
Jeff Beck has lined up a 26-date North American tour that will get underway next month, according to his official website. The outing will begin 10 days after the Feb. 6 release of the guitar legend’s forthcoming album, “You Had It Coming” (Epic).
The new album is described in an Epic press release as a “predominantly instrumental album … bounded by a collage of drum loops and digital-age wizardry, all at the service of Beck's signature guitar playing.”
“You Had It Coming” is the follow-up to 1999’s Grammy-nominated “Who Else!,” Beck’s first release of original solo material since 1989’s “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop.” He completed a tour of the U.S. in support of “Who Else!” in September 1999.
In a press release posted on Beck’s official website, the renowned British guitarist explained why he took such an uncharacteristically short break between “Who Else!” and “You Had It Coming.”
"The thing looking me in the face was, 'If you don't play Jeff, you're not going to play,’” he said. “After 120-odd gigs [in support of ‘Who Else!’], including people's back gardens in Italy, I didn't want to go all through that for nothing--to lose track of the band and go into recession again."
Beck’s career spans more than 30 years. In the mid-‘60s, he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds. He then formed the Jeff Beck Group in 1967, an outfit whose ranks featured Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood. Various incarnations of that group followed, as did other solo projects and collaborations. The guitarist has slipped into semi-retirement on several occasions.