Marianne Faithfull first live shows in 2 years

Marianne Faithfull plays her first UK shows in over two years when she appears in London and Glasgow at the climax of her European tour next month.

The UK concerts are:

GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall Monday 13th December
LONDON Shepherds Bush Empire Thursday 16th December

The shows follow the release of Faithfull's much-acclaimed Before the Poison album, which was in stores at the end of September.

Marianne will be performing with her new band featuring guitarist Barry Reynolds; Fernando Saunders on bass; drummer Courtney Williams and, on keyboards, Harry Waters.

The tour, which opens in Iceland next week, also includes dates in Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Ireland. The tour ends in London.

The shows also follow Faithfull's stellar stage appearances in The Black Rider, director Robert Wilson's celebrated and award-winning opera. The Black Rider â€" with a libretto by Beat novelist William Burroughs and music by Tom Waits â€" played to great acclaim at the London's Barbican Theatre through the summer of 2004. It later transferred to San Francisco for a phenomenally successful season that concluded at the start of October.

Aside from The Black Rider, Marianne Faithfull's last London concert appearance was in November 2002.

Before the Poison -- already one of the most celebrated albums in Marianne Faithfull's career -- features her songwriting and performing partnerships with PJ Harvey and Nick Cave, collaborations which have produced eight of Before the Poison's ten songs.document.write(unescape("