Frontier Touring is delighted to announce Brit Award winner and Mercury Prize nominee Beth Orton will return to Australia in November 2023, with three East Coast headline shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.  

Performing on stage with her full band, these will be Orton’s first live concerts down under in six years, with today’s tour news following the September 2022 release of Orton’s lauded latest album, Weather Alive – out now via Partisan/Liberator. 

One of the most critically acclaimed records released last year, Orton self-produced the entirety of Weather Alive from her home studio in London, laying the foundations of the songs on an upright piano installed in a shed in her garden. The New York Times hailed Orton’s “modal vocal phrases and marvelling” stories – read their extensive profile of the album here – while Pitchfork named lead single ‘Weather Alive’ a Best New Track, calling it “a slow-burning tour de force”. Across eight songs Weather Alive hosts an incredible group of collaborators, including jazz poet Alabaster dePlume, The Smile drummer Tom Skinner, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, and Mercury Prize nominated bassist Tom Herbert of The Invisible.

'This is as moving and real as Orton has ever been … Nestles somewhere between Talk Talk’s final years and Bill Fay’s late beauties, between Alice Coltrane’s intimate hymns and Fiona Apple’s softest moments... the musical richness only mirrors Orton’s astounding writing’ – ★★★★ MOJO  

‘Orton’s best record in more than 20 years’ – ★★★★ Classic Pop 

Well known for her mesmerising onstage presence and powerfully emotive vocals, in 2023 Orton performed at Glastonbury (a set described by The Guardian as “excellent”) and Primavera, recently wrapping a EU/UK tour including dates with The War On Drugs.

 'Orton’s hits, such as She Cries Your Name, Central Reservation abide in her set list… Weather Alive is an enormously exciting record’ – ★★★★ The Guardian

‘Orton and her five-piece band pulled the audience into their orbit with an absorbing performance that often made time seem to stand still’ – exclaim.ca 

Across almost 30 years now Orton’s sound has shapeshifted from her output with The Chemical Brothers, Andrew Weatherall, Red Snapper and William Orbit, to a pioneer of an electronic, woozy brand of trip-hop. Over the course of her seven albums, Orton resolutely refutes categorisation, weaving from a hushed, folk-informed storytelling to dark, brooding esoteric experimentalism. Through all these different sonic explorations, Beth Orton remains a fantastically evocative songwriter, finding artist fans and collaborators in the most unlikely of places. Out of the studio, she’s shared the stage and mic with the likes of Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor, Flaming Lips and Beck. 

For all the acclaim that fall Beth Orton’s way she continues to take the path less travelled in forging her next move. Don’t miss these shows; tickets on sale next week!