Belle & Sebastian Announce First Australian Tour In Six Years

Scottish indie rock icons Belle & Sebastian have announced their long-awaited return to Australia.

After a six-year absence from our shores, the band will tour Australia this August with special guest, English singer-songwriter and Mercury Prize winner Badly Drawn Boy, who hasn’t made a trip down under in 20 years.

The tour begins at The Tivoli in Brisbane on Wednesday, 21 August, before heading to Sydney’s Enmore Theatre (Thursday, 22 August), Melbourne’s Palais Theatre (Friday, 23 August), Adelaide’s Hindley Street Music Hall (Sunday, 25 August), and wraps up at Perth’s Astor Theatre (Tuesday, 27 August).

You can sign up for the Early Bird pre-sale here before ticket availability opens on Tuesday, 7 May, at 9 am local time. The general ticket sale begins on Thursday, 9 May, at 9 am local time. You can find more ticketing information on the Destroy All Lines website.

Belle & Sebastian are touring in support of Late Developers, their twelfth album, which they surprise-released last January. Late Developers follows their 2022 album, A Bit Previous, while 2024 marks the 28th anniversary of the group’s debut album, Tigermilk.

“We had a lot of different musical ideas, but the main thing was having the confidence to follow the ideas where they would take you,” the band’s founding member, Stuart Murdoch, told The Music’s Steve Bell in an interview. “I'm always so happy being surrounded by this bunch of people that you know can take your idea and run with it.”

In a live review of the band’s show at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre during their last run in Australia, The Music’s Donald Finlayson wrote, “Murdoch's pop songs and musical narratives are always so quietly likeable, despite often focusing on seemingly banal subject matters,” before adding: “How lucky we are that Belle & Sebastian still carry the brightest torch for this bizarre and misunderstood genre.”

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN AUSTRALIAN TOUR

With special guest Badly Drawn Boy

Wednesday 21 August - The Tivoli, Brisbane

Thursday 22 August - Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Friday 23 August - Palais Theatre, Melbourne

Sunday 25 August - Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide

Tuesday 27 August - Astor Theatre, Perth