Hope and Fury is out as Jackson’s dates fill up

Joe Jackson’s twenty-second studio album, Hope and Fury, is out now. The European leg of the tour of the same name opens in Cork on 24 September 2026 and continues through November across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and other territories, with some dates already sold out or reduced to low availability.

The English singer-songwriter discussed the record’s origins and the themes that shape it — childhood experiences, fury and hope. The same conversation confirmed a short Australian run early in 2027: the State Theatre in Sydney on 28 and 29 January, Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane on 1 February, and Hamer Hall in Melbourne on 3 February. The artist’s official website lists the full itinerary and confirms the album is available.

From Look Sharp! to the present

Jackson first broke through in 1979 with the single “Is She Really Going Out with Him?” and the album Look Sharp!, a sharp new-wave statement that announced a writer of cool observation and melodic clarity. I’m the Man followed the same year. Beat Crazy arrived in 1980, then the swing excursion of Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive in 1981. Night and Day in 1982 brought the top-ten hit “Steppin’ Out” and fixed him inside the Second British Invasion of the United States. He has moved between pop, jazz inflection and classical composition across a long career, and has received five Grammy Award nominations.

The discography now reaches Hope and Fury in 2026. Immediately before it sits the 2023 album Mr. Joe Jackson Presents Max Champion in ‘What a Racket!’, together with singles and live releases in the years around that set. Hope and Fury is therefore not a late surprise but the latest studio step in a catalogue that began nearly five decades ago and has refused to settle into one style. The title itself — hope held against fury — points to a writer still turning difficult weather into public songs.

Cork first, then the long road out

Irish halls come first. After Cork the route moves through the UK and Ireland before crossing into France, Germany, Italy and other European stops, all before the end of November. Ticket pressure is already visible on a number of those nights. Once the European work is done, the January and February Australian shows give the tour a second hemisphere — four performances across three cities, still some months off.

The Cork date was on the calendar earlier in September. What has settled since is the album’s firm release, the framing Jackson has given it in interview, the confirmed Australian halls, and the tightening inventory on the European list. None of that erases the older material that will fill parts of the set — the 1979 singles, the Night and Day songs — but it does mean audiences will hear the new work while it is still fresh from the studio.

What comes next is straightforward. The Cork gig is less than a fortnight away. The record is in circulation. The rest of the European dates and then the Australian ones will show how Hope and Fury sits on stage beside a catalogue that already runs from Look Sharp! to the present. How the new songs land live, and how they share a bill with the hits that first carried Jackson’s name, is the test still ahead.