Brandon Flowers announces the Thrasher solo tour covering North America, UK and Ireland, including Royal Albert Hall October 15. Lead single Plans drops June 26
Brandon Flowers announced a full headline tour of the UK, Ireland, and North America on June 24, 2026, in support of Thrasher, his third solo album and first since 2015’s The Desired Effect. The album is due August 21 via Island Records, and the first single, “Plans,” arrives this Friday, June 26. The UK leg of the tour includes a night at London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 15, marking Flowers’ first full performance at the venue since The Killers’ celebrated 2009 residency there, which was later released as the live album and concert film Live From The Royal Albert Hall.
UK and Ireland general sale tickets go on sale Friday, July 3 at 10am, with a presale available from Wednesday, July 1 at 10am for fans who pre-order the album. North American presale begins Thursday, June 25 at 10am, with general sale the same time on Friday, June 26.
Thrasher was recorded in Nashville with a lineup of revered session musicians: guitarist David Rawlings, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton, and Charlie McCoy, the 85-year-old harmonica player whose work appears on multiple Bob Dylan classic Nashville recordings. The combination of those names on a Flowers record is a clear declaration of intent: this is an artist making a specific and personal kind of music, rooted in American tradition rather than the arena-scale synth rock of The Killers.
What Flowers Said About the Album and Bruce Springsteen
The context behind Thrasher was established publicly at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards, where Flowers was presented with the Special International Award by Bruce Springsteen. In conversation with NME at the time, Flowers revealed that he had actually completed two solo projects. “I made two South West records, if you want to know the truth. One is a romantic South West record, and the other is a narrative South West record which picks up where Pressure Machine left off.”
He was specific about what Springsteen unlocked for him as a songwriter. “He gave me the permission to write about things that I actually know about and experiences that I’ve actually witnessed, that I’ve lived,” Flowers said. “There’s something powerful about that. When people hear it, it doesn’t matter where they are, they get it and they pick up the heart and the soul from it.” Both albums will arrive before the next Killers record, which Flowers described himself as “thrilled about” as well.
The Full Tour Routing and What Royal Albert Hall Means
The North American leg opens September 1 in Phoenix, Arizona, at The Van Buren, and moves through Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and Toronto before closing September 24. An Austin date at Zilker Park follows on October 2, with a Las Vegas show at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on October 6 before the UK and Ireland leg opens.
The UK leg runs October 14 in Bournemouth at the O2 Academy, then London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 15, followed by Bristol’s Beacon, Nottingham’s Rock City, Manchester’s O2 Apollo, York’s Barbican, Glasgow’s O2 Academy, and Birmingham’s O2 Academy before closing in Dublin at the Olympia on October 27.
The Royal Albert Hall date is the most historically loaded on the routing. The Killers’ 2009 shows there, recorded for Live From The Royal Albert Hall, remain among the most celebrated live recordings in the band’s catalog. A solo Flowers headline at the same venue 17 years later and in a completely different sonic register is exactly the kind of pointed, personal statement that Thrasher’s Nashville recording sessions suggest the album itself is trying to make.
