Dexys Midnight Runners have announced their new album ‘Love’ with the wistful single ‘My Life In England Pt. 1’ – along with releasing more UK and European tour dates.
The pop group will join forces for what might be their final album, set to be released on September 4 via Heavenly Recordings. It’s the band’s first record under the name Dexys Midnight Runners since 1985’s ‘Don’t Stand Me Down’. The record has been produced by David Holmes (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds).
‘Love’ is set to touch on frontman Kevin Rowland‘s life, “from his 2nd generation Irish childhood and family relationships to late-life romance, loss and reconciliation”. Lead single ‘My Life In England Pt. 1’ follows this thread by reworking the band’s original version for their 2003 ‘Let’s Make This Precious’ compilation album.
Rowland explained: “It’s all memories of my own experiences. Pete, that’s my brother. In my book [Bless Me Father], I changed his name to Pat. There’s quite a lot of overlap with the book in this one. We were in England dreaming of America: it was pre-Beatles, so it was Elvis, it was Sonny Liston, Cassius Clay, clothes, all of it was America.
“In the second verse, I’m remembering being in a social club listening to everyone singing Kevin Barry,” he continued, referencing the Wolfe Tones song about the 18-year-old medical student and IRA soldier executed by the British government on November 1, 1920.
He went on to recall “my mum telling me ‘This song’s not allowed in England’. It was daytime, and all the curtains were drawn, everyone drinking, singing an illegal song. I remember thinking, Wow, yes, exciting! My childhood memories, I just wrote them down.
“You can’t really write on behalf of anybody else,” Rowland concluded. “Though I realised later that when I was growing up in north-west London, loads of the kids around there were second generation Irish. All obsessed with being up the front with the best clothes, with dancing to the new records.”
Take a listen to ‘My Life In England Pt. 1’ and see the full tracklisting for ‘Love’ below:
Dexys Midnight Runners’ ‘Love’ tracklist is:
‘My Life In England Pt. 1’
‘You’ve Got The Love’
‘Once A Man, Twice a Child’
‘You’re Alright’
‘I Want To Be Holding You Next Christmas’
‘I’ll Always Love You’
‘Strange Feelin’’
‘It’s Over Now’
‘Old Love’
‘My Life In England Pt. 2’
To celebrate, Dexys Midnight Runners have added an extra London show due to overwhelming demand for their upcoming 2026 UK and Ireland tour.
They’ll also embark on an intimate in-store tour, where fans can have the chance to have their vinyls signed and catch the band in stripped-back performances.
Take a look at the new dates below and get your tickets here:
Dexys Midnight Runners’ 2026 UK and Ireland tour is:
SEPTEMBER
04 – Glasgow, UK – Assai (signing only)
05 – Leeds, UK – Jumbo (signing only)
06 – Birmingham, UK – HMV (signing only)
07 – Nottingham, UK – Rough Trade (stripped back live performance)
08 – Bristol, UK – Rough Trade (stripped back live performance)
09 – Brighton, UK – Resident (stripped back live performance)
10 – London, UK – Rough Trade East (stripped back live performance + Q&A with David Holmes)
OCTOBER
04 – Stockholm, SE – Göta Lejon
06 – Gothenburg, SE – Pustervik
07 – Malmö, SE – Slagthuset Teater
10 – Berlin, DE – Passionskirche
11 – Paris, FR – Élysée Montmartre
20 – Glasgow, UK – Royal Concert Hall
21 – Newcastle, UK – City Hall
23 – Wolverhampton, UK – The Halls, University of Wolverhampton
25 – Manchester, UK – Opera House
27 – London, UK – Hackney Empire (NEW DATE)
28 – London, UK – Hackney Empire
30 – Cambridge, UK – Corn Exchange
NOVEMBER
01 – Brighton, UK – Dome
04 – Dublin, IE – Olympia
05 – Belfast, UK – Ulster Hall
06 – Galway, IE – Black Box Theatre
08 – Bristol, UK – Beacon
We last spoke to Kevin Rowland for our column, Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?!. In the interview, he opened up about once calling David Bowie “full of shit” and a “bad copy of Bryan Ferry”.
“Bowie had been at the back of the stage and heard it,” Rowland told us. “We were supposed to do two nights, but they didn’t want us back for the second.
“Apparently Bowie was really upset about it,” he added. “Many years later when I got into recovery from cocaine addiction, I wrote him a letter apologising, to make amends, and said if he ever wanted to talk about it, please contact me. I know he got the letter, but I didn’t hear back. But that’s OK.”
