John Metcalfe | Tree

Born in New Zealand but made in Manchester, John was a member of cult post-punk band Durutti Column. Alongside Tony Wilson, he launched the pioneering Factory Classical on Manchester’s legendary Factory label whilst simultaneously cutting his clubbing teeth at the great city’s Hacienda. In addition to his solo output, he has collaborated with a huge range of artists from the worlds of music, dance and film including artists such as Peter Gabriel, Coldplay, and Blur. He has also performed and recorded with the Max Richter Ensemble. A classically trained violist, John has toured worldwide and recorded with his own Duke String Quartet. With his band, he has performed at major festivals and released 6 solo albums on labels such as Real World. ‘The Appearance of Colour’, (described as ‘effervescent, divinely beautiful’ by Clash magazine) is an exemplar of Metcalfe’s style, beautifully uniting the disparate strands of his kaleidoscopic musical world. John’s latest solo album, ‘Tree’, released by Real World Records in September 2023, gained radio play by the likes of Stuart Maconie and Deb Grant for 6Music and Sara Mohr-Pietsch on Radio 3.

More recently Metcalfe has composed music for an Italian production of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ working with Cirque du Soleil directors Lulu Haelbeck and Simone Ferrari. He created an orchestral show of Thin Lizzy’s music with the RTE Orchestra in Dublin and collaborated with Coldplay on their latest album ‘Moon Music’ who used a sample of ‘Root To Leaf’ from ‘Tree’ for their track ‘One World’.