Paul Simon - Back At The Tower (2023)

Following the relative success of You're the One, Paul Simon’s eleventh solo album released in 2000, which found Simon back in the Top 20 of the American charts after ten years of absence, and in receipt of a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, Paul spent most the following twenty-four months promoting the record. In 2002 he took a year off, and during 2003 and 2004 had a widely documented reunion with Art Garfunkel, followed by a Simon & Garfunkel ‘Old Friends reunion tour from October-December ‘03 and June - July ‘04, when the pair extensively toured America and Europe. • At this point, Simon was fully involved in the writing and recording of a new studio set. He was introduced to Brian Eno, producer of Talking Heads and U2 among others, who co-composed a handful of the record’s tracks, and while not listed as producer, his name appeared with a credit for ‘Sonic Landscape!’ • Soon after, early recordings for the album began in London, New York and Nashville. Simon first met with Brian Eno in London to discuss a collaboration between Eno's electronic production and Simon's classic guitar folk-rock. "We spent some time in his studio and decided to combine our visions. It took about two years. The actual time I spent with Brian was 20 days, split into four periods. We found we could really work intensely for five days, and after that it was a bit of a burnout.” Released on May 6th 2006, Sunrise was the recipient of commercial and critical success worldwide. The Surprise Tour covered the United States, Canada and parts of Europe between June and November ‘06. It consisted on 27 shows, including a performance at a sold-out Wembley Stadium on November 10. • Among the very finest shows of the tour took place at the Tower Theater, Upper Darby - just outside Philadelphia - in Pennsylvania, on 24th October, a concert recorded for live FM Broadcast. Mixing tracks from Sunrise with a slew of classic Paul Simon tunes from across his career, the performance was an extraordinary spectacle from the, by now, 65-year-old Paul Simon, who remained as energetic, entertaining and dynamic as he’d ever been. • Now available for the first time on this new 2CD set, this release will delight Paul Simon’s millions of fans still flying the flag for one of the finest composers and performers of the rock age.