After nearly two decades without a full album of original material, The Lemonheads are stepping back into the spotlight with a UK tour that feels less like a victory lap and more like a long‑awaited homecoming. Fresh from releasing Love Chant in late 2025 — a record that reasserted Evan Dando’s place as one of alternative rock’s most distinctive voices — the band will hit the road across the UK in September and October 2026.
And they’re not coming alone. Joining them as special guest is American songwriter Willy Mason, whose gravel‑warm delivery and folk‑leaning indie rock have earned him a cult following on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s a pairing that makes perfect sense: two artists who’ve always walked the line between tenderness and grit, melody and melancholy.
The run begins in Sheffield on 30 September before weaving through Bexhill, London, Norwich, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham, closing in Nottingham on 11 October. It’s a route that mirrors the band’s own history — sprawling, unpredictable, and stitched together by decades of reinvention.
UK Tour Dates 2026
30 Sept – Sheffield, Electric
01 Oct – Bexhill, Bexhill
02 Oct – London, Troxy
03 Oct – Norwich, UEA
05 Oct – Newcastle, Boiler Shop
06 Oct – Glasgow, SWG3
07 Oct – Manchester, Albert Hall
09 Oct – Bristol, Electric
10 Oct – Birmingham, O2 Institute
11 Oct – Nottingham, Rock City
Tickets are available now via thelemonheads.net.
Since forming in Boston in 1986, The Lemonheads have been a revolving door of collaborators orbiting around Dando’s unmistakable songwriting. Their early Taang! Records era was scrappy and loud; their Atlantic years delivered the melodic alt‑rock classics that defined a generation. It’s A Shame About Ray, Come On Feel The Lemonheads, and the evergreen “Into Your Arms” cemented Dando as a songwriter whose emotional clarity cut through the noise of the ’90s.
The years that followed were turbulent — breakups, reinventions, a detour fronting the MC5, and a pair of cult‑favourite Varshons records that stitched together covers from Leonard Cohen to GG Allin. Through it all, Dando remained a magnetic, unpredictable presence.
Love Chant arrived in 2025 as a reminder of what made The Lemonheads matter in the first place. Brooding, melodic, and sharpened by collaborations with J Mascis and Nick Saloman, the album finds Dando older, lower‑voiced, but still piercingly observant. It’s a record shaped by years of wandering — geographically and emotionally — and it lands with the weight of someone who’s lived every line.
The band’s influence has only grown in their absence. Artists like Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman have covered Dando’s songs in recent years, citing the intimacy and unvarnished honesty that have always been his trademarks.
Bringing Willy Mason along for the ride feels like a deliberate choice rather than a booking. His blend of folk storytelling, indie rock grit and punk‑tinged cynicism makes him an ideal foil for Dando’s melodic melancholy. Mason’s presence adds depth to the bill — a reminder that the lineage of alternative songwriting is alive, evolving, and still capable of surprising us.
For longtime fans, this run is a chance to reconnect with a band whose songs have soundtracked decades of growing up, falling apart, and starting again. For newer listeners discovering The Lemonheads through the artists they’ve influenced, it’s an opportunity to see a legacy still in motion.
Either way, Love Chant has opened a new chapter — and these shows promise to carry that momentum into something electric.
