Simple Minds stake five decades on Sacrosanct

Simple Minds have set their nineteenth studio album, *Sacrosanct*, for release on 29 January 2027 through BMG, and released the lead single *Beginner Boys* alongside it. The announcement, made on 3 September 2026, also confirmed the V Tour 2027, framed as the band’s biggest arena run to date and a celebration of five decades.

*Sacrosanct* follows *Direction of the Heart*, released in 2022. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill wrote and recorded the new record. Kerr described the title as a reflection of nearly fifty years of songwriting as a pair, saying it feels “closer to faith” than a career. *Beginner Boys* explores strength, tenderness, courage and gentleness amid mixed cultural signals; Kerr said the song draws inspiration from watching his twin grandsons grow up. Pre-orders are available through the band’s official store.

From Glasgow to the arenas

Formed in Glasgow in 1977, Simple Minds built their name through a run of early-eighties singles that still define the catalogue for many listeners: *Promised You a Miracle*, *Glittering Prize*, *Someone Somewhere in Summertime* and *Waterfront*. The mid-decade commercial peak brought *Alive and Kicking* and *Sanctify Yourself*, while the 1985 single that topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States sealed their international reach. *Belfast Child* gave them a UK number one in 1989; *Let There Be Love* and *See the Lights* followed in 1991. The core of the band has long been Kerr and Burchill, the same partnership that has now delivered *Sacrosanct*.

The recorded trail runs from the late-seventies debuts *Life In a Day* and *Reel to Real Cacophony* through *Empires and Dance*, *Sparkle in the Rain* and *Once Upon a Time*, and into recent live and archival releases including *New Gold Dream – Live From Paisley Abbey* (2023) and *Live in the City of Diamonds* (2025). *Sacrosanct* sits as the next full studio statement after a stretch in which live documents and singles have kept the name active between albums.

The V Tour 2027

The tour opens in Australia and New Zealand in December, then moves to Europe in September and reaches the UK and Ireland later that month. Confirmed dates on the home leg include the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on 12 September, The O2 in London on 15 September, Utilita Arena in Birmingham on 17 September, 3Arena in Dublin on 19 September and further dates across the continent.

Tickets for the UK and Ireland shows go on sale on 11 September 2026. The scale — arenas across the British and Irish circuit, a full European swing and an Australasian opening — matches the five-decade framing the band have given the tour. For a group whose catalogue still turns on those early-eighties anthems and the mid-decade chart years, the combination of a new studio album and a major arena itinerary is the clearest signal yet of how they mean to mark the anniversary on stage and on record.

What remains is the album itself in January and the first nights of the tour in December. Until then, *Beginner Boys* is the public introduction to the new material, and tickets going on sale on 11 September 2026 are the immediate next step for audiences in the UK and Ireland.