Sir Rod Stewart has confirmed that his touring career will end with a run of arena dates across the UK and Europe beginning in April 2027, closing a chapter that stretches back to his mid teens in the early 1960s.
The 81-year-old revealed the plans in an Instagram video on Monday the 28th of September, naming the closing tour ‘The Final Encore’. The UK dates are in Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London, and after an extensive European run the tour concludes in Hanover, Germany, in July 2027. The European leg opens in Dublin and includes stops in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Munich and Prague, with the final show on the 24th of July.
Addressing his audience directly, Stewart said “The Final Encore will most definitely be my last” and thanked fans for the life that touring had made possible for him.
His 2026 North American ‘One Last Time’ tour was interrupted by several medical issues, including a coronary stent procedure that led to the cancellation of the remaining August dates.
The decision does not amount to a full retirement as Stewart has not ruled out occasional one off performances, and further studio releases remain possible.
The tour brings to a close one of the most durable live careers in British popular music. Before establishing himself as a solo artist, Stewart moved between groups including Jimmy Powell and the Five Dimensions, Steampacket and Shotgun Express, before joining the Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. His solo career gathered pace at the end of the 1960s, and after the chart topping ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ in 1971, all but one of his 29 studio albums have reached the UK Top 10. The most recent, ‘Swing Fever’, made with Jools Holland in 2024, reached number one, proving he had not lost any of his original musical spark.
His sustained commercial success helps explain the level of attention surrounding these dates, with fans desperate to see Stewart just in case he is truly saying farewell. Stewart has spoken of departures before, having suggested in 2022 that touring was nearing its end, and audiences have learned to treat such statements with caution, though long-time fans will not want to risk missing out. On this occasion the language is unambiguous, and the scale of the itinerary suggests a deliberate and carefully planned farewell.
For those who have followed him from the pub circuit and the Faces era through to stadium tours and the Great American Songbook, The Final Encore offers a last opportunity to see him perform across Britain and the continent.
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