Harry Styles announces world tour: how to get tickets in today's sale

Harry Styles during his One Direction days
Harry Styles during his One Direction days

Harry Styles, a man so beloved that he makes headlines merely by cutting his hair, will soon be releasing his debut album. For the few uninitiated, Styles is the most popular member of One Direction, a boy band constructed by media mogul Simon Cowell on the X Factor in 2010 who went on to re-invigorate pop’s coffers with a whopping four albums in as many years.

But One Direction, while defiant in not splitting despite the loss of member Zayn Malik in 2015, have been on “hiatus” since 2016 - and the remaining members have been swift to follow in Malik’s footsteps and embark upon solo careersStyles signed a solo recording contract last June, a month later Liam Payne signed with Capitol and Niall Horan followed suit in September.

Several agonising months later and, while Horan has released a solo single, nothing has emerged from the band's two main heartthrobs Styles and Payne. However, while Payne is probably too busy with non-musical matters at this very moment - last week saw the birth of his son with girlfriend Cheryl, there's good news for heartbroken One Direction fans, as it looks like Styles' solo output is very close to being made public. Here’s what we know so far:

When is he playing live?

Styles is the first former One Direction member to go it alone on stage. He announced dates for a globe-trotting tour that will see him play in venues from California to Japan. The bad news? There's only fourdates in the whole of the UK, two in London at the Eventim Apollo – which has a capacity of just 5,000 people – with another show in Manchester and Glasgow, respectively. 

General on-sale begins at 9am BST today, Friday 5 May.

Full tour dates below:

19/09 - San Francisco, CA - The Masonic

20/09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre

25/09 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium

26/09 - Chicago, IL - The Chicago Theatre

28/09 - New York, NY - Radio City Music Hall

30/09 - Boston, MA - Wang Theatre

01/10 - Washington DC - DAR Constitution Hall

04/10 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall

05/10 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theater

08/10 - Atlanta, GA - Roxy

10/10 - Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Irving Music Factory

11/10 - Austin, TX - ACL Live at The Moody Theater

14/10 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre

25/10 - Paris, France - L'Olympia

27/10 - Cologne, Germany - Palladium

29/10 - London, UK - Eventim Apollo

30/10 - London, UK - Eventim Apollo

01/11 - Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo Manchester

02/11 - Glasgow, UK - SEC Armadillo

05/11 - Stockholm, Sweden - Fryshuset

07/11 - Berlin, Germany - Tempodrome

08/11 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - AFAS Live

10/11 - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz

23/11 - Singapore - The Star Theatre

26/11 - Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre

30/11 - Australia, Melbourne - Forum Theatre

02/11 - Auckland, New Zealand - Spark Arena

07/11 - Tokyo, Japan - EX Theater

08/11 - Tokyo, Japan - EX Theater

When will his album be released?

After launching his debut solo single Sign of the Times on April 7, Styles waited approximately six days before announcing his album release date: May 12. 

He's a little fashionably late so far:  In mid-February, BBC Radio One reported that the album would be released “late April/early May” which was backed up by comments from Styles’ label boss Rob Stringer, the CEO of Columbia records. Also in mid-February, Stringer told Billboard magazine: “We're close and we're very excited. We have a record we're incredibly excited about and it’s not far away from being ready.”

What will it sound like?

||| 29.9.16 |||

A post shared by @harrystyles on

One Direction were known for their saccharine ballads and up-tempo bangers, but Malik veered in a far more sensual, soul-led direction for his debut, Mind of Mine, and it’s likely that Styles will also want to carve a new sound in his solo work.

In September he made his first big statement as a man free of One Direction with three distinct, fashion-led covers for Another Man magazine. None other than Paul McCartney interviewed him for the publication, upon which Styles was portrayed – as “an immersion into a different facet of his persona” – in the vein of British rockers such as Pete Doherty, John Lydon and Mick Jagger. He didn’t, however, discuss his music taste with one of the country’s most famous musicians, so we don’t know much about what Styles plays on his radio.

