QUEEN and ADAM LAMBERT have announced they are to play an extensive tour of the UK and Europe early in the New Year.

In what is certain to be among next year’s most sought out music events, Queen and Adam Lambert will reign over a six-week long set of dates across Europe beginning mid January.

Having only earlier this month wound down a sold out world tour taking in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and outdoor festival stops in Korea and Japan, Queen and Adam Lambert are sparing no time in taking their critically-hailed partnership back on the road.

Coming two years after May, Taylor and Lambert last performed a short tour together of the UK and Europe, this lengthier outing will see Queen andopllllllllhttp://www.brianmay.com/queen/queennews/queennewssep14.html#78http://www.brianmay.com/queen/queennews/queennewssep14.html#78 Adam Lambert perform 21 shows in 10 countries. The band’s tour opens in the UK at Newcastle Arena on January 13 and will see the band play a total of seven shows across the UK including London’s O2 Arena. The tour then takes in France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Denmark, and Czech Republic and ends February 19 in Switzerland at Zurich’s Hallenstadion.

Tickets for the UK shows will go on sale from 9.00am this coming Friday, 3rd October. All other concerts across Europe are on sale same time excepting Germany where sales begin the following day, Saturday October 4. Tickets available from venues and usual outlets.

Reaction to the dates is expected to equal that seen at the announcement of their US shows where an on-sale rush for tickets saw the band sell out 24 dates in record time. Queen and Lambert matched the expectations, winning glowing reviews from fans and critics alike:

“Guaranteed to blow your mind, indeed”. (Entertainment Weekly)

“We were rocked, Queen is still the champion, and Lambert is a skilled voice to ensure that their music will remain live for a generation of fans”. (VH1)

“Rejuvenated Queen reigns supreme. Bow down fans, your new Queen is worthy of your love and devotion”. (Edmonton Journal, Canada)

“Queen guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and newcomer Adam Lambert blew the roof off in an energetic rock extravaganza which pulled no punches. Their extraordinary musical talent showed no signs of waning”. (The Daily Telegraph, Sydney).

“Queen and Adam Lambert delivered just over two hours of pure sensation straight into the nerves and bones of anyone fortunate enough to witness it. Freddie may be gone, but he would surely approve”. (Brisbane Times)

“Did they rock us? Oh YES!” (New York Daily News).

Queen first teamed up with Adam Lambert in 2009 to perform the band’s rock anthem “We Are the Champions” on “American Idol’s” season’s eight finale. Lambert and Queen partnered again in 2011 at the MTV European Music Awards in Belfast. In the summer of 2012 they performed their first live concerts together with three sold-out shows in the UK at London’s Hammersmith Apollo as well as concert appearances in Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

A further one-off performance together at the IHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas last September at which they effectively stole the show triggered a conversation between Adam, Roger and Brian to take the show on the road. Hollywood Reporter exclaimed, “Adam Lambert, Queen bring down the iHeart house. With the perfect mix of rock attitude mixed with style, theatricality, sex appeal and impressive vocal gymnastics, [Lambert] took the band’s music to new heights.”

Now the winning combination of Queen + Adam Lambert follows with what will surely be an equally triumphant tour of the UK and Europe. And Lambert is keen to alert fans of the show changes that can be expected.

“On the technical side, it’s definitely more of a production than two years ago,” he says. “We’ve had a lot more cities to visit and so I think we all decided to build up the visuals and the stage accordingly, and of course we do all the hits.” “We have a very interesting set design,” says Brian May. “It’s big and daring. We’re going to do it to the max.” he says. “Each time we’ve worked with Adam with our music, he’s just the most incredible front man,” Roger Taylor says. “He’s sensational. He has this amazing range, ’cause Freddie had a great range. Adam can really cover it. He’s an extraordinary singer and a real talent. I feel he fits into our sort of theatricality. It is very comfortable.”

As for the future, it would seem the Queen + Adam Lambert partnership is likely, for now, to remain limited to their live collaborations. Lambert is currently in the final stages of writing and recording his third album. May and Taylor are getting ready their forthcoming album, Queen Forever, a new compilation set which includes previously unreleased material recorded with Freddie Mercury, released November 10.

Queen has amassed a staggering list of sales, awards, and hall of fame inductions that is second to none. Record sales in the hundreds of millions of units, including an unprecedented string of number one albums and top-charting singles, continue to put Queen in the top ten of all-time iTunes sales. Earlier this year Queen were officially recognized as the first artist ever to sell over six million copies of an album in the UK with their Greatest Hits album, beating out even the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper by close on a million copies, pointing to the astonishing fact that at least one in three British households now own a copy of the band’s original Greatest Hits collection.

Adam Lambert’s stunning performances on the eighth season of American Idol are still widely regarded as some of the most riveting moments in the show’s history. His debut album For Your Entertainment earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. His second album, Trespassing, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. His subsequent tour took Lambert from Australia to South Africa, throughout Asia and Eastern Europe and culminated in a sold-out arena show in Helsinki, Finland. In 2013, Lambert appeared as a guest star on the hit TV series, GLEE. He is currently in the final stages of writing and recording his third album.

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT – UK and EUROPE TOUR DATES 2015
UK
Tue 13 January NEWCASTLE Arena
Wed 14 January GLASGOW Hydro
Sat 17 January LONDON O2 Arena
Tue 20 January LEEDS Arena
Wed 21 January MANCHESTER Arena
Fri 23 January BIRMINGHAM NIA
Sat 24 January NOTTINGHAM Arena

EUROPE
Mon 26 January PARIS Zenith
Thu 29 January COLOGNE Lanxess Arena
Fri 30 January AMSTERDAM, Ziggo Dome
Sun 1 February VIENNA Stadhalle
Mon 2 February MUNICH Olympiahalle
Wed 4 February BERLIN O2
Thu 5 February HAMBURG O2
Sat 7 February FRANKFURT Festhalle
Sun 8 February BRUSSELS Palais 12
Tue 10 February MILAN Forum
Fri 13 February STUTTGART Schleyerhalle
Sun 15 February HERNING Jyske Bank Boxen
Tue 17 February PRAGUE O2
Thu 19 February ZURICH Hallenstadion