TV detective Laurence Fox to promote new album with an Edinburgh gig

HE’S best known to television audiences for playing DS James Hathaway in the crime drama Lewis, but there’s another, musical side to Laurence Fox that will be come to the fore at the Voodoo Rooms next month.

Laurence Fox

Fox, one of the famous British acting dynasty - his father is James, uncle is Edward and cousins Emelia and Freddie - has also starred in an array of Hollywood films, including The Professor and The Madman, alongside Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, and in Elizabeth alongside Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen.

However, it’s his reputation as a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter that brings him to the Capital on 19 February. Fox will be in town to promote his new album, A Grief Observed.

The lyrics and songs reflect his personal experiences over the past few years.

The album is also more politically charged than his previous album Holding Patterns. One of the songs on the album, The Distance, was written as a form of backlash towards the rise of political correctness in the UK, and what Fox perceives to be a decrease in freedom of expression.

He says of the track, “This is about the desire to stifle expression. To salute only the present orthodoxy. The dangers of throwing away old wisdoms in order not to offend the perpetually offended. It’s my attempt at an anthem in praise of free expression and how it takes people listening together to make a difference in life.”

Laurence Fox, Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street, 19 February, 7.30pm, £17.50, www.thevoodoorooms.com