The Darkness announce new Motorheart album, UK tour with British Lion

East Anglian rock giants The Darkness have announced the release of Motorheart, the band's seventh studio album and the follow-up to 2017's acclaimed Easter Is Cancelled. It'll be released on October 15 via Cooking Vinyl, and is available to pre-order now.

A statement accompanying the release makes bold claims for Motorheart, promising that listeners will be "...instantly transported from this moaning and weeping vale of tears to Elysian fields of rock where all hands are raised, the drinks – just as in the Club Tropicana of yore – are free, and everyone wears a pleasingly salacious grin.

"Does it rock? Is the sun hot? Has your partner’s touch grown cold? The Darkness are the Orwellian boot stamping on the flaccid face of limp rock, forever!"

Sounds good to us.

The band have also announced a UK tour, which will kick off at the Brighton Dome on November 17 and climax with a pair of dates at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire before Christmas. Support will come from British Lion, led by Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris. Full dates below.

“The time has come, the walrus said... to put your fookin pants on your head and rock like Satan is eating your private parts with a pointy fork!" proclaims Darkness from Justin Hawkins. "Yes, we, The Darkness, are the fuck back on tour, praise Satan’s better half... come and party with us like it’s the last orders at the last chance saloon.

"Which it may well be, but I wouldn’t like to comment any further on that. Get in kids, it’s the Darkness, wot you knows and luvs, plus British Lion - Steve Harris’s top rock band who are guaranteed to blow your socks straight up your welcoming arses. What a night! Delirium! Outfits, including hats! Denim that smells of hamsters! Who doesn’t want that? See you down the front, connoisseurs of the finest that life has to offer..."

Tickets go on sale Friday June 11 at 10am.

The Darkness - Motorheart — (Image credit: Cooking Vinyl)

The Darkness: 2021 UK Tour

Nov 17: Brighton Dome
Nov 19: Margate Winter Gardens,
Nov 20: Bournemouth O2 Academy
Nov 21: Southend Cliffs Pavillion
Nov 23: Norwich UEA
Nov 24: Cambridge Corn Exchange
Nov 26: Reading The Hexagon
Nov 27: Cardiff The Great Hall
Nov 29: Exeter The Great Hall
Nov 30: Guilford G Live
Dec 02: Liverpool O2 Academy
Dec 03: Manchester Academy
Dec 04: Hull Bonus Arena
Dec 06: Stoke-on-Trent The Victoria
Dec 07: Bristol O2 Academy
Dec 09: Glasgow Barrowlands
Dec 10: Newcastle O2 Academy
Dec 11: Leeds O2 Academy
Dec 13: Nottingham Rock City
Dec 14: Birmingham O2 Academy
Dec 16: London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Dec 17: London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

The Darkness tour poster — (Image credit: The Darkness)

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.