Thea Gilmore takes to the road in 2021 for her first EVER tour performing completely solo.
Postponed by 12 months due to the global pandemic, her tour now takes place in September and October 2021.
Afterlight is doing it just like Chekhov said. She was always the loaded gun that appears in the first act. Now, as the third act unfolds, it’s time to put on your bulletproof vest…
AFTERLIGHT (The artist we once knew as Thea Gilmore, with 19 albums to her name)
After the stop comes the start. After the dark; the light. This is not a drill. Afterlight is a real account of one woman’s journey from impressionable 16-year-old bound into a toxic working and romantic relationship with a man 23 years her senior, to a brand new artist and free woman finding her own beginning.
“My hands have been shaking so long that it must be goodbye”
Written, produced and performed by Afterlight (the artist we once knew as Thea Gilmore, with 19 albums to her name), the eponymous debut spans the brutal truth of the opening track – an account of all the damage wrought upon one small life – through the slow, painful realisation that her entire world was built on control and lies, on to the emergence of a woman learning for the first time who she really is, making new connections and, finally, finding her own voice.
Only now that she has freed herself of that life has Afterlight been able to complete a different kind of debut – not so much a new artist as an artist renewed.
“I will show them what a woman is made of…”
The songs on the album might share subject matter with The Emancipation of Eva Grey, the judiciously joyous jazz excursion that marks the final Thea Gilmore release, (available only from www.theagilmore.net – 17/09/21), but make no mistake Afterlight is a very different proposition.
Liberated from other people’s fears and no longer hiding from her own in the name of her art, this is the sound of a woman making music on her own terms, free to make her own choices.
“The saddest thing to me is that my story is a drop in the ocean,” says Afterlight. “These issues that I’m dealing with are being dealt with by millions every second. This kind of coercion, this kind of narrowing of a life by someone else, this theft of self is everywhere.”
“In my case, I was so young, it was all I’d ever known so I had no concept of what freedom from that control felt like until I finally managed to get away. Now, with every day that passes I get further from those boundaries that were set for me. I see what functional relationships both working and personal, based on equity and respect actually look like. I mourn for the 16-year-old in many ways and now I’m trying to figure out who I am without those walls.”
“It’s a long process that I’m only just at the beginning of.”
This creative rebirth and repositioning has also produced The Emancipation of Eva Grey, the last Thea Gilmore album for a while, an acerbic reboot of the 1930s Jazz Age that grew out of a request to contribute to the recent hit film version of Blithe Spirit starring Dan Stevens, Isla Fisher and Judi Dench. (Emancipation of Eva Grey, will be released on 17/09/21 and available only from www.theagilmore.net)
Two of Thea’s songs also feature on the soundtrack of director Mark Jenkin’s outstanding BAFTA-winner Bait; and her version of ‘Bad Moon Rising’ lit up Zach Snyder’s Netflix chart-topping zombie blockbuster Army of the Dead.
All that creative energy finds its raw apotheosis in Afterlight. Not so much a call to arms as a calm clarion, it’s the sound of a woman making her own way, fulfilling her promise, starting out, starting over; the start after the stop.
“… Like I’m 17 and free…”
“Fittingly, the last album I made as Thea Gilmore amplifies the voice of someone else, while the first Afterlight album is transparent and brutal and only me. But these are tiny stories from a tiny life. And they are everywhere. There’s no triumphant, happy ending, just a human, being.”
Sometimes though the story throws up some surprises and Afterlight is doing it just like Chekhov said. She was always the loaded gun that appears in the first act. Now, as the third act unfolds, it’s time to put on your bulletproof vest…
Welcome to the Afterlight.
“I have grown two hearts inside my belly,
I know a Phoenix from a sparrow
This will be the last time I write to you
I have wings to sew’
Afterlight by Afterlight is released on 02 October 2021
THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FROM THE 9TH OCTOBER 2020 – ALL TICKETS HAVE BEEN AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED TO THE NEW DATE.
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.