Prior to the release of UK and European tour dates, Jamiroquai took to social media to post a cryptic short video of a spark creating the band’s iconic logo. In this video, many fans took to the comments section to guess what the legendary acid jazz band were about to announce. Many believed it would be an announcement of a new album, or a possible Glastonbury headline set. Few guessed a new tour, given the band’s break from live shows for half a decade.

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The tour titled ‘The Heels of Steel Tour’ will commence in Barcelona at the Palau Sant Jordi, followed by a run of European shows in France, Italy, The Netherlands and more, before embarking on shows across the UK, including: London’s prestigious O2 Arena and Manchester’s newly erected CO-OP Live.

Jamiroquai are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. They rose to acclaim during the 1990s due to their prominent presence in the decade’s acid jazz movement. Featuring Jay Kay as lead vocalist, who also remains the only original member of the group during various line-up changes, Jamiroquai are known for their most prevalent tracks ‘Virtual Insanity’, ‘Cosmic Girl’ and ‘Canned Heart’. The group cleverly delved into socially conscious lyricism whilst building their sonic sound. A sound that comprised acid jazz with flares of rock, disco and electronic subgenres.

A press release for the tour suggested the 2025 tour suggested the band were “ready to continue their legacy – bringing back fan favourites and debuting fresh new sounds”.

With 15 BRIT nominations, four Number 1 albums and nine singles that have reached the Top 10, Jamiroquai’s forthcoming tour is highly anticipated and further illustrates the demand for disco-fused jazz within the UK. The press release revealed: “this tour promises to be the next evolution of one of music’s greats”.

Introducing… The Heels of Steel Tour! Coming to the UK & Europe in 2025. See you on the road! Register here for pre-sale access: https://t.co/UgqfgACmkM (on sale Weds 20th Nov at 9AM GMT). Tickets go on general sale Fri 22nd Nov at 9AM GMT. pic.twitter.com/tVkFxQElxE

— Jamiroquai (@JamiroquaiHQ) November 18, 2024

To accompany the announcement of ‘The Heels of Steel Tour’, frontman Jay Kay declared: “One Man’s mission, for 30 years and counting, to put groove music in YOUR LIFE. Will you join us in the fight to Let The Disco Stay The Same – to conquer all your inner fears and boogie like NEVER before? DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES to heal the world through MUSIC? DO YOU HAVE THE HEELS OF STEEL?”

Tickets to the forthcoming tour go on sale Friday 22 November, and can be accessed here.

The announcement today revealed that Jamiroquai  will headline the family-friendly festival, which will be a UK exclusive from the funk-pop favourites, who will be taking to the main stage, on the Saturday (13 July) night. Meanwhile, the legendary Grace Jones is set to join them at the top of the bill, taking to the stage, on Sunday (14 July) night. Her performance at this year’s OnBlackheath comes five years after she made her debut at the festival.

Joining headliners Jamiroquai, on the Sunday night, at this year’s OnBlackheath festival will be The Roots, James Morrison, Jacob Collier, SG Lewis, Soul II Soul, Incognito, and Swing Out Sister, with more still to be announced. Meanwhile, the following names have also been revealed to be joining, the already stellar line-up and headliner Grace Jones is Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell and Astro, Morcheeba Aswad, The Brand New Heavies – who will all be taking to the stage on Sunday (14 July) night.

Speaking about OnBlackheath on social media, festival organisers, said: “ONBlackheath returns for 2019 on a brand new weekend in the height of Summer on 13 – 14 July 2019! We promise a weekend full of stellar music, fantastic food from Street Feast and a full array of family activities and entertainment for all ages. ONBlackheath is all about spending time with your family and friends so there will be as much for the smaller family members as mums and dads.”

ONBlackheath has been a staple on London’s festival scene since 2014, previously hosting the likes of Madness, Massive Attack and Primal Scream. Also taking up residency at the festival is, Street Feast, who run London’s greatest day and night street food markets, will offer a dazzling array of food and drink at this year’s festival – foodies, rejoice!

Alongside the music, OnBlackheath, offers an array of family entertainment, which will take place, in The Family Playground area, with TV stars Mister Maker and Andy Day and his band Andy and the Odd Socks for the kids, as well as everyone’s favourite teddy bear Sooty holding his very own Birthday Bake-Off, presented by Bonnie Spencer.

Also on-site at the Family Playground will be bestselling author Sam Copeland and Roald Dahl Funny Prize winner Jim Smith, along with masters of hilarity Comedy Club 4 Kids and The Flying Seagull Project. Interactive musical fun will come courtesy of Boppin’ Bunnies and The Pop Bingo Disco, along with some astonishing visual displays from The Science Museum and Samsam Bubbleman’s Giant Bubble Show. Other family activities include the Science Museum’s slime workshops, interactive game zones with The Actual Reality Arcade and Albion Kids Show Soft Play and Pirate Ship, arts and crafts workshops with Daemon or Doppelganger? and OTHERWORLD ARTS as well as going up close with a range of extraordinary animals at Maynard’s Mini Zoo.

