A SINGER-SONGWRITER who got his start busking and performing for free around Brighton is returning as his new tour begins. 

James Bay, 31, kicked off his Give Me the Reason tour on Friday. It will see him travelling across the country performing at venues he has not visited since before the pandemic. 

Among those venues is Chalk in Brighton where he will be on stage with his guitar and a live band, also for the first time since Covid. 

James rose to fame in 2014 when his second EP Let It Go reached the top ten in the iTunes chart, with its lead single of the same name peaking at number ten in the UK charts.

But, before he became internationally known, James attended Bimm (The British and Irish Modern Music Institute) right here in Brighton. 

James said: “Brighton is really dear to my heart, I spent a couple of years in Brighton busking and playing a hundred thousand open mic nights, not literally, but pretty close.

“I went to Bimm for almost two years, I was supposed to do three but my managers found me and I said ‘I’m coming with you’.

“Living in Brighton was my opportunity to discover myself as a bit of a solo artist because before that I’d just played in bands.

“For me as a solo artist, Brighton was where I decided ‘yeah I’m gonna have a go’.” 

He spent his days busking in The Lanes, collecting change in his guitar case.

He added: “Busking was often freezing cold, but it was The Lanes so I think for anybody particularly creative or artistic, The Lanes are incredibly inviting, they look inspiring.”

One evening in 2011, James was performing a song at Komedia, at a show organised by his teachers, when his life changed for good.

James said: “That room in Komedia, I played there in January, and that’s the room where my managers, who are still my managers today, discovered me.

“So, it was really cool being there, that was the first time I’d been back since 2011.”

This year James released his latest album, the first one since 2018. 

He kicked off his tour on Friday and will be performing across the country until the end of May when he goes international.

James will be performing on Tuesday, May 3 at Chalk.