Only the Poets

From Woodley to sold‑out rooms

Only the Poets began as a Reading story. Singer‑guitarist Tommy Longhurst grew up in nearby Woodley and, as he has said, his ambition to form a band was sparked by weekends at Reading Festival. He linked up with bassist Andrew “Roo” Burge, and the line‑up bedded in when drummer Marcus Yates and guitarist Clem Cherry — both studio‑savvy — joined. The first single, Ceasefire, arrived on 20 February 2017, and the group spent the next few years releasing tracks and playing any stage that would have them, from small Reading venues to early national support slots.

The European footprint came quickly. In 2022 they supported Louis Tomlinson across rescheduled UK and European dates, then used the momentum to headline their own shows later that year. On 30 January 2023 they confirmed they had signed to EMI Records; the same week they celebrated with homecoming shows at Reading’s Purple Turtle and spoke about keeping shows as “safe spaces” for fans. The following months saw them back on the road across the continent, including support shows with Lewis Capaldi in spring 2023 before a sold‑out headline at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

EPs that travelled, then a debut that landed

The catalogue that built their audience is compact and deliberate. Speak Out (2020) sketched the band’s early parameters: guitar‑led, chorus‑first pop‑rock with mental health themes in plain view. Our Time followed on 14 October 2022, broadening their reach. They spent 2024 in forward motion with two closely spaced releases — the One More Night EP (31 May 2024, EMI/Universal) and the four‑track better on the internet (8 August 2024) — that tightened their studio sound and gave the live set reliable singalongs. Those dates matter, because this is a band whose new music tends to be tested in front of a crowd within weeks of release.

The pay‑off came with the debut album And I’d Do It Again, released on 30 January 2026 via Capitol Records UK/Polydor. Fourteen tracks in 36 minutes, it condensed the last two years of writing into brisk, high‑hook songs like I Keep On Messing It Up, Emotionally Hungover, Don’t Wanna Know and Monumental. Critics in the UK and Europe took notice across late January and early February, and the album entered the UK Official Albums Chart at No. 9. For a band long used to measuring success one room at a time, the Top 10 breakthrough was a clear inflection point.

A £1 Brixton headline and what it said

Two days after the album dropped, on 2 February 2026, Only the Poets walked out at O2 Academy Brixton for a statement night: every ticket priced at £1. Longhurst framed it as an argument for accessibility — “live music should not be a luxury” — and the move sold out the 5,000‑capacity room. They used the platform to widen the circle: the opening slots went to SEREN and Belle Dame, unsigned acts chosen through a fan‑voted “battle of the bands” the preceding weekend in Reading, and £1 from each ticket went to the LIVE Trust supporting UK grassroots venues. Reviews the week of 2–9 February noted the tone as much as the songs: a giant screen carried the slogan “LIVE MUSIC IS NOT A LUXURY”, and the night functioned as both album launch and a practical demonstration of how a mid‑level act can use scale without abandoning community.

That approach extended beyond the stage. In the run‑up to Brixton, Nikon announced a collaboration that gave ten aspiring photographers pit access to shoot the show on 22 January 2026 and mentorship from Scarlet Page and the band’s tour photographer Jordan Logan — another route into a part of the music economy that can be closed off to newcomers. The message was consistent: create room, then make room for others.

What the record sounds like on stage, spring–summer 2026

The album cycle quickly hit the road under the banner And I’d Do It Again – The Debut Album Tour 2026. German dates were announced for mid‑April — Frankfurt’s Batschkapp on 16 April, Cologne’s Carlswerk Victoria on 17 April, Munich’s Backstage Werk on 20 April, Stuttgart’s LKA Longhorn on 21 April and Hamburg’s Docks on 27 April — book‑ending UK and mainland shows through the spring.

By April the set had settled into a shape that let them travel the new record while honouring the older material that grew their following. In Cologne on 17 April the band ran long and varied: 26 songs including a front‑loaded run of And I’d Do It Again, I Keep On Messing It Up and Over & Over; deep cuts from earlier EPs (Every Song I Ever Wrote, Waking in the Dark); and two audience‑pleasing covers in the middle — Torn and The Killers’ Mr. Brightside — before closing with a two‑song encore of JUMP! and Emotional. Across shows this year, the title track, Bad, Don’t Wanna Know and Thinking Bout Your Ex have consistently anchored the core of the night.

Club underplays and festival slots flex the runtime. At a two‑show day in Kingston upon Thames on 1 May the early set clocked in at an hour, but the tour average sits around 75–80 minutes, enough space for 18–24 songs depending on curfew. Production is straightforward and scalable: a clean backline, LED strips and colour washes doing most of the work in clubs and mid‑sized venues, with a larger rear screen and bolder slogans when the room allows — as London saw in February. Support acts have ranged from rising names like Alfie Jukes (Manchester, 30 January) to the fan‑selected