Dexys Midnight Runners Announce New Album 'LOVE' With First Single My Life In England Pt.1
Tuesday, 26 May 2026
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Jake Walters
Dexys Midnight Runners have laid out plans for a new album.
Having recently signed to Heavenly Recordings, the Birmingham pop-rock band will release 'LOVE' on September 4, possibly marking the "final chapter" in their story. Produced by David Holmes, best known for his work with Primal Scream and Noel Gallagher, with help from Peter Schweir, and contributions from longtime collaborators Sean Read, Mike Timothy, Jim Paterson and string arranger Brian Irving, the album is inspired by frontman Kevin Rowland's life, from his childhood as second-generation Irish kid and family relationships to later-life love and loss.
It also marks the first studio record released under the name Dexys Midnight Runners since 1985's 'Don't Stand Me Down'.
Alongside the announcement, the band have shared the album's reflective first single, a re-recorded version of My Life In England Pt. 1, a song that originally featured on their 2003 compilation 'Let's Make This Precious: The Best of Dexys Midnight'. 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."
Founded in Birmingham in 1978 and best known for smash hit Come On Eileen, Dexys will tour the UK and Europe in the autumn, including two dates at London's Hackney Empire on October 27 and 28. They also have a run of intimate in-store signing sessions and stripped back performances in the diary for September.
Rowland has also released solo work and albums under the Dexys name, including 2012's 'One Day I’m Going to Soar' and 2023's 'The Feminine Divine'. He recently released his memoir, Bless Me Father.
'LOVE' tracklist:
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
Dexys Midnight Runners Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Sun October 04 2026 - STOCKHOLM Gota Lejon (Sweden)
Tue October 06 2026 - GOTHENBURG Pustervik (Sweden)
Wed October 07 2026 - MALMO Slagthuset Teater (Sweden)
Sat October 10 2026 - BERLIN Passionskirche (Germany)
Sun October 11 2026 - PARIS Elysee Montmartre (France)
Tue October 20 2026 - GLASGOW Royal Concert Hall
Wed October 21 2026 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE O2 City Hall
Fri October 23 2026 - WOLVERHAMPTON Civic at the Halls
Sun October 25 2026 - MANCHESTER Opera House
Tue October 27 2026 - LONDON Hackney Empire
Wed October 28 2026 - LONDON Hackney Empire
Fri October 30 2026 - CAMBRIDGE Corn exchange
Sun November 01 2026 - BRIGHTON Dome
Wed November 04 2026 - DUBLIN 3Olympia Theatre
Thu November 05 2026 - BELFAST Ulster Hall
Fri November 06 2026 - GALWAY Black Box Theatre
Sun November 08 2026 - BRISTOL Beacon
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