Weekender: Stars set to shine in Birmingham as Johnny Depp and Justin Timberlake announce shows
Birmingham is bracing itself for a major dose of Hollywood glamour with some of the brightest stars from the film and industries set to visit the city.
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp and singer Justin Timberlake have both been slated to appear in the city in June.
Depp, who stars as Captain Jack Sparrow in the pirate movies, is taking time out from the film business to appear on the stage of the Genting Arena with his supergroup, The Hollywood Vampires, which sees him alongside rock ‘n’ roll legends Alice Cooper and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry.
The concert on June 16 is just one of four dates the group is playing in the UK, with the Genting gig the first of the run.
The story of the Hollywood Vampires began in the 1970s on the Sunset Strip at the Rainbow Bar & Grill’s upstairs bar. It was a gathering place for the rock stars living in or passing through LA.
Several years ago, Cooper and his friend Depp were reminiscing and decided the spirit of the Hollywood Vampires should be revived. They were joined by Perry and then decided to record an album – The Hollywood Vampires – in tribute to the original Hollywood Vampires.
When word got around, musicians such as Sir Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, Slash, Robbie Krieger, Zak Starkey and more stopped by to play on it.
Following the album’s release in 2015, fans demanded more and the album was followed in 2016 by a tour which took the band to more than 23 cities and seven countries – traversing the world from Verona to New York to Bucharest and headlining festivals such as Rock in Rio to more than 100,000 fans.
The latest shows will feature the group’s original single ‘Bad As I Am’ from their debut album plus renditions of some iconic rock favourites.
The band will be supported on the UK tour by The Darkness and punk legends, The Damned.
Tickets for the concert go on general sale from 9am today (Friday).
Following the release of his highly-anticipated album Man of the Woods and his half-time performance at this year’s Super Bowl, Justin Timberlake will kick off the UK leg of his new tour at Arena Birmingham on June 27.
The Man of The Woods Tour has already sold over 450,000 tickets and backs up the release of his new album earlier this month.
Timberlake’s last tour was the The 20/20 Experience World Tour, which sold out arenas and stadiums around the globe in 2013 and 2014.
