Lawrence Arabia coming to Bay View

Enjoy a a Small Hall Session with Lawrence Arabia at the King George Hall in Bay View on Saturday evening.

The next Small Hall Session is a rare opportunity to hear one of New Zealand’s most eclectic and distinctive musicians, solo and acoustic, up close and personal.

“Lawrence Arabia is known around New Zealand and the world for his witty, wry observational songwriting, paired with uplifting, catchy pop-infused melodies,” Small Hall Sessions creator and curator Jamie Macphail said.

Enjoy him in the delightful Edwardian King George Hall in the midst of Bay View Village this Saturday night.

Lawrence Arabia is the pseudonym of Christchurch-born singer-songwriter James Milne.

“Since the release of his first album in 2006, he has become one of the pre-eminent figures of New Zealand’s musical landscape, releasing five critically acclaimed and garlanded solo albums alongside a variety of diverse collaborative work,” Macphail said.

“Milne had a musical apprenticeship as a bassist and multi-instrumentalist in Auckland indie-pop combo The Brunettes, touring Australia, the UK and the US.

“With the 2006 release of his eclectic self-titled debut, Milne announced himself as one of New Zealand’s most promising young songwriters and performers.”

He relocated to the UK in late 2006, touring the UK and Europe supporting The Concretes, Okkervil River and Feist, all the while working on his follow-up record Chant Darling, which was released worldwide over 2009/10 and featured the popular song Apple Pie Bed, which won the Apra Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s top songwriting award.

The album won the inaugural Taite Music Prize in early 2010.

In 2012, Lawrence Arabia released The Sparrow, a more minimal and moody collection of piano-driven songs built around live studio takes and string orchestrations. The album won a New Zealand Music Award (Tui) for Best Male Solo Album. He followed it up in 2016 with Absolute Truth, an album of immaculately crafted vintage indie-pop released by Flying Nun Records which won the Tui for Best Alternative Album.

Alongside his solo albums, James/Lawrence has maintained a range of side projects, including the collaborative projects Barb (with Connan Mockasin, Liam Finn and Eliza-Jane Barnes) and Fabulous/Arabia (with Michael August of Lord Echo), which released records in 2009 and 2011 respectively.

A Small Hall Session with Lawrence Arabia will be held at King George Hall in Bay View on Saturday, September 9. Doors open at 6pm, with the show starting at 7pm. A pop-up bar and full meals are available. For more information and to get tickets, visit: smallhallsessions.co.nz.