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 track listing of the album is as follows:
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
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.
Watch ‘My Life In England Pt. 1’ BELOW.
Additionally, having recently announced a U.K. and Irish tour, Dexys Midnight Runners have added an extra London show due to demand and make a number of in-store appearances the week of album release which include a mix of signing and stripped back performances.
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:
In-store appearances
04.09.26 – Assai – GLASGOW (signing only)
05.09.26 – Jumbo – LEEDS (signing only)
06.09.26 – HMV – BIRMINGHAM (signing only)
07.09.26 – Rough Trade – NOTTINGHAM (stripped back live performance)
08.09.26 – Rough Trade – BRISTOL (stripped back live performance)
09.09.26 – Resident – BRIGHTON (stripped back live performance)
10.09.26 – Rough Trade East – LONDON (stripped back live performance + Q&A with David Holmes)
…………………….
04.10.26 – Gota Lejon – STOCKHOLM
06.10.26 – Pustervik – GOTHENBURG
07.10.26 – Slagthuset Teater – MALMO
10.10.26 – Passionskirche – 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
Remaining tickets for the shows are available HERE.
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 U.K. albums chart.
Rowland, one of the most individual and unique musical talents of the past 40 years, recently released his memoir, Bless Me Father.
Dexys Midnight Runners are: Kevin Rowland (vocals), Sean Read (keyboards and backing vocals), Mike Timothy (keyboards and backing vocals), Lucy Morgan (violin), Timothy Weller (drums), Janelle Martin (backing vocals), Olli Martin (trombone).
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