The Eels have announced more dates in the UK and Ireland on the back end of their European tour, which will come around to the UK again in mid-March 2008.

This announcement comes two weeks before the January 21st 2008 release of the Best of Eels rarities, ‘Meet The Eels: Essential Eels Vol. 1, 1996-2006′ and ‘Eels Useless Trinkets: B-sides, Soundtracks, Rarities, and Unreleased 1996 – 2006′ albums. The albums feature music recorded by the Eels over the course of their 10 year recording career, from their debut “Beautiful Freak” (released in 1996) to the more recent “Blinking Lights and Other Revelations”, as well as some rare gems that have never seen the light of day.

The albums will follow the release of a book written by Eels creator and front man Mark Oliver Everett (or ‘E’ as he’s more commonly referred to). The book, ‘Things The Grandchildren Should Know’, is out January 17th, 2008 and is a compelling, tragic, inspiring, original and very funny true story about a man who loses everyone he loves but somehow survives and learns to find joy in life again.

Pete Townsend describes ‘Things The Grandchildren Should Know’ as: “One of the best books ever written by a contemporary artist”.

Also look out for the repeat of ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’, the fantastic documentary the BBC filmed about E on his journey of discovery across America to learn about the father he never knew, Hugh Everett III, the quantum mechanic.

‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ will be aired again on January 22nd, 2008 on BBC 4 at 8pm GMT.

Eels UK Live Dates:

1st leg – all dates SOLD OUT
February 25 2008 – London, Royal Festival Hall
February 26 2008 – Birmingham, Town Hall
February 27 2008 – Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
February 28 2008 – Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
March 1 2008 – Gateshead, Sage
March 2 2008 – Brighton, Dome

2nd leg – NEW DATES

Tour dates and information could change! Go to the Eels Official Website for the latest information.

March 17 2008 – Dublin, Vicar St
March 18 2008 – Dublin, Vicar St
March 19 2008 – Belfast, Mandela Hall
March 21 2008 – York, Opera House
March 22 2008 – Sheffield, City Hall
March 23 2008 – Oxford, New Theatre
March 24 2008 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange

Here are links to four of the 12 videos featured on the bonus DVD of ‘MEET THE EELS: Essential EELS Vol. I, 1996-2006′, out Jan 21 2008. “Hey Man” is especially good. It’s got E’s dog, Bobby Jr, in it!

8 Souljacker Part I

9 Saturday Morning

10 Hey Man (Now You’re Really Living)

11 Trouble with Dreams

12 Dirty Girl (Live at Town Hall)

Eels Official Website

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives follows the lead singer of US rock band Eels, Mark Oliver Everett (E), on his journey of discovery across America to learn about the father he never knew, Hugh Everett III, the quantum mechanic. The BBC Four one hour documentary will premiere on Monday, November 26, 2007 at 9:00pm (GMT).

This year is the 50th anniversary of Hugh Everett’s most important contribution to science – a controversial theory of quantum mechanics that predicts the existence of Parallel Universes, one of the most fantastic scientific predictions ever to have been conceived.

Hugh wrote the theory as a young PhD student at Princeton University, but for 20 years it remained largely ignored by the scientific community. Faced with derision and rejection, Everett abandoned academia and forged a career in the American defence industry. It was only at the end of his life, that his visionary work began to be taken seriously.

Hugh died of a heart attack in his home in 1982 where his body was found by 19 year old son Mark. Even though they had lived in the same house, the two of them were alienated and Mark knew nothing about his father’s work.

“My father never, ever said anything to me about his theories. I was in the same house with him for at least 18 years but he was a total stranger to me. He was in his own parallel universe. He was a physical presence, like the furniture, sitting there jotting down crazy notations at the dining room table night after night. I think he was deeply disappointed that he knew he was a genius but the rest of the world didn’t know it.” – Mark Everett.

In this intelligent and imaginative film, the wry and charismatic Mark takes a journey back into his father’s life, meeting his old college pals, family friends and colleagues and takes a crash course in the weird world of quantum mechanics in order to understand his father’s mind blowing theory.

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives 1×60
Produced by Specialist Factual, BBC Scotland
Filmed, Produced and Directed by Louise Lockwood
26 November 2007

In other Eels news:

Eels are set to celebrate their 10-year anniversary with the release of their first ‘best of’ and ‘rarities’ collections, ‘Meet The EELS: Essential EELS Vol. 1, 1996-2006 (CD+DVD)’, and ‘Eels Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006 (2CD+DVD)’ out on 21 January 2008.

Read more about Eels Best Of and Useless Trinkets rarities.

Eels Official Website