Plan B Tickets

PLAN B

SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE BIG DAY OUT
SIDE SHOWS ANNOUNCED!

It's time to revert to PLAN B. But Ben Drew is no back-up plan, he's the recalcitrant renaissance man of British music: rapper, actor, guitarist, storyteller, filmmaker and now chart-topping soul singer.

"Providing both attitude and grace... PLAN B could be the 1940s showman for the 21st century" (Suit Yourself, April 2010).

After shocking the nation with his 2006 hip hop debut Who Needs Action When You Got Words, PLAN B took a different route with The Defamation of Strickland Banks, a surprising, slick album filled with "stonking tunes" (NME) that trace the rise and fall of a smartly-suited soul singer. "A sharp turn that is executed masterfully," said Rave magazine.

Ben Drew's musical turnaround isn't so surprising when you dig into his many and varied inspirations, from Michael Jackson and Arsenal FC to jungle music and hip hop, The Prodigy and punk, and wanting to be a rebel like Johnny Rotten. And what other muso can say he's matched it line for line, and bullet for bullet, on screen with movie legend Michael Caine (in the gritty Harry Brown)?

But a part of Drew always stayed faithful to the soul he'd first heard, and so The Defamation of Strickland Banks was born. "I wanted to stay true to the heart and soul of the music, but give it a little bit of a makeover," PLAN B says. "In Britain, we do it in our own way."

In a live show "stacked full of energy and mayhem", PLAN B spins stories, spits jams and "populates each track with inner city characters so real that they almost materialise on stage alongside him as he sings," says musicOMH.

"His pop homage to the sounds of Marvin, Stevie and Smokey was powered along by the effortless groove of his sharply turned-out band and cooing backing singers, yet he retains enough of his street style to avoid pale pastiche" (Scotsman, April 2010).

Don't be fooled - this sweet soul morsel has a razor-sharp edge. Quite simply, no one else cuts it like PLAN B, and he's suiting up to head Down Under.

These are the ONLY Australian PLAN B side shows outside of the Big Day Out dates. Tickets go on sale for both dates at 9.00am local time on Monday, 22 November, 2010.

PLAN B