If you’re going to do something, do it properly. That’s the ethos John Power had in mind when he started plotting the return of Cast and their upcoming album ‘Love Is The Call’ lives up to his aim to deliver a record with the fire and motivation of a new band yet with the accomplishment and experience that comes with everything they have achieved. And its first two singles, the title track and ‘Love You Like I Do’, proudly declare those strengths, leading to acclaim and attention from Liam Gallagher, Jo Whiley at Radio 2, Craig Charles at 6 Music, John Kennedy at Radio X to name a few.
That resurgence now continues as Cast fire into 2024 by sharing the new single ‘Far Away’. It’s a song which sees him tap into melancholy emotions, it instead inspires an inner strength and the belief that many of life’s challenges can be overcome with a little time and determination. Long-term bandmates Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson (guitar) and Keith O’Neill (drums) amplify that mood with musicianship that’s both energising and accomplished, showing that today’s Cast can still enamour fans who first fell for the likes of ‘Finetime’, ‘Alright’ and ‘Walkaway’ back when they first started out.
John says, “‘Far Away’ is a classic pop song, all jangling guitars with an instant hook line and melody that lifts off from the word go. The song is about trying to find your voice in a world that doesn’t care or seem to want to listen. As the world turns into the shadows, the sun still burns so far away, and the dreams you keep until tomorrow, they sometimes feel so far away.”
The ‘Love Is The Call’ album started out when John embraced a rich vein of creativity that saw him write what Creation Records legend Alan McGee considered to be the best songs that he’d ever written. That instinct proved to be correct when the band headed to Space Mountain studios in Granada, Spain for sessions with the Grammy Award winning producer Youth. With John also performing bass, a flashback to his early days with The La’s, the process saw Cast complete an unlikely achievement: a career high almost three decades after their first breakthrough.
‘Love Is The Call’ is available to pre-order HERE. In addition to its digital release, Cast’s official store offers a green vinyl with a signed print as well as a pink vinyl and a signed CD, while Rough Trade offers a limited edition blue vinyl edition.
Cast will celebrate the release of ‘Love Is The Call’ by embarking upon an extensive record store tour, which mixes intimate performances, album signing sessions and meet-and-greets. The album’s impact will be heightened by bigger live plans as 2024 unfolds: a full UK headline tour in March before they join Liam Gallagher’s ‘Definitely Maybe’ arena shows in June – a reunion after Cast were part of the bill during Oasis’s iconic Knebworth shows in 1996. Their summer festival schedule is also taking shape. Remaining tickets for the shows, listed below, are available HERE.
