
“The plan is to stir something up and tell the truth of where I am in the world…”
Change is in the air for award-winning artist Robert Vincent.
“He’s the Real Deal” – Bob Harris OBE (BBC Radio 2)
A phenomenal, spiritual listen” – Sunday Times Album Review
The Scouse singer/songwriter will release his much-anticipated fourth studio album through Thirty Tigers in 2024 and its music is riding the winds of change in the air. “The songs are less traditional sounding,” he reveals. “I’m learning how to lower my barriers and have made a more personal album than ever before.”
It was the start of 2020 when Robert’s third LP, the critically-acclaimed ‘In This Town You’re Owned’, was released and walked straight into a worldwide pandemic. That stalled all promotional plans and tours, but the record resonated and won the prestigious Americana Music Association UK’s ‘Album Of The Year’ award for 2021. Now, Robert wants to spread his music’s prescient words: “I think there will be mixed memories for anyone who lived through that and hopefully the album was a bit of a soundtrack to those times for some folks,” he says. “I had to try and take the positives as an artist. I hadn’t had any time off in many years from gigging and that gave me a bit of a reset… but I’m looking ahead to a successful year of touring and playing these new songs to people.”
The new songs reveal where his confidence is coming from. The widescreen drive of ‘The Insider’ asks us all to “find a better way” over a motorik beat reminiscent of The War On Drugs, whereas the lilting ‘Anywhere’ (“what binds us is love”) waltzes its way into your heart upon a bed of whirling organ and wistful piano chords: “The new album has more of a concise sound,” Robert says of the record made with the renowned producer Ethan Johns (Paul McCartney, Ray Lamontagne, Laura Marling). “The songs arrived over the period of a year or so and are born from my own personal experiences… it’s a very intimate set of tunes.”
The record has captured said intimacy. Robert’s core band came together and made the music live in the studio, looking into the whites of each other’s eyes. “I chose to record closer to home with my usual band of brothers and sisters (Anna Corcoran on piano, vocals; Jim Kimberley, drums; Danny Williams, bass; Adrian Gautrey, guitar, keys) and they assisted me beautifully as always. We’ve also got featured musicians like Joe Coombs, an amazing guitar player from the south west, and added inspired bits and mixed the record.”
The songs on ‘Barriers’ represent a left turn for an artist who is ready for something more. Sure, that powerful and soulful voice that attracted acolytes such as Bob Harris, Paul Carrack and Mary Chapin Carpenter still leads the way, but songs such as the haunting ‘Beast Inside’, rural lament ‘Dream’ and classic-in-waiting ‘The Hard Way’ (“we all bleed the same, let your story begin”), will reach deep into you and pull out parts that respond to another human sharing their truth with you. There’s an urgency to this music that places this beautiful and warm sounding record firmly in the present. “Didn’t mean to lay you down,” sings Robert in the quietly devastating ‘Circumstance Of Ignorance’, as the ghosts of the past rage against the dying of the light in the background.
“I suppose it’s an album about love and how it’s only love… it won’t kill you to show it,” laughs the songwriter. “Love is a pure thing: you either feel it, give it or you don’t. These songs are about connection and trying to overcome mental and physical barriers with love and empathy towards ourselves and others. That might sound trite on the page, but hopefully not in the message and the music. My favourite new song is called ‘Follow What You Love and Love Will Follow’… we all need a bit of that right now.”
Book a table for pre-concert dining
Acapela Studio provides pre-concert dining between 6.00pm and 7.30pm from our pizza oven. To view the current menu visit here.
Please purchase your concert tickets first before booking a table. We will not accept any table bookings that do not have a corresponding ticket purchase.
Then return to the event page to book your table, by selecting the date of your event, number of diners and time you require table. The times shown are the only vacancies left. Please complete your email and phone number as this is required to ensure your table is allocated. You will receive confirmation of your booking by email and text.
If on the date you have chosen no tables are available - no times will be shown and the booking system will revert you back to todays date - PLEASE ENSURE YOU BOOK THE CORRECT DATE!
PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE RELIES ON THE INCOME FROM DINING TO ENSURE WE CAN BOOK ALL THE GREAT ACTS PERFORMING.
Income from the provision of pizzas is very important to the venue and if you have booked a table it is a requirement that all people sat at tables order food - a salad alternative is available to pizzas. Please do ensure that all individuals will be ordering on your table - if this is not the case please cancel your table so others who are looking to dine can do so. Our apologies to raise this but recently we have had many tables (some very large) where less than 50% of those sat at tables have ordered food. Financially this is a real problem to the sustainability of the venue.
- All seating at tables must purchase a pizza - so please do not book a table if everyone is not eating.
- Please ensure that you arrive 10 minutes before the time slot allocated to order your pizzas prior to your booking time.
- Tables not seated within 15 minutes of the allocated time may be lost and allocated to other audience members wishing to order pizzas.
- If you wish to book a table for 6 or more please email info@acapela.co.uk
Please note that all of our pizzas are made fresh to order and cooked in an authentic wood-fired oven. It may take up to 45 minutes to be served during busy periods.
IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO BOOK A TABLE YOU CAN STILL ORDER PIZZAS ON THE NIGHT (USUALLY ON BUSY NIGHTS NO LATER THAN 7.15PM) AND WE WILL SERVE THEM TO YOU WHEREVER YOU ARE SAT IN THE VENUE - IN A PIZZA BOX.