Back at it: Stereoboard's Pick Of 2022's Best Events
Wednesday, 02 March 2022
Written by Stereoboard
It’s not really been wise to make plans for quite a while now. But with Covid restrictions easing and a whole host of shows scattered across the rest of the year, it’s perhaps time to dig out the diary and get booking. Here we take a look at just some of the tours set to light up the rest of 2022, from pop giants and fashion icons to thunderous metal gods and goth legends. See you at the front.
MARCH
Spring is here, and with it the opening phase of a stacked run of major shows. Ed Sheeran will start on the road to a blockbuster summer on The + - = ÷ x Tour with warm-ups in Brighton at Concorde 2, on March 25 and 26, before five London shows, three at the Electric Ballroom and two nights at Alexandra Palace. His stadium trek across the UK and Europe gets underway soon after in support of his latest album, '=', with stops in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Belfast, Cardiff, Sunderland, Manchester, Glasgow and London, where he’ll play five nights at Wembley Stadium.
Alt-pop giants Bastille have been busy of late, releasing their new LP ‘Give Me The Future’ and playing a series of intimate shows. Later this spring their tour plans proper kick into gear with arena dates across the UK and Europe, including stops in Bournemouth, Hull, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham, Plymouth and Brighton. If the dancefloor is more your thing, then Dua Lipa’s much-delayed Future Nostalgia run might be the one for you.
It’s been a weird time for all of us, but The Killers have been spinning plates for years trying to get this tour off the ground. Since they first announced their Imploding The Mirage Tour back in 2020 the Las Vegas pop-rockers have reunited with guitarist Dave Keuning and released another record, 2021’s ‘Pressure Machine’, so it’s been a while coming. They’re now finally set to kick things off on May 24 at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium, with two nights at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in the diary on the way to two closing shows at Dublin's Malahide Castle on June 14 and 15. The supports are crazy good, with Manic Street Preachers, Sam Fender, Blossoms, and Supergrass all popping up.
Harry Styles is another artist who’s had to be patient, but his Love On Tour run is set to deliver quite the payoff when it gets moving this summer. The former One Direction star has enlisted Mitski, off the back of her stellar new record Laurel Hell, to open his massive stadium gigs, with second shows at Manchester's Emirates Old Trafford on June 16 and Wembley Stadium in London on June 19 recently inked into the running order alongside nights at Glasgow's Ibrox Stadium and Dublin's Aviva Stadium. If that doesn’t float your boat, then why not look into Liam Gallagher’s plans to rekindle the magic of Oasis’s Knebworth Stand or Foo Fighters getting back to what they do best with stadium shows following recent dabbling in film?
Two summers ago Haim’s ‘Women in Music Pt III’ was an expressive, joyful highlight in a bleak time. These dates have been in the offing for an age but they offer a chance to hear some of the most incisive, exciting pop songwriting around up close and personal, with the sisters Haim also well-versed in putting on a witty, high-energy, instrument-swapping show. Catch them in Dublin, Leeds, Glasgow, Nottingham, Cardiff, Manchester and London.
It doesn’t get much bigger than Coldplay’s summer stand at Wembley Stadium. Off the back of their new album 'Music Of The Spheres', which was released in October 2021, the pop-rock giants will bring their cache of ballads and prog-leaning new material to the home of English football for six nights, along with two similarly monstrous stadium shows at Glasgow's Hampden Park. They’ve been doing this stuff for a long time now, so you’re guaranteed something slick, bright and emotional.
Everything here so far a little tame for you? No problem, because Parkway Drive are on their way to crush venues across the UK this autumn. Following two previous postponements due to Covid, the Australian metalcore band will bring While She Sleeps along for the ride at shows at Alexandra Palace in London, Manchester’s AO Arena, Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena and Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena. Expect riffs, pyro and elite-level mosh calls.
Did someone say autumn? Enter Justin Vernon and Bon Iver to get the mood just right. After recently celebrating the 10th anniversary of their self-titled LP with two gigs at Los Angeles' YouTube Theater, and with Vernon’s work on Taylor Swift’s lockdown albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ still fresh in the memory, the indie-folk band will head to arenas in the UK and Ireland, with stops planned in Dublin, Leeds, Glasgow and Manchester before two nights at the OVO Arena Wembley in London.
Amy Lee and Sharon Den Adel will lead from the front on this massive metal double header, with Evanescence and Within Temptation set to end a long wait for this tour with stops at UK arenas in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds. It’s two enduring bands with stacked catalogues—Evanescence released ‘The Bitter Truth’ in March 2021, while Within Temptation put out ‘Resist’ in 2019—going toe-to-toe. What more could your inner goth want?
What more could your inner goth want, you say? How about The Cure rounding off a massive European tour with some frosty pre-Christmas arena shows? Catch them in Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff and London, where they’ve got three nights booked at the OVO Arena Wembley. Robert Smith and company will be joined by special guests The Twilight Sad. None more gloomy.
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