Beth McCarthy – DREAM TOUR

In this Dream Tour segment, the acoustic artist, Beth McCarthy, lets you know who she would like on her ultimate tour lineup. You can check out the feature, after the break.

So I probably should’ve approached this with the goal of creating a really serious tour line up that could actually have a chance of being a reality someday..but how boring would that be?! If we’re going for my absolute dream line-up, we’ve got to throw some dead people and some totally random people in there..let’s get started..

First up we’ve got Michael Jackson (yep, going straight for the dead guy). I think it’s safe to say that the whole world is aware of how amazing Michael Jackson was, but honestly I think he will always be one of my top 5 favourite artists of all time. For me, one of the best things an artist can have is stage presence and MJ lived and breathed it. Sadly, I was never able to see him perform live in person, but a real stand out memory for me is watching ‘This Is It’. The movie basically followed the preparation for his ‘This Is It’ tour and I feel like it not only shows how talented he was as an artist, but also how passionate he was about making the show perfect. He oversaw every single detail himself and knew exactly what he wanted the show to look, sound and feel like – yet he was so respectful and down to earth in the way he approached decision making and talking to his crew. I just think I could learn so much from MJ, a tour with him would be incredible.

Next on my tour I’d like to bring HAIM in to the mix. I first heard about HAIM in 2014 when their ‘Days are Gone’ album made its way over to the UK. I listened to a couple of singles and thought they were cool, but my real love for them started when I saw them at Latitude Festival that year. I was performing myself on a stage at the festival and had seen that they were on the main stage right before I was due to play, so I headed over early and managed to get pretty near the front. The three sisters radiated ‘swag’ from the minute they stepped on to stage and spent the next 30 minutes performing one of the best live sets I’ve ever witnessed! Este Haim (bass player and oldest sister of the three) has such an addictive stage presence, it’s almost impossible to take your eyes off her. I just loved the sense of freedom and energy that they had throughout the whole show, they had the ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ vibe down to a T! Anyone who can be that free and crazy on stage must be an absolute riot off stage so I’d totally be up for sharing a tour bus with the HAIM sisters!

I’m now going to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Antonio Lulic. I met Antonio back in 2012 when he played a show in my hometown of York, UK. I was 15 at the time and had gone to watch another local musician who was support for the gig, but ended up staying to watch the headline (Antonio). This gig was a real pivotal moment in my career as it’s the first time I’d ever seen someone really perform with an acoustic guitar. As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I’m a big fan of the frontmen/women of our industry(!) and I’d always struggled with knowing how to put on a good show myself when it was just me and an acoustic guitar. The way Antonio could hold the stage by himself, combined with his incredible ability to tell stories with his songs and make the audience feel just showed me exactly what I wanted to be as an artist. A lot of what I do as a performer stems from seeing Antonio play that night and I’ll be forever thankful to him for helping make me the artist I am today – even if he didn’t know it at the time! As I’m writing this, he’s on tour in South America supporting Ed Sheeran so I think it’s only fair he comes on my dream tour too!

My next choice might shock you a little, but I’m going to add Miley Cyrus to the lineup. I know, she’s gone off the rails a little over the past few years and ideally, I don’t want anybody swinging around naked on a wrecking ball on this tour, but hear me out on this one. Back when I first started singing and writing songs, Miley Cyrus was in her cross over kind of stage between Hannah Montana and crazy Miley. The songs she was singing were more lyric based, country style (big up ‘The Climb’) and that’s when I decided the acoustic guitar was for me. I’ve never been a fan of big, diva voices as I could never relate to that style, but there was something about Miley and her songs that I could see myself in. I honestly think that Miley has one of the most honest, down to earth female voices and no matter how controversial she gets, I think I’ll always have a soft spot!

Finally, I’d like to bring Queen onto the stage. I grew up listening to rock music as my dad is a huge rock fan and Queen was one of his favorites. They soon developed into one of my favorites too and I now just think they’re absolutely incredible. Of course, if I were to have them on my tour it would NEED to be with Freddie Mercury as I think he’s one of the best frontmen that the world has ever seen. The passion that he put into his performances is something you just can’t teach, that man was a natural performer and I’m heartbroken he’s no longer around to share his talent with the world. Saying this, I don’t want to take away from the rest of the band as Queen would not have been Queen without the insane musicianship of Brian May and Roger Taylor. They had such array of songs from anthems such as ‘I Want It All’ and of course ‘We Will Rock You’ to the emotional ballads of ‘Those Were The Days Of Our Lives’ and ‘Who Wants To Live Forever?’ and it never seizes to amaze me how they were able to touch the world so hugely with their music. I don’t think there will ever be a band like Queen again so there’s really no way I couldn’t have them on my dream tour.

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