CLASSIC ALBUMS LIVE EMBARK ON INAUGURAL UK TOUR

This September will see Canada’s Classic Albums Live  embarking on their first tour of the United Kingdom. The touring company  founded in 2003, by Craig Martin has gone on to become a mainstay in many great North American theatres and concert halls, with regular stops at Massey Hall, The Rady Shell and the Hard Rock Live.

This debut tour will see Classic Albums Live focusing on the iconic White Album by the Beetles in full exactly the way it  was  recorded - note for note, cut for cut. No gimmicks, just pure musical excellence!

DARKUS had  the pleasure of sitting down with Craig Martin himself to tell us more. 

So tell us a little bit how these past few weeks have been treating you?

They've been treating me just fine, thank you. A lot of hustle because I'm based here in Toronto and my company, Classic Albums Live, started here. We've branched out across North America. 

I just love England. I love it there. My family's from there so its exciting to know I'm launching in the UK in September.

Our message is very convoluted, very dense. So I have been doing a lot of explaining about what my company is about and communicating with everybody in England. I've really enjoyed the process.

As it gets  closer and closer to September, what is your to-do list looking like? 

Well, you know, we've got an ocean between us, so it's certainly a case of trying to raise as much awareness as possible. We're on the socials pretty heavily and we're monitoring that. I'm doing a lot of media with traditional radio and things like that. I'm  also doing as many interviews as I can get.  I just really want to communicate what it is we're doing because it really is something special.

Craig Martin, Founder Classic Albums Live

So digging into that then, tell us a little bit about the vision behind this upcoming tour that you're about to embark on? 

So my company, Classic Albums Live, takes classic albums and we recreate those live on stage, note for note, cut for cut, using North America's best musicians. All of our focus is on the music. We don't wear any cheesy costumes. We don't do impersonations. We don't have a flashy light show. We don't even talk to the audience. We don't leap about.

We just stand there and play the same way that you would go to see an orchestra perform Beethoven or Bach or Mozart on the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. So we take these classic albums and man, it's big bands, you know. Like, to play the Beatles properly, you need a nine, ten-piece band. You need strings and horns. Sometimes you need a sitarist. So that's our focus, all on the music, getting these records correctly performed in front of an audience.

That's the show. But it's very compelling. It's just wonderful to watch a musician perfectly execute these iconic songs, these iconic riffs, vocals, all of that. To see that happen on stage, you don't need all the accoutrement of all the distracting things. It's thrilling to watch a musician at the top of their game.

Has it helped you to see music differently because you're doing it in this way? 

Good question. I've been doing this for 23 years and I've never been asked that. Yes, absolutely.

It's a bit of a curse as well because we go to such detail in recreating these records that it doesn't become recreational anymore. You know, we listen to an album and we're like, oh, are we getting that riff correct? Is that vocal harmony where it needs to be? Things like that. Have we got that weird scream in the background? That's what happens.

We start deconstructing these albums and not only that, other music. That's why I tend to not listen to a lot of music when I'm not taking apart an album right now. Then the tide ebbs and flows and you can't wait to listen to some new music and some old rock. Who doesn't want to throw on Led Zeppelin every now and then?

When you  deconstruct an album and put it back together, are there any of those Easter egg surprises that you find? 

There really are. I'll tell you a funny story. On Led Zeppelin's fifth album, Houses of the Holy Album, there's a phone that rings in the background of a song called The Ocean. You've got to listen for it, but it's there. One thing that we do is everything is organic. We try not to print tapes or anything like that.

We don't want it like that. We want a very organic approach and real musicians play. But we couldn't make a phone ring, an old school phone ring on stage. So we had to use a sample. So the keyboard player will walk out for that one thing and press that ring. And it rings a couple of rings.  I'm always scouting the audience for guys who are like my age going, I can't believe they got the phone. 

There's lots of examples like that, like at the beginning of The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. If you listen on headphones before the take starts, you can hear Lindsey Buckingham, the guitar player in the studio, go fuck.

This September’s tour focuses on the Beatles White Album. Was there a particular reason why that album specifically? 

I mean, it really kind of is a flex for us to show what we can do. I know you guys are inundated with the tribute bands right now, the cosplay band, as I call them. That's fine. You know, there's a place. But this one really shows our best foot forward. We have a string section, we have a horn section, we have keyboard players, we have multiple singers.

It's a really strong presentation in that it also shows the Beatles at a time when they became self-aware. Do you know what I mean? Where they realized their worth. They didn't need as much production. It's their raw sound. It's their experimental sound. 

I mean, I'm in my 60s. I grew up with the White Album, as did everybody my age and before me. That album was omnipresent. It was the number one selling album of the 60s, a double album. So yeah, it seemed like a no brainer for that one. And I'll tell you, there's a track that the Beatles fans talk about Easter eggs. 

