Bruce, Taylor and You: Stereoboard's Guide To The Best Tours In The First Half of 2024
Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Written by Huw Baines
How’s the diary looking? Be honest. You could use a couple more dates with noise, lights, people, dancing, right? Couldn’t we all. Here, in an easily digestible month-by-month breakdown, we compile some of the must-see tours and shows for the first half of 2024, from zeitgeist-capturing pop mega-spectacles to gnarled rock ‘n’ roll road warriors and a host of next big things. See you out there.
February
Noah Kahan’s year is busy in a manner that would scramble the senses of most people. Following the sleeper hit trajectory of his ‘Stick Season’ album, the Vermont singer-songwriter will play massive shows across North America this summer — including a brace of sold out, headline-grabbing dates at Fenway Park in Boston — following runs in Australia and Europe, including UK and Ireland arena engagements in Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, Cardiff and London. There are more of those to come in August, too.
If your tastes skew more towards skeezy, retro-futuristic pop, though, The 1975’s ongoing, delightfully monikered Still... At Their Very Best Tour could be the one for you, with four nights at London’s O2 Arena slotted alongside two apiece at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Manchester’s AO Arena, with Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena also part of the running order.
Also in February: Rick Astley, Enter Shikari, Niall Horan, Kim Petras, Noname, D-Block Europe, Miles Kane, The Vaccines, Poppy, 6lack, You Me At Six, Jeff Rosenstock
March
Any lingering new year cobwebs will be well and truly blown away by a night in the company of Judas Priest, who are still capable of raising arena roofs with their combination of high-frequency metal pomp and irascible, galloping riffs. Rob Halford and company will release their 19th studio album, 'Invincible Shield', on March 8, adding further firepower to their arsenal in time for dates in Glasgow, Leeds, Dublin, Bournemouth, Birmingham and London, alongside openers Saxon and Uriah Heep.
Providing an unfailingly smooth R&B counter-argument is Ne-Yo, whose Champagne and Roses UK Tour is set to roll into Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Newcastle, London, Birmingham and Glasgow with the similarly slick Mario in tow.
Also in March: Knocked Loose, Chris Shiflett, Everything Everything, Holly Humberstone, Jake Bugg, James Blunt, Thundercat, The Hives, Sky Ferreira, The Stranglers, Yard Act, Noel Gallagher
April
Big rock shows require big personalities, and that’s where Jared Leto comes into his own. Following the release of Thirty Seconds to Mars’s ‘It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day’ last autumn, the Hollywood provocateur and his drummer brother, Shannon, will return to the road for arena gigs at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, Manchester’s AO Arena, Birmingham’s Utilita Arena, Cardiff’s Utilita Arena and The O2 in London, before heading across Europe and North America.
If you’re in the market for something a little more sedate, then the ever-reliable Take That will be bringing a few decades of hits to a room near you throughout the month as part of their This Life Under The Stars European Tour. The man-band are poised to call in Sheffield, Leeds, Dublin, London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Plymouth, Swansea, Bristol, Cork and Belfast. All these years later, demand for tickets proves they still have what it takes to get people excited.
Also in April: Declan McKenna, Sampha, Dave Matthews Band, Ellie Goulding, Johnny Marr, Lil Yachty, Paloma Faith
May
BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE! There’s still no-one out there doing it like Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, who will bring their heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, death-defying stadium throwdown to Cardiff, Belfast, Kilkenny, Cork, Dublin, Sunderland and London throughout the spring and summer, beginning in May at the Principality Stadium in the Welsh capital.
If your vibe is more pop-with-teeth then Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour — a massive four nights at The O2 alongside shows in Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham —is a good bet, and for those out their who like things epic Tool are set to get their prog on in a big way with stops at Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena, Manchester’s AO Arena and The O2 in London as part of a wider European tour in the long wake of 2019’s ’Fear Inoculum’.
Also in May: Nicki Minaj, Eagles, Elbow, Jane's Addiction, Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow, Alfie Boe, PVRIS, The Streets
June
Here be giants! June is just blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster, starting with Taylor Swift’s game-changing, stadium-conquering, cinema-enveloping Eras Tour landing for a run of shows at London’s Wembley Stadium either side of dates in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and Dublin, and across mainland Europe. It’s been a while since we’ve seen something like this in the wild.
Still, though, don’t count out this month’s stacked supporting cast, with Foo Fighters, Green Day and P!nk also set to hit stadiums, delivering endearingly woolly rock, ever-sprightly pop-punk and acrobatic spectacle between them. And all that’s before we get down to the business of Glastonbury, which will return to Worthy Farm between June 26 and 30, delivering the usual boatload of thrills and spills.
Also in June: Liam Gallagher, Doja Cat, Alvvays, Jess Glynne, Limp Bizkit, Pet Shop Boys, Sting, Sheryl Crow, The Killers, Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer, Manic Street Preachers and Suede, James, Nile Rodgers and CHIC, Madness
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