The Zutons announce gig in Chesterfield ahead of their first album for 16 years

Real Time Live will host one of its biggest names yet when the band play at the Marsden Street venue on February 29, 2024.

Excited fans are looking forward to the gig of the year in their home town. Christopher Holmes posted: “A good coup" while Becky Measures commented: “This is a bit mint.”

Multi-platinum sellers The Zutons released three studio albums between 2004 and 2008, scoring nine UK top 40 singles including two top 10s with ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love?’ and the all-conquering ‘Valerie’, the latter a triple-platinum hit for Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse.

Their gig at Real Time Live forms part of a 22-date Creeping On The Dance tour which leads up to the release of their album, The Big Decider. The album was recorded at Abbey Road with the legendary songwriter and producer Nile Rodgers and The Zutons’ original producer Ian Broudie.

Lead singer and guitarist Dave McCabe says: “Working with Nile was just an amazing experience, he gave me a confidence that I’ve never felt before making a record. He’s very laid-back as a person and a good listener. On the song ‘Disappear’, I wrote a spoken word piece about The Zutons travelling the stars and galaxies asking the most powerful question in the universe, “Why?”. I asked Nile if he’d read it out over the top of the end section of the song, thinking he’d just say no. But he jumped in the vocal booth with his chain around his neck and his sunglasses on and did about 20 different takes, all in different styles of himself. It was mind-blowing! He’s just one of the coolest people I’ve ever met.

"It was great to reconnect with Ian Broudie on this record as well. He told me the demo of Big Decider brought a tear to his eye and that’s why he said yes to working with us again. It was one of the first songs we wrote for the album so getting that reaction from Ian made me feel like we were doing something right. The song spoke for itself.”

The Big Decider comes into view as an album of stark significance to Dave and his bandmates Abi Harding (saxophone and vocals) and Sean Payne (drums and vocals). Written against the backdrop of a decade and a half’s worth of lived experience, it is born under the weight of family tragedies, lives lost and created, reality checks, and home truths faced up to and stared down.

Curiously, the pandemic fast-tracked the process of the band’s next phase. As Dave characterises that time, shortly before he went into rehab: “We were all living together in our own little bubble, plenty of booze and mushrooms and a lot of bonding! It was necessary.” It was Dave’s subsequent time in rehab that truly sparked a turning point in the positivity of the new album and the joyful experience of putting it together. Harding says: “Dave has been through an awful lot in the last few years, and these things have obviously really impacted him. But his songwriting has only got better. Now he spends more time on his songs. He’s in touch with his own and others’ emotions, and that all goes into the songs. It has been so nice to watch him grow. I’m so proud of him.”

The Big Decider is released on April 26….The Zutons are back to uplift your 2024!