DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS Announce New Album and Irish Tour Dates
By 
DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS
announce details of new album
LOVE
out 4th September 2026
on Heavenly Recordings
first single out now
‘My Life In England Pt. 1’
Watch the video HERE / Listen HERE
EU tour & UK in-store run announced +
extra dates added to UK & Irish tour including
4 November – Olympia, Dublin
5 November – Ulster Hall , Belfast
6 November – Blackbox Theatre, Galway
Having recently announced their signing to Heavenly Recordings, Dexys Midnight Runners have today announced details of their new album, LOVE, out on Friday 4th September 2026.
LOVE is a deeply personal and emotionally rich album that may mark the final chapter in Dexys Midnight Runners extraordinary musical journey. Their first release under the Dexys Midnight Runners name since 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down, LOVE gathers stories spanning Kevin Rowland’s life – from his 2nd generation Irish childhood and family relationships to late-life romance, loss and reconciliation.
Built around themes of love in all its forms, the album moves beyond traditional romance to explore ageing, memory and emotional connection. Produced by Belfast musician / DJ David Holmes, aided and abetted by Peter Schweir with additional contributions from long-time collaborators Sean Read, Mike Timothy, Jim Paterson and string arranger Brian Irving. The artwork & track listing of the album is as follows:
1. My Life In England Pt. 1
2. You’ve Got The Love
3. Once A Man, Twice a Child
4. You’re Alright
5. I Want To Be Holding You Next Christmas
6. I’ll Always Love You
7. Strange Feelin’
8. It’s Over Now
9. Old Love
10. My Life In England Pt. 2
Cat.Number: HVNLP239
Formats: DL, Black LP (Dexys store & general retail),
Yellow LP (indie stores only), Pink LP (Dexys Townsend Store)
& standard CD
Dexys Midnight Runners have also today shared a video for ‘My Life In England Pt.1’ the first single to be taken from the album. Talking about the track, Kevin Rowland said: “We put out a version of this song on a compilation album in 2003, but I felt we could improve on it. I wrote it a long time ago with Jim [Patterson], along with ‘My Life in England Pt. 2’. 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 [a song about 18 year-old medical student and IRA soldier Kevin Barry, executed by the British government on 1st November, 1920] and 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. 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.” Listen to ‘My Life In England Pt. 1’ HERE.
Additionally, having recently announced a UK and Irish tour, Dexys Midnight Runners have added a couple of extra shows due to demand. The dates will also be the first time Dexys, fronted by Kevin Rowland, have toured under the name of Dexys Midnight Runners since 2003, when they played a sold-out show at London’s Southbank Centre. The full list of dates is as follows:
04.10.26 – Gota Lejon – STOCKHOLM
06.10.26 – Pustervik – GOTHENBURG
07.10.26 – Slagthuset Teater – MALMO
10.10.26 – Passionkirche – BERLIN
11.10.26 – Elysee Montmatre – PARIS
20.10.26 – Royal Concert Hall – GLASGOW
21.10.26 – City Hall – NEWCASTLE
23.10.26 – The Halls, University of Wolverhampton – WOLVERHAMPTON
25.10.26 – Opera House – MANCHESTER
27.10.26 – Hackney Empire – LONDON
28.10.26 – Hackney Empire – LONDON
30.10.26 – Corn Exchange – CAMBRIDGE
01.11.26- Dome – BRIGHTON
04.11.26 – Olympia – DUBLIN
05.11.26 – Ulster Hall – BELFAST
06.11.26 – Blackbox Theatre – GALWAY
08.11.26 – Beacon – BRISTOL
Founded in Birmingham in 1978, Dexys Midnight Runners released three critically and commercially successful albums – Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (1980), Too-Rye-Ay (1982) & Don’t Stand Me Down (1985) and a string of top ten hits in the 1980s, including two number ones, ‘Geno’ (1980) & ‘Come on Eileen’ (1982).
Front person Kevin Rowland would go on to release both solo and further band albums, under the ‘Dexys’ name, including their 2012 ‘comeback’ album, One Day I’m Going To Soar, which came out to widespread acclaim and 2023’s The Feminine Divine, which made number 6 in the UK albums chart.
Rowland, one of the most individual and unique musical talents of the past 40 years, recently released his memoir, Bless Me Father.