The deep line-up will also include Andy C, Jake Bugg, Slaves, Patrick Topping, Wild Beasts, Roger Sanchez, Becky Hill, Solardo, TQD, Theo Kottis, Tom Grennan, Cadenza and Youngr.

Boardmasters’ Andrew Topham expressed delight and eager anticipation for the festival in a statement, saying, ‘We are hugely excited to announce our three headliners and other world-class musical talent as part of what’s shaping up to be the best Boardmasters line up yet. Every year, the biggest names in music and surfing keep Cornwall firmly on the map as the festival continues to go from strength to strength. Boardmasters has an incredible community of dedicated fans who we look forward to welcoming everyone back for another summer of awesome surf and music action on two amazing sites – Fistral Beach and Watergate Bay.’

The news comes just a week after funk icons, if that’s the right word, Jamiroquai announced they would return with a string of overseas dates in Japan, South Korea and continental Europe between May and August. They also shared a teaser video for their forthcoming eighth album, ‘Automation’, which is expected to be released at some point this year. The video features a new item of wacky headwear for the notoriously bonneted and eccentric frontman Jay Kay. You can check out the video below, as well as the full list of the band’s tour dates:

25/5 – Tokyo International Forum – Tokyo
28/5 – Seoul Jazz Festival – Seoul17/6 – Release Athens Festival – Athens
9/6 – North Sea Jazz – Rotterdam
11/7 – Firenze Summer Festival @ Visarno Arena – Florence
14/7 – Pori Jazz – Pori
16/7 – Musilac – Aix-Les-Bains
18/7 – Moon & Stars – Locarno
22/7 – Colours of Ostrava – Czech Republic
5/8 – Sudoeste – Portugal

Jamiroquai aren’t the only Boardmasters headliner with a new album due to be released this year; Alt-J will release their as yet untitled third album later this year. The exact release date is unknown but based on the festival dates the band have lined up this year, speculation is rife that it will be some time before their first set, at INmusic festival on the 19^th June. You can check out the full list of their announced festival dates at the bottom of this article. As for the sound of the new album, drummer Thom Sonny Green was rather cryptic as he told NME, ‘There’s been a lot of ideas. We’re very excited about it, I think it’s going to be pretty interesting. I feel like it’ll be different, but I don’t know. It’s funny – we write together so well and it comes pretty naturally and pretty quick, but I can’t predict it. We write what we feel.’

19-21/6 – INmusic Festival – Zagreb
23-25/6 – Southside Festival – Tuttlingen
23-25/6 – Hurricane Festival – Scheessel
29/6-2/7 – Rock Werchter – Rotselaar
6-8/7 – Mad Cool Festival – Madrid
6-8/7 – NOS Alive – Algés
6-8/7 – Pohoda Festival – Trencin
12-17/7 – Electric Castle Festival – Cluj-Napoca
19-22/7 – Colours of Ostrava – Ostrava
28-30/7 – Panorama Festival – New York
17-19/8 – Pstereo Festival – Trondheim
18-20/8 – Lowlands Festival – Biddinghuizen
1-2/9 – Popaganda – Stockholm

The festival will be held between the 9^th and the 13^th August at Fistral Beach on Watergate Bay in Cornwall. Tickets are on sale now, available from the Boardmasters website here.

The band’s summer stretch will begin in the land of the rising sun in late May, before heading westwards, and culminating in Portugal at the beginning of July, though unfortunately there have been no dates confirmed for the UK or Ireland at the point.  The full list of dates can be found below.

International Forum- Tokyo, Japan- Thu May 25 2017
Seoul Jazz Festival- Seoul, South Korea- Sun May 28 2017
Release Athens Festival- Athens, Greece- Sat June 17 2017
North Sea Jazz- Rotherdam, Netherlands- Sun June 9 2017
Firenze Summer Festival- Visarno Arena, Florence, Italy- Tue July 11 2017
Pori Jazz- Pori, Finland- Fri July 14 2017
Musilac- Aix-Les-Bains, France-Sun July 16 2017
Moon & Stars- Locarno, Switzerland-Tue July 18 2017
Colours of Ostrava- Czech Republic- Sat July 22 2017
Sudoeste- Portugal- Sat July 5 2017

To add to this, the band recently uploaded a teaser video for their new album, title Automation, which will see release later this year. Jay Kay and co. haven’t released an album for nearly seven years, since 2010’s Rock Dust Light Star, and over the years the band have amassed four UK number one albums, as well as totalling over 26 million records sold worldwide.