Ex-cage fighter Kris Barras to visit West Midlands on world tour with blues-rock band

Former cage fighter Kris Barras is heading for the West Midlands with his barnstorming blues-rock band, fresh from a year during which they played the Royal Albert Hall and Download festival.

Barras, a fearsome MMA fighter until he turned to music in 2015, has been carving out a reputation as one of Britain’s hottest new guitar heroes thanks to tireless gigging up and down the UK.

The Kris Barras Band has also supported Jon Bon Jovi on the New Jersey legend’s Runaway To Paradise cruise in the Med, and have opened for the likes of Black Stone Cherry, Thunder and The Darkness.

Fresh off the back of recent album Death Valley Paradise, which made the Top 30 album chart, they’ll be playing on February 9 at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton as part of a UK tour.

“It’s been a long winter and I can’t wait to get back on the road and for us to rip it up on our biggest tour yet,” says Barras. “There are some venues we haven’t played for a long time and there are some venues and towns that we’ve never played at all.

“We wanted to give something back to those fans who have been asking us to play for years. We can’t wait to get out there and see the whites of those eyes in the crowd. We can’t think of a better way to kick the year off.”

Just before Christmas the band returned to VADA studios, where they recorded Death Valley Paradise, to film a session including a surprise cover of Lewis Capaldi chart-topper Forget Me and a piano version of their own Wake Me When It’s Over.

Tickets for the Wolverhampton gig are available from The Kris Barras Band.