Paul Simon Graceland tour – video

Posted on 1 June 2012
By Bert Bernstein
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Paul Simon will mark the 25th anniversary of Graceland album with a new tour backed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Paul Simon is set to embark on a special ‘Graceland’ tour, which will see him play Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the most influential albums of the past three decades.

Next year’s tour will coincide with the release of a new box-set of the album and Simon told Billboard.com that he intends to reunite musicians who toured with him in 1987, among them the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The album won a Grammy as Record of the Year.

Simon, 70, recently travelled back to South Africa with his band and played with trumpeter Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo for a crowd of 300 people.

Director Joe Berlinger, whose previous music documentaries include one on Metallica, shot the concert for a film that will be included in a 25th anniversary box set. Berlinger’s film is also expected to be submitted to film festivals.

Simon said: “The documentary took me back to the artistic aspects and the political aspects of making Graceland and the controversy that surrounded it and how it was resolved, plus what remains of it and what we learn from it.”

Watch his tour promo video below…