Joe Jackson and his band

Joe Jackson is playing the York Barbican on Wednesday 7 October, with his band. It's part of a 2026 tour that pulls from across his career, and the set is split in two: the first half is his own music, and the second is dedicated to songs by Max Champion, an early 20th-century English Music Hall artist whose sheet music resurfaced in 2014.

Jackson has been working since the late 1970s, when he first made a name for himself with albums like Look Sharp and I'm The Man. Since then, he's moved through a wide range of styles — New Wave pop and reggae-influenced tracks, jazz, swing, and classical-inspired song cycles. His discography includes Body and Soul, Blaze of Glory, Heaven and Hell, and more recent releases like Fool and Mr Joe Jackson Presents 'What A Racket'. In April 2026, he put out a new album, Hope and Fury, which features in the first half of the show alongside songs from his earlier records.

The second half shifts to Max Champion, a Music Hall figure from the early 1900s. The stagecraft follows that theme, with the band dressed in period costume to evoke London from that era. It's a bit of a departure from the usual setlist, so the night gives you two distinct halves rather than one long run of his own songs.

Joe Jackson was born in 1954 in Burton-on-Trent. He'll be performing at the York Barbican on Wednesday 7 October, with his band on stage for both halves of the evening.