QUEEN LEGEND ROGER TAYLOR ANNOUNCES 2021 UK SOLO TOUR ALONGSIDE BRAND NEW ALBUM
Roger Taylor - Picture by Xavier Vila
Queen drummer and all round rock icon Roger Taylor has today made the surprise announcement that he will embark on an intimate UK solo tour this Autumn.
The tour marks his first live performances outside Queen in over two decades, Taylor will tour the UK throughout October 2021 playing 14 shows that will coincide with the release of his latest solo album, ‘Outsider’ on 1st October.
The album is Roger’s first album of new material since 2013’s ‘Fun On Earth’. Over the last decade, the drummer has also released the occasional solo track reflecting on his worldview and observations in songs like Journey’s End and Gangsters Are Running This World. His most recent was Isolation, which was written and recorded in response to the first lockdown last year.
Check out the official video to Isolation below:
As the songwriter of many of Queen’s biggest hits and much-loved tracks including A Kind of Magic, Radio Ga Ga, I’m In Love With My Car, Sheer Heart Attack and These Are the Days of Our Lives, while also being one of rock’s most distinctive vocalists, Taylor promises a solo tour with an enthusiastic foray into Queen and his own classic catalogues, while also including new songs written in lockdown that feature on the multi-instrumentalist’s new Outsider album.
“For some time now, we’ve all just been trying to get by,” says Taylor. “Now, it’s back to the basics, myself and some great musical pals getting back out there to play some rock. Obviously we’ll include some of the Queen classic catalogue, and some of my earlier solo work, but we’ll also be introducing them to some of the new stuff. So we hope folks are going to come on down.”
Taylor’s 2021 tour will open at Newcastle’s O2 Academy on Saturday 2 October, followed by dates across the UK that conclude at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Friday 22 October.
The rock legend will perform with a specially assembled band for the tour made up of Queen + Adam Lambert’s keyboardist Spike Edney and supporting drummer Tyler Warren, plus guitarist Jason Falloon and Goldfrapp live players keyboardist Angie Pollock and bassist Charlie Jones.
On recording the Outsider album after Isolation Taylor says: “I’ve had a bit of a creative spurt and suddenly found myself with an album, which was lovely. It was a surprise! “
I just found myself in the studio and they came out one after the other. It was a pleasure really.”
A highly personal project, Outsider’s instrumentation is almost entirely performed by Taylor, with his largely restrained vocals matching the album’s contemplative ambience. But Taylor does cut loose along the way with a foray into some hard-riffing blues-rock as well as an adrenalin charged BIG surprise retread of a classic 1965 novelty song, which is exactly the fun on earth we need in these challenging times.
Ticket pre-sale starts at 10am on Tuesday 8 June. Click here for details.
Brand new album Outsider is released by Universal on 1 October 2021.
Fans that pre-order the album via Roger’s official site before 4PM on Monday 7 June will get advanced and early access to pre-sale tickets to the tour!
