Queen legend Roger Taylor is coming to Swansea — and he’s picked the city to close his only UK tour of 2026.
The drummer, songwriter and singer will end his six-date autumn tour at the Swansea Building Society Arena on Tuesday 29 September, in his only Welsh show of the year.
The tour celebrates new album Violence Insane in a Beautiful World, released on 18 September on Columbia — his seventh solo record, and his first since 2021’s top-three album Outsider.
Before the Swansea finale, the tour visits Newcastle, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and London’s Roundhouse, where Taylor performed as a guest of Foo Fighters in 2011.
He will be joined on stage by his touring band, featuring keyboardist Spike Edney, supporting drummer Tyler Warren, multi-instrumentalist Tina Keys, bassist Neil Fairclough and guitarist Christian Mendoza.
The 3,500-capacity Copr Bay venue has pulled in a string of big names since opening in 2022, and was closing in on a million visitors at the end of last year.
The album announcement comes with a new single out today — Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) — featuring the Ndlovu Youth Choir from Limpopo, South Africa.
The choir first found global fame with a Zulu-language version of Bohemian Rhapsody, and feature on three of the new album’s tracks.
“They did the most incredible cover version of Bohemian Rhapsody, and it’s fabulous,” Taylor said. “We suddenly had the bright idea of asking them to sing on some of the tracks, which they did, and I think it’s transformed those songs.”
The 76-year-old said the album reflects on the violence and insanity of the modern world — but insists its tone is a hopeful one.
“It’s a beautiful world, you know,” he said. “And kindness is very important, I think, it seems to be forgotten quite a lot. So, that is basically the sort of underlying theme.”
Taylor wrote, produced, sang and performed almost everything on the album himself — the exception being a cover of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, which he calls “one of the greatest ballads ever written”.
With Queen, Taylor has sold more than 300 million albums, writing hits including Radio Ga Ga, A Kind of Magic and These Are the Days of Our Lives. He was awarded an OBE for services to music in 2020.
On returning to the road, he was typically modest: “I mean, do people want to see me live? I would hope some would. I thought I’d put a toe in the water.”
Fans who pre-order the album from the official store between 11am today and 11.59pm on Saturday 13 June will get exclusive access to the ticket pre-sale, with codes emailed out on Sunday 14 June.
The pre-sale runs from 10am on Monday 15 June until 11.59pm on Tuesday 16 June, before tickets go on general sale at 10am on Wednesday 17 June.
