Billy Talent to play Birmingham
Era-defining rockers Billy Talent will make a rare trip from Canada to the UK for a headline gig at Birmingham's O2 on Wednesday.
The Ontario band, who formed in 1993, broke through with their single Try Honesty.
Singer Ben Kowalewicz said: "For me, as a kid and now a 40-year-old man - barf - music is the one art form that transcends everything. It transcends race, sex, religion, geography. Every single culture either celebrates or mourns life with song. There's just something really special when you sing a song to people and they sing it back to you. That feeling is the most important feeling to me.
"I still believe that a rock show can change your life. I firmly believe that. Today, I'm driving up to a little farm where I go to escape the noise, and Jeremy by Pearl Jam comes on and it made me remember being 16 and sitting in my friend's Monte Carlo smoking cigarettes and joints and listening to that song.
"Now, as a 40-year-old man, I revert back to that time because of that song. Music becomes like bookmarks in your life."
