John Lydon announces 2025 UK and Ireland spoken word tour

NME

John Lydon has today (September 4) announced details of a 2025 UK and Ireland spoken word tour – check out all the details below.

The punk musician will be doing a tour of the UK visiting England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales next autumn, 2025. This follows on from Lydon’s successful spoken word tour 2024 and the “phenomenal demand” for tickets, according to a statement.

Lydon’s 2024 ‘I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right’ UK tour began in May. The shows promised to see the singer deliver an “untamed, unscripted and uncensored” spoken word session.

A press release says next year’s events will see Lydon reflecting on “Sex Pistols, Public Image Limited (PiL), his art and his life’s story during informal evenings of conversation and audience questions.”

Speaking about the event, Lydon said: “I could be shit. I could be shite. I’m left-handed. John Lydon or John Rotten.”

Tickets for the events go on sale at 10am from September 6. Find yours here.

SEPTEMBER 2025
10 – Dundalk, RI – An Tain Arts Centre
11 – Cavan, RI – Town Hall Arts Centre
12 – Ballybofey, RI – Balor Theatre
13 – Dublin, RI – The Complex
19 – Leeds – City Varieties
20 – Nelson – Muni
22 – Isle Of Man – Gaiety Theatre
24 – Ilkley – King’s Hall
25 – Hull – City Hall
26 – Scunthorpe – Bath Halls
27 – Lytham St Annes – Lowther Pavilion
28 – Stockport – Forum

OCTOBER
1 – Buxton – Opera House
2 – Whitley Bay – Playhouse
3 – Hexham – Queens Hall
4 – Yarm – The PAA
5 – Middlesbrough – Theatre
8 – Langholm – Buccleuch Centre
10 – Dunfermline – Carnegie Hall
12 – Aberdeen – Tivoli
15 – Wrexham – William Aston Hall
16 – Sale – Waterside
17 – Cromer – Pier
18 – Dudley – Town Hall
22 – Spalding – South Holland Centre
23 – Hunstanton – Princess Theatre
24 – Bury St Edmunds – Apex
25 – Stamford – Corn Exchange
26 – Peterborough – New Theatre
29 – Runcorn – Brindley
30 – Mansfield – Palace
31 – Wellingborough – Castle

NOVEMBER
1 – Eastbourne – Devonshire Park
2 – Greenwich – Theatre
5 – Eastleigh – Thornden Hall
6 – Paignton – Palace
7 – Frome – Cheese and Grain
8 – Worcester – Huntingdon Hall
12 – Blackburn – King George Hall
13 – Cannock – Prince Of Wales
14 – Stratford Upon Avon – Playhouse
15 – Redditch – Palace Theatre
16 – Melton Mowbray – Theatre
19 – Barnstaple – Queens
21 – Launceston – Town Hall
22 – Swansea – Brangwyn Hall
24 – London Golders Green – Hippodrome

Lydon released a new album last year with PiL called ‘End Of World’, which was dedicated to his late wife Nora Forster, who died at the age of 80. She had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years and Lydon had been her full-time carer.

The album featured the song ‘Hawaii’ as its closing track, which Lydon had written as a “love letter” to Forster. The band had used the song in their bid to represent Ireland at this year’s  Eurovision Song Contest, but they lost out to Dublin quarter Wild Youth.

Lydon recently said he believes it’s “wrong” to credit Patti Smith and, more broadly, New York with punk’s origins – saying the UK did it first.

Smith was an essential part of the punk movement within the US with her 1975 debut album ‘Horses’. Lydon, however, claims that the UK is the actual birthplace of the genre with acts such as David Bowie, T-Rex, Sweet, The Clash, The Dammed and the Sex Pistols.

In an interview with The Sun, Lydon said: “I’ve heard an awful lot of American journalists pretending that the whole punk influence came out of New York. Well, hello? Bands like Sweet with ‘Ballroom Blitz’ and Mud with ‘Tiger Feet’ — that’s the do that, man!”

He continued: “T.Rex, David Bowie, Slade, Mott The Hoople, The Alex Harvey Band — their influence was enormous. And they try to write that all off and wrap it around Patti Smith. It’s so wrong!”

Meanwhile, Frank Carter and the Sex Pistols‘ Glen Matlock, Paul Cook and Steve Jones announced plans to play ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ in its entirety across several concerts.

Lydon won’t be performing at the shows. The musician lost a lawsuit against his former bandmates in 2021. 

Lydon recently said he thought immigration has created “division and animosity” in the UK.

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