Baxter Dury returns to Lithuania: a performance in the courtyard of Lukiškės Prison announced

A lot of great things are happening in Vilnius. Good open-air concerts are planned in the capital again this summer. The summer calendar of the music agency 8 Days A Week includes another concert announcement. It has been announced that Baxter Dury, the music dandy, the Prince of Tears and the famous British musician, will return to Lithuania on 10 July. We are really lucky. What a character!

Lithuanian music lovers already know him well. Last summer, returning from the 8 Festival music festival in Vilnius, Baxter Dury described the new conversion of Lukiškės Prison as "turning a blood-soaked prison that held Lithuania's worst criminals into a place that radiates hope". He was very impressed by this festival experience and vowed to return. Thanks to all of us, this unique heritage site in the capital has become a cultural phenomenon and the coolest music scene in the Baltics. The new version of Lukiškės Prison is transforming every day into a space where free and independent creative ideas float.

This time the encounter with the self-ironic dandy of our times will be a tête-à-tête without the noise of the festival. Just you and Baxter's gripping stories. The soundtrack of his biographical book awaits us, drenched in sleepy, psychedelic West Coast hip-hop.

Advance Concert Arrangements

Advance tickets are always cheaper. Tickets for Baxter Dury's show in the capital will go on sale on 1 March, but his fans in Lithuania can buy advance tickets now and save money. However, you will need a code from 8 Days A Week. Message them on Facebook or at www.8dw.lt and you'll receive a special code. The codes are valid for a very limited time. Don't sleep. The pre-sale ends on 1 March at 12pm. The public sale at the Tickets LT box office and online at www.bilietai.lt starts on 1 March at 12:00.

Classics of the genre - the cheapest tickets will be enough for the fastest.
Save money, but save!
Win/win.

The world of music first heard of Baxter, or rather saw him, nearly 50 years ago. His father, Ian Dury, a famous British musician, used a photograph of himself and his son on the cover of his album New Boots and Panties!!. Twenty-five years later, Baxter's musical debut, Oscar Brown, was the NME's influential Record of the Week.

From London, a contemporary troubadour who hangs out in disreputable pubs and impresses with his lusty linguistic acrobatics and cockney accent. Baxter Dury's acquaintance usually begins with the line "I'm Not Your Fucking Friend", but I want to "read" him like an intriguing novel about other men's girlfriends, and drink champagne together at dawn on a park bench in Vilnius.

The newest album, I Thought I Was Better Than You, begins with the question "Hey Mummy? Hey Daddy? Who am I? Who am I Mummy? Who am I?" The budget nepotism kid is tired of being compared to his father - his music, his voice, his looks, his lifestyle. This record is a kind of soundtrack to Baxter's biographical book Chaise Lounge.

Critics have called the album the best of Baxter's biography. Audience reactions have been varied. "Gorillaz meets Gary Numan and Serge Gainsbourg and says hello to the Pet Shop Boys - that's how one of them describes Baxter Dury's work. "When the LSD trip is over and you feel lonely, sad and romantic", adds another. Sounds like my uncle in mid-life crisis picking up a midi keyboard... and I like it, admits another. Wonderfully addictive! - exclaim others. His father would be proud, everyone agrees.

About Baxter Dury

Baxter Dury's relationship with his father and his fame is a complicated one. Growing up with a man whose biggest hits included "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" was not easy.

The boy was often entrusted to the care of Sulphated Smaugli, a two-dimensional drug dealer who lived together. According to Baxter, the pot-soaked father wanted to be the centre of attention and cared only for himself and his career. His mother was not trustworthy either, falling asleep at the wheel while driving Baxter and his sister, killing the motorcyclist. The house was in unrestrained bohemian chaos. Everyone at school knew Baxter was the son of a celebrity. Local toughs would knock him to the ground and beat him to his father's biggest hit, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick".

The youngster was constantly skipping school and was expelled from several schools. Chaos chased Baxter like a hungry dog. All he got from his father was weed, street wisdom, good jazz records and the burden of his fame.

Baxter spent his second decade in a variety of places: working in construction, in the shops of Oxford Street, trying to open a nightclub, living for a while in Barcelona and the US, and with no plans in music. In 2002, two years after his father's death, he released his first album.

"I got a record deal without much effort. Being the son of a famous man, I manipulated the system and got a lot of money without doing too much," the musician, who is expected back in Vilnius, recalls with a smile.

Len Parrot's Memorial Lift, released by the famous Rough Trade label, was not a commercial success, but it was received warmly, as were the other albums he recorded afterwards.

Baxter has a talent for storytelling. His character studies of horrible but vulnerable men are accompanied by wonderful rhythms and a surprisingly French feel in his songs. Despite their bravura, his characters are mostly hopeless romantics. Imagine Serge Gainsbourg mixed with Ray Winstone, with music by the electronic duo Air. Unlike many of music's celebrity suckers, Baxter has finally built a career of his own, and he's proud of it.

The artist's latest album I Thought I Was Better Than You is steeped in freewheeling hip-hop. "It reflects the music I was listening to then. Me and my friends weren't big fans of independent rock. We were graffiti kids with coloured shoelaces and boomboxes, we listened to Afrika Bambaataa and we definitely smoked a lot of weed," says Baxter Dury, who is expected in Vilnius.

"More than ever, this album is the closest to what Baxter is, not what people expect or want it to sound like. The musical shadow of Ian Dury that has loomed over Baxter's previous albums for the past twenty years has finally materialised. No longer taboo, Baxter confronts and exploits his father's legacy.

In making the album, Baxter has tried to turn things upside down, breaking free from the traditional recording routine. Instead, he made rough demos on his website, using barely functioning equipment, and gave them to producer Paul White. His client list includes names like Danny Brown, Obonjayer, Charli XCX and others. Such a simple process gave Baxter the space to explore abstract musical ideas and experiment with his own style of storytelling.

With influences from American artists such as Frank Ocean, Tyler, The Creator and Vegyn, you can hear the essence of the sleepy, psychedelic West Coast hip-hop coming through the cracks of 'I Thought I Was Better Than You'. He was inspired not so much by the sound of this music, but by its subtlety, femininity and genre fluidity. It was also inspired by the way it is unencumbered by restrictive musical structures.

Links

https://www.baxterdury.tv
https://www.facebook.com/baxter.dury
https://www.instagram.com/baxterdury
https://twitter.com/baxterdury


This season of concerts is once again a very colourful and amazing one!

03 02 - Helado Negro
05 31 - "La Femme"
06 01 - "Warhaus"
06 05 - Yungblud
06 10 - "Jungle"
06 16 - "Fontaines D.C."
06 26 - "Sleaford Mods"
07 04 - Asafas Avidanas
07 05 - Two Feet
07 10 - Baxter Dury
07 14 - Oliver Tree
07 20 - Jacobas Collier
08 01 - Devendra Banhartas
08 15 - Jessie Ware

8 Days A Week
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www.8dw.lt