No Tour with the new album.

[Robson]

Indeed the right decision to not go on tour, albeit a sad one. I do wish, though, that he makes some kind of statement to the fans.

Mark did it at concerts in 2019. Now we have confirmation.

[peterromer]

There is no official confirmation yet at the website.

[Elin N]

As Cannibals write, Guy has been writing it more and more cleary over the last years. The answers about tour is becoming more clear and sad, and the answers about release date (even more than ususal) "blurred". I don't think we need an official statement to know now.

[Jules]

There is no official confirmation yet at the website.

What kind of confirmation do you expect? A statement telling he would tour no more? I don't think he would do such a thing.

Maybe, when there is a release date for the new record, a small line telling there won't be any tour dates announced or something like that, but IO guess that Mk being MK, they are not even say that.

For me the official confirmation is in the promotional interviews from DTRW where MK started saying that touring will be the first thing to end, and when on tour, he confirmed that playing live, so, thats for me official confirmation, from MK himself.

[quizzaciously]

There is no official confirmation yet at the website.

What kind of confirmation do you expect? A statement telling he would tour no more? I don't think he would do such a thing.

Maybe, when there is a release date for the new record, a small line telling there won't be any tour dates announced or something like that, but IO guess that Mk being MK, they are not even say that.

For me the official confirmation is in the promotional interviews from DTRW where MK started saying that touring will be the first thing to end, and when on tour, he confirmed that playing live, so, thats for me official confirmation, from MK himself.

Yes, any "confirmation" might be in the form of the Hansen film and interviews. I can't imagine MK releasing a statement like Paul Simon did about his retirement from live performances. By the way, since then Paul Simon played live multiple times, so it's not the end of the world. As long as Mark is alive and healthy, I think he'll keep playing live in some shape or form, just no big tours, which became a little stale anyway. Copy and paste, copy and paste... With different names.

[rmarques821]

There will be no official statement. Mark said this in 2018 when asked if 2019 would be his last tour.

 “It might very well be. It will be funny to say goodbye to it, because it’s always been the end of the cycle. But I won’t think about it. I’ll just make a record like I’ve always made, and then when it comes to talking about the tour, I just won’t talk about it.”

[Robson]

There will be no official statement. Mark said this in 2018 when asked if 2019 would be his last tour.

 “It might very well be. It will be funny to say goodbye to it, because it’s always been the end of the cycle. But I won’t think about it. I’ll just make a record like I’ve always made, and then when it comes to talking about the tour, I just won’t talk about it.”

Thank you for this quote and reminder:)

I just won’t talk about it

Just like with DS.

[2manyguitars]

Given no tour what will be interesting to see is the standard of guitar on the new record.

I often wonder if Mark stayed away from guitar complexity because of the pressure to recreate it live coupled with fading ability. Obviously in the studio, stuff can be far more worked on.

So here's the hypothesis. No live work = More adventurous guitar playing.

Thoughts?

[Stiglar]

I absolutely adored the show I went to in 2019 in Verona, it's a potentially unpopular opinion but I've kinda liked that since 2010 or so he has gradually steered towards songwriting over guitar playing and I think the show did a great job at playing great music and not leaning as heavy on the guitar playing it was so much more balanced. I feel it was a far better way to go about it than 2015 when he was trying to play to his 2010-2013 standard and struggled a lot on some shows.

I feel as though if he had played shows like in 96-2001 which featured him much more as a guitar player it would've gotten more stale and it didn't seem to be what he found interesting anymore. I love that MK has snapshots of time that he doesn't try to recreate. Alchemy is Alchemy for instance and i'm glad he didn't try to recreate it later.

I could tell it would be the last tour and I'm happy that he's walking away from it whilst still putting on (in my opinion) great shows. A few RAH gigs would be great after an album but who knows? I'm overjoyed there will be another album coming!

[rmarques821]

Given no tour what will be interesting to see is the standard of guitar on the new record.

I often wonder if Mark stayed away from guitar complexity because of the pressure to recreate it live coupled with fading ability. Obviously in the studio, stuff can be far more worked on.

So here's the hypothesis. No live work = More adventurous guitar playing.

Thoughts?

That's a very interesting point, but I don't think it will happen. Because what we've seen since Shangri-La is a gradual process of song simplification where the guitar no longer plays a major role, with a few exceptions of course. He himself said: "I've become so obsessed with writing songs that my guitar playing as suffered as a consequence."
On Tracker there's not much going on as far as guitar playing is concerned, and even less in DTRW with the advent of the sax and trumpet.

Now, we know this next album could be more guitar infused with the involvement of Greg Leisz and his pedal steel guitar. It's a possibility. But it's also a possibility he will be using it to further disguise his guitar playing.
It's going to be very interesting to see that in the future.

[goon525]

I remember the two 2019 concerts I attended as absolutely stunning. We got tracks not played live for many years, and even though he was not playing as 5 or 10 years ago, it was still fantastic. If those were the last times I saw the man then it is what it is.   

No, I’m afraid he didn’t play What It Is.

[hunter]

Given no tour what will be interesting to see is the standard of guitar on the new record.

I often wonder if Mark stayed away from guitar complexity because of the pressure to recreate it live coupled with fading ability. Obviously in the studio, stuff can be far more worked on.

So here's the hypothesis. No live work = More adventurous guitar playing.

Thoughts?

Interesting thought. He may not be capable of the quick and sinewy solos he did during the DS years, but I'm sure he could work out some beautiful and intricate fingerpicking things.


He has a band which is capable of realizing whatever he fancies, so hopefully they do more than a collection "ditties". It's fine line between making the arrangements interesting and elaborate and avoiding making them feel contrived. DTRW felt exactly contrived in many places. A bit too clever without any real artistic impact. 

[Jules]

About the chance of one off shows at the rah or some spare concerts, Guy is also not clear probably because he really don't know (as he says in an answer) or because he knows but can't say it clearly (as he says in other answer, don't hold your breath).

I would like to be optimistic but seems like Guy is warning us to start thinking the live gigs are over in any form.

[hunter]

I think any live shows are unlikely, but they probably don't make a definite statement as "you never know". They are keeping options open. Big tours though, not so much.

[Jules]

I think any live shows are unlikely, but they probably don't make a definite statement as "you never know". They are keeping options open. Big tours though, not so much.

Big tours are over for sure, that's not even the tiniest option. The only hope we have are the spare concerts, one offs etc, and that seems even unlikely...

I still have hope that when the record is out he might want to do a couple of gigs to promote it in a way, but I'm not sure that would even happen.