Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott announce huge winter UK tour
Billy Bragg will support the former Beautiful South duo
By Joe Goggins
Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have announced plans for a winter UK tour, with Billy Bragg joining them in support.
The pair, formerly of The Beautiful South, will take their old band’s back catalogue, plus their own collaborative one, to 12 venues across the country in November and December. The duo will take in shows in Swansea, Llandudno, Blackpool, Bridlington, Glasgow, Stockton, Portsmouth, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester, before wrapping up with a massive show in the capital at the O2 Arena. The full dates and details are below.
Support will come from politically-charged stalwart Billy Bragg, who joins the duo on all 12 dates. Whilst the Bard of Barking remains out on the road in support of last October’s tenth solo studio album, The Million Things That Never Happened, Heaton and Abbott will be drawing from N.K-Pop, their fifth full-length collaborative effort, which is due for release on October 7. They’ll doubtless also air tracks from 2020’s Manchester Calling, with the COVID-19 pandemic having prevented them from taking that full-length on tour in earnest. It went to number one on the UK album chart just weeks before the first lockdown.
Tickets are on sale on September 1 at 9:30am. All tickets have a face value of £30, a modest sum in the current arena climate but one in line with the two-piece’s politics. Back in May, Heaton turned 60, and with work on N.K-Pop preventing him from his traditional birthday celebration of riding a bike cross-country in order to visit his favourite pubs, he instead drew up a list of 60 choice hostelries and put cash behind the bar for locals to enjoy a free pint on him.
Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, November 2022:
26 – Swansea, Arena
27 – Llandudno, Cymru
28 – Blackpool, Opera House
December 2022:
1 – Bridlington, Spa
2 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
3 – Stockton, Globe
5 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
6 – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
8 – Birmingham, Resorts World Arena
9 – Sheffield, Utilita Arena
10 – Manchester, AO Arena
17 – London, O2 Arena