If you follow Tom Bailey anywhere online you might have caught the little video message he sent out a couple of weeks back. Nothing fancy, just him saying he was “getting really excited now”, doing the maths out loud for everyone, two weeks till London, rehearsals, first show six days after that, sixteen concerts in all, and then asking, in the gentlest way, that if there is a date near you, please come along. Well, his maths has run out. Tonight is York.
Quick ones first, if you are deciding right now:
- Date: tonight, Saturday 26 September 2026.
- Doors: 6:30pm.
- Venue: York Barbican, Paragon Street, York, YO10 4NT.
- Tickets: through York Barbican.
- Also playing: Blancmange.
The Songs Are the Reason, Let’s Be Non Jealous
Hold Me Now. Doctor Doctor. In the Name of Love, Love On Your Side, If You Were Here, Lies, Lay Your Hands On Me, King for a Day, and he mixes in material from Science Fiction, the solo record. Anyone who was a teenager in the eighties does not need those titles explained, half of them are welded to some specific memory, a bedroom radio, a school disco, someone’s older sister’s tape. Hearing them played properly, live, by the man who wrote them is a different animal to the playlist version, and the reviews from this tour cycle keep saying so, the summer festival run he did alongside The Human League reportedly ended in a standing ovation night after night.
He has good company on stage too. Three musicians tour with him, and it is a proper multi-instrument setup rather than a backing track, Charlotte Raven is the one switching between keys and a cello mid-set, Paulina Szczepaniak sings from behind the drum kit, and Alice Offley covers the bass end plus keyboards. Between the four of them there are a lot of voices, which is roughly what those old records need.
And Blancmange Sharing the Night Is Its Own Draw
Neil Arthur carries the Blancmange name these days, and he goes back decades with Bailey, same scene, same era, same synths-and-irony school of British pop. Living On A Ceiling still gets rooms moving forty odd years on, and Blancmange put four singles into the top 20 back then. Two names from that one golden stretch of British music on a single York bill, on a Saturday, is not a common arrangement.
Worth saying for anyone younger who only half knows the name on the poster. Bailey stood on the Live Aid stage in Philadelphia, and the guitarist that day was Nile Rodgers, and Madonna was one of the backing singers, which is the kind of sentence you get to say about very few careers. His session work sits inside some enormous records as well, Foreigner’s biggest ballad among them, and a Grace Jones favourite. The eighties kept him busy, put it that way.
Doors at half six on Paragon Street then, and in his own words from that message, take care, and we’ll see you.