The Smyths perform their The Queen Is Dead 40th Anniversary Tour at the O2 Academy Bournemouth, with support from Billy Blagg.
The Smyths play the O2 Academy Bournemouth on Friday 18 December, as part of their 2026 tour. The whole run is billed as The Queen Is Dead 40th Anniversary Tour, and the Bournemouth date falls right in the middle of the Christmas rush, so it's one of those gigs that sits well before the bank holidays kick in.
The tour is built around The Queen Is Dead, the second album by The Smiths, which came out in 1986. This is the record that really cemented their place — There Is a Light and I Can See It and The Boy with the Thorn in His Side are two of the biggest songs from it, and it's the one most people think of when they think of the band's sound. Forty years on, The Smyths are taking it on the road, so the set will be built around those songs rather than a general best-of.
They're not the only ones on the bill that night; Billy Blagg opens for them, so there's a support act to get through before the main set starts. It's a 14+ show, which means it's open to a younger crowd rather than being strictly over-18s.
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Doors open at 19:00, and the curfew is 23:00, so the night runs from early evening through to just before midnight. If you're heading in, that's the window to keep in mind.