Instead, fans were forced to rely upon Nick Grimshaw, BBC Radio 1 DJ and long-term pal of Styles, to shed light on his work. Grimshaw recently told GQ: “I think it will be good. He has good taste and he likes good music, so that usually translates. He’s into good music, so surely he’ll make good music. He recorded it in Jamaica so I’m praying it’s some awful white man reggae.”

His single, Sign of the Times, suggested that Styles would stick to big, shiny production rooted in rock guitars and a strong vocal performance. Not that dissimilar, in fact, from boy band breakaway Robbie Williams' early solo material.

Who has worked with him on it?

This is where the big guns really come out. Styles has a veritable who’s-who from the music industry on his record - while he's also got the seal of approval from Ed Sheeran, aka the biggest popstar in the world right now. 

The pair have been friends for a while after finding pop stardom at a similar point, and Sheeran recently revealed to The Sun that they “jammed out a song” a couple of years ago – although Styles wouldn’t be including it on the record: “He came round like two years ago and we jammed out a song. I think he's gone in a totally different direction now.” Sheeran did, however, give his thumbs up to Styles’s solo work: “It's really good. Anything he puts out is going to be massive, let's be honest. But I think it's very good musically as well.”

Robbie Williams let slip that Styles was working with super-producer Max Martin (the hitmaker extraordinaire behind Taylor Swift and Britney Spears’s success) and gold-plated pop star Bruno Mars. Speaking to the Radio Times he said: “I met Harry Styles in an airport. 'Oh, you're writing, Harry? Great, who with?' He goes: 'Well, I just spent a week with Bruno Mars, and I'm about to spend a week with Max Martin'."

Meghan Trainor with her ukelele. Harry Styles not pictured.
Meghan Trainor with her ukelele. Harry Styles not pictured. Credit: Media Mogul

In a somewhat unlikely situation, Styles hung out with Meghan Trainor and her ukelele to conjure up “a cute acoustic love thing”. The All About That Bass singer told The Sun: “It's real! It's a duet. It's a beautiful song we wrote together on my ukulele. We even recorded a rough demo together with our vocals together. It's a cute acoustic love thing."

Ryan Tedder, songwriter for Adele and Beyoncé and OneRepublic frontman told pop culture website Key 103 that he and Styles had “done a couple of things”. “You know, he's a phenomenally talented writer. You know they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but clearly the man has taste in a number of areas and that also is true with writing."

Johnny McDaid, a singer-songwriter who has previously worked with Sheeran after playing in Snow Patrol, has worked with Styles on eight tracks. Last May he told Press Association that “the world is going to be really shocked at what he comes up with”.

Four of these tracks have been co-written by producer Gary Go, who has worked with Take That, Kylie Minogue and Rihanna.

After all this commotion, the press release that accompanied the album presented a somewhat lacklustre list of collaborators, consisting of Kanye West producer Jeff Bhasker, his collaborator Alex Salibian and indie throwback Kid Harpoon. 

Do we know any song titles?

The tracklisting was announced through Styles' Twitter account along with the album release date, giving plenty for fans to chew on. Is, for instance, Ever Since New York a song about Taylor Swift, whom Styles was pictured dating in the city in late 2012, early 2013 and, many believe, the subject of Swift's song Style? 

Already Home, Coco, Endlessly, and 5378 Miles have all been listed with the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) with Styles named as the solo performer, but none made the album tracklisting.

And do we know what the first single will be?

Yes! Sign of the Times. The single made its debut on the BBC Radio One Breakfast Show, hosted by Styles' pal Grimshaw, on 7 April.

What's all this with Ed Sheeran?

Well, Harry Styles Collaborator Sheeran has been dominating the 2017 Top 40. He's currently occupying both Numbers One (Shape of You) and Two (Galway Girl), a comfortable position the musician has become accustomed to in recent weeks. But Styles' release of Sign of the Times last week has put Sheeran's chart-prowess under threat as the former One Direction member took the top spot in the midweek charts. The results of the battle will be seen on Friday, 14 April.

 

License this content