Above & Beyond chose the occasion of possibly the biggest weekend in their history to unveil plans for their fourth studio album, performing to almost 35,000 clubbers at two U.S. shows. Following a sold-out headline show at Red Rocks, Colorado on Friday the band moved on to host ABGT250 at The Gorge Amphitheatre the next evening, where Jono, Tony and Paavo revealed that the album will be titled ‘Common Ground’ and is set for release in January 2018.
Above & Beyond also announced that two "Common Ground" tour dates will take place at the LA Convention Center on 29 December and New York's Barclays Center on 27 January, with full North American and global tours to be announced in due course.
The new album, the follow up to 2015’s Grammy nominated ‘We Are All We Need’, will feature latest single ‘My Own Hymn’ feat Zoë Johnston, as well as recently released ‘Tightrope’. ‘My Own Hymn’ apparently received a rapturous response when Jono, Tony and Paavo dropped it at The Gorge, which was organised in celebration of 250 episodes of Above & Beyond's Group Therapy radio show, their 700th radio show overall.
The ABGT250 event saw a line up of artists from A&B's Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep labels take to the stage, including Seven Lions and Jason Ross, Yotto, Luttrell, Genix & Sunny Lax, Oliver Smith, Moon Boots, Eli & Fur, 16 Bit Lolitas and Jody Wisternoff and James Grant.
On the Friday night, Jono, Tony and Paavo premiered their new concert film ‘Above & Beyond Acoustic - Live From The Hollywood Bowl’. An acoustic concert documentary titled ‘Giving Up The Day Job’ will hit cinemas worldwide in November.
Saturday saw the main Group Therapy radio celebrations hosted on the main stage and via an eight hour broadcast from a radio studio overlooking the Columbia River. Meanwhile on Sunday, Above & Beyond opened proceedings with a special yoga set at the Gorge Meadow, which was followed by an afternoon of deep house hosted by Anjunadeep.
Livestreamed in partnership with T-Mobile, Twitter and Live Nation, the ABGT250 stream was apparently one of the most viewed Live Nation streams on Twitter and reached the number one trending topic on Twitter on multiple occasions over the weekend.
Above & Beyond commented: “ABGT250 felt like the perfect occasion to tell everyone about our new album and The Gorge was the ideal location to host our first Group Therapy Weekender - we’re already plotting our return and want to say a special thank you to all the fans who created such a special atmosphere at ABGT250.”
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