave us the suggestion for a band name “Free At Last”.

“We went with just Free and I am still reeling from the memories.

“It was so inspirational playing Free material with Deborah Bonham’s band, led by guitarist Pete Bullick, when we played charity gigs to support Willows Animal Sanctuary and Assisted Therapy Unit, which my wife Cynthia and I plus Deborah Bonham and Pete Bullick are Patrons of, that I promised myself that someday we would tour the UK with this band. Well…that someday has come. Pete will be on guitar, Ian Rowley on bass, Rich Newman on drums and Gerard Louis “G” on keyboards. Special guest will be Deborah Bonham featured with a keyboardist.

“We are calling the tour “Free Spirit” and the back story is that two ponies were abandoned by their guardians on the Shetland Islands when concerned neighbours contacted Willows who agreed to rescue them. After a fourteen hour ferry ride the two arrived, one heavily pregnant and both full of worms. The drugs needed would most assuredly kill the unborn foal. However miracles do happen and a healthy foal was born christened “Free Spirit” by Willows. Which in turn inspired the name for the tour.

What better way to thank the fans for their years and years of devotion to Free than to do this ‘Free Spirit’ UK Tour”.