It's called Revolution No. 9. And I guess it was John Lennon during his experimental phase. And when did that end? He just chopped up a bunch of soundbites and made a collage of sound effects. Revolution No. 9 is  somewhat of an iconic track for the Beatles. And it's not music in the traditional sense, but it's a mess. We play it like it was recorded, man. 

It's one thing to create the vision remotely so bearing  in mind, you're playing at some iconic venues across the UK. How does it translate when it comes to the curation within the venue and identifying the perfect fit? For instance, in the North East, where I am, you're playing in the Glass House.

That is an excellent question. And you're exactly right. Again, you're the only person who's ever brought this insight into it.

We tend to use the hall we're in as a member of the band. We're not a heavy tech band. We are more like an orchestra. I was visiting the UK about two months ago. I came over and I toured all the venues and they're majestic, what an honor. 

I mean, we play the same kind of venues here in North America. We do 200 shows a year across North America. And we play a lot of esteemed venues here as well. But to see the history of these halls, I feel like these albums are having a homecoming that we're bringing, like we're going to be following up this tour with the Beatles.

 I feel like it's a homecoming for these albums to come back to the homeland and have them performed in these amazing halls. I can't say enough about the venues, the history. In Bradford, which is one of the locations on the tour,  we are playing in a brand new hall. We'll be one of the first ones to play there. So that's massively exciting for us.

But yes, the hall that we play in certainly becomes a member of the band and you have to treat each hall differently as far as your stage volume goes and how you present. We're very cognizant of that. 

Related to that, was there any specific hall which initially felt like a Goliath, but you thought actually it will do, it will bring this album to life even more? 

Yeah, I mean, we've been doing this a long time. We know how to do it. You know what I mean? We can walk into any hall. We play Basketball, which is our version of Royal Albert Hall. And we play the NAC here in Canada as well. So we really know how to make these halls work. But yeah, I mean, the Glass House, what a venue, man.

You have to remember, we provide the safety of a good show. You're not going there wondering what's going to happen. You're going to see a bunch of people performing these albums and just standing there and playing it note for note, cut for cut. We are what we are.

The extra beauty of it is because you're giving a new dimension to this iconic music, you're also adding or enhancing the memories that the audience are having as well, right? 

Yes, 100 percent. You know, I use the term nostalgia. I'm not afraid of that. I quite like it. There's something nice about a nostalgic feeling. And we certainly provide that. You know, these albums are important to us. The reason I started this company was I did get fed up of seeing the music get desecrated by a bunch of these tribute bands who spend more time on their wigs and their winged outfit and get music right. When I would go to clubs or whatever and just see the music being ruined, frankly, I would be very upset.

So going forward, I feel like it's a sense of duty almost like I feel like we're here to curate the enduring legacy of some of these artists. I mean, who are you going to leave it to other than us in some ways? Are you going to leave it to a bunch of guys who look like they should be working in a gas station with wigs on?  No, you leave it to the professionals. I know that sounds boastful, but it's true. 

When you've been creating Classic Albums Live, what were some of the things that you wanted to be part of the DNA to make that difference? 

Well, I really look for the musicians. The two things that happen are the musicians who I have about. I'm the largest employer of musicians here in Canada, certainly up there in the States as well.

I look for the musician who really wants to get in touch with me and they say, look, I see that you're doing Fleetwood Mac's Rumors album. I need to be on that record. I'm the right guy to play this particular part. And I said, OK, lots of people email me and they're like, I can play anything. I guess a lot of people are specific and really have that.

Another thing that happens when working closely with these musicians is I will start to hear something in their playing, something in the way that they approach their instrument. For instance, the Bruce Springsteen band that we put together, we did the Born to Run album some years back. None of the guys I put together in that band, they thought Bruce Springsteen was dancing in the dark, you know, with Courtney Cox and doing that whole thing.

They really got a real education on just how deep Bruce Springsteen can go. And they love that record. It was a joyous thing to be able to introduce musicians to a new kind of music and have them embrace it and then have them ace it on stage like they do.

As  it gets closer to September, how can we as an audience prepare ourselves for what's to come? 

Well, again, it takes so much explaining. You can prepare yourself by just showing up with open ears and prepare to be taken back to a time when we had the entire time to listen to an album. You know, we're back to the 60s version right now where everything's single again, you know, it's about the single. But these albums have stood the test of time. They are massive works of art. They have endured.

I guess you could say they're classical music. So when you come to the show, expect  to see the modern day orchestra on stage. That's what I would tell people: we are the future of where this where classic rock is going.

If you were to describe this process or this bringing of life of this amazing project, how would you describe it using three emojis? 

The heart. Smiley face. Yeah.

The third one's a tough one. I'd say the clapping hands. 

Well it's been absolutely lovely speaking to you Craig..  I wish you all the best and hopefully we will get to see each other in Gateshead. 

The Classic Albums Live tour will be commencing on 3rd September 2025.

For more information and tickets, visit www.classicalbumslive.com