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The UK leg of Smith’s tour has had eyebrows raising with its unexpected selections of towns and cities. He will perform at Scarborough Open Air Theatre (24 August), Bute Park, Cardiff (25 August), O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester (27 August), Brixton Academy, London (28 August), and Civic Hall, Wolverhampton (30 August).   

While major cities such as Manchester and London do not come as a surprise, the inclusion of Scarborough, and particularly Wolverhampton, will come as a relief for certain parts of the UK music industry. The Music Venue Trust’s recently released 2024 report highlighted how many areas had fallen from touring schedules in favour of the larger arena-hosting cities. Wolverhampton was named among 17 cities to no longer be included on primary or secondary circuits, a decline that has been four decades in the making.

Presale tickets will be available from 10am on Wednesday, 19 March, with fans being directed to Smith’s website to gain access. Otherwise, general sale for all stops begins Friday, 21 March, again at 10am. Over on the continent, the ‘Switch’ singer will have stops in various countries, including Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, and Norway, with a mixture of headline shows and festival appearances.   

The tour seems to be supporting his upcoming album, ‘Based on a True Story’, set to be released on March 28. Smith released the first single from the album at the end of January, with ‘Beautiful Stars’ drawing inspiration from The Matrix. Smith was approached for the role of Neo before Keanu Reeves eventually got the role, and the music video heavily references various elements, including the red and blue pill scene, which some took to be an allusion to personal growth after the 2022 Oscars controversy. 

Production on the album has been handled by Lexoskeleton, who worked with the ‘Men in Black’ singer on his surprise Coachella appearance last summer, and OmArr, a frequent collaborator on Smith’s film projects, including Bad Boys For Life, who has also worked with Jaden Smith. Smith announced the album last week, posting the tracklist on his Instagram, and saying “Been working on this project for a minute and I’m itchin’ to get it out to y’all.”

 

 

 

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Just on the dates announced alone, 2025 will be the 56-year-old’s most extensive year of touring since 1990. That year, he played 17 shows alongside Jeff Townes, a duo better known as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. With 26 confirmed on this side of the Atlantic, US fans are speculating on the possibility of a tour stateside too, given the absence of North American dates. 

As part of that hip-hop duo, Smith achieved a UK No. 1 with ‘Boom! Shake the Room’, spending two weeks atop the chart in 1993, and has secured ten Top Ten hits in the UK as both a group and solo artist. Whether his newest album matches those past successes remains to be seen; however his larger-than-expected back catalogue will mean that the A-lister will have plenty of hits to fall back on.

Our first ever show in Scarborough on the north east coast. Can’t wait for this!! @ScarboroughOAT

Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am, sign up here to access the presale https://t.co/dfMMb7IvMU pic.twitter.com/xGsVgqUgWd

— Sam Fender (@samfendermusic) March 7, 2022

Fender’s had a good week of it so far. Last Wednesday he bagged two of the most prized awards at the BandLab NME Awards, with the modestly titled Best Album in the World and Best Album by a UK Artist going to him, beating the likes of Little Simz, Halsey and Tyler, the Creator.

To be fair to him, he was more gracious about it than the award title suggests, admitting that he thought Little Simz should have won. Being interviewed at the time, Fender said that “I mean, it’s a bit too far really. It’s not the best album in the world: it was a good ‘un! I thought Little Simz was a little bit better, to be honest. She should have had the award. But, we’re here anyway, and we’ll take it. Thank you very much!“

The BandLab NME Awards aren’t the only people he’s attracting attention from either. Brian Limmond (AKA Limmy) was reportedly “over the moon“ after Fender name-dropped the Scottish comedian, quoting his version of the Star Wars theme (with lyrics) at the awards ceremony. He said that Limmond “has powered our lives”.

And fans of the popular web series Chicken Shop Date may be in for a surprise soon enough, what with its creator (Amelia Dimoldenberg) expressing her interest in getting Fender involved, saying “I really want to get him on my show Chicken Shop Date …. So I want to hang out with him and persuade him to go on a date with me…. I feel like [the BandLab NME Awards] is the perfect place to spot new dates, so I’m super-excited.“

If you’re interested in seeing Fender back in action, tickets for the Scarborough gig go on general sale this Friday at 9 am, and can be accessed from this link. If you want to be extra safe, registration for the 9 am pre-sale on Wednesday is open now at this link, so get booking while you can. And if you want to see where else Fender will be playing over the coming months, you can look on his website here.

Promoter Director Peter Taylor celebrated Gallagher’s appearance featured in GazetteHerald:

“We are thrilled to be announcing that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are heading to Scarborough’s fantastic Open Air Theatre. This is a huge coup for the town and we are delighted we have been able to make this happen.

“Noel is without question a British music legend and cultural icon who has written some of the biggest and best anthems of the last 30 years.

“Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is going to be an amazing night for Scarborough and we can’t wait to see the reaction to this great announcement.”

It seems that Gallagher will be making odd appearances here and there throughout the north of England this summer, with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds having already been confirmed at Blackpool’s ‘Lytham Festival’, see our article on it here.

Currently touring South America, the full UK tour can be viewed below:

16/3 – Luna Park – Buenos Aires

19/5 – Lollapalooza – Buenos Aires

21/4 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow

24/4 – AECC GE Oil & Gas Arena – Aberdeen

25/4 – Echo Arena – Liverpool

27/4 – First Direct Arena – Leeds

29/4 – Genting Arena – Birmingham

30/4 – International Centre – Bournemouth

3/8 – Open air Theatre –Scarborough

4/8 – Lytham Green – Lancashire

New album Chasing Yesterday follows the 2011 self-titled Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. In 2012 Noel Gallagher won the NME Godlike Genius Award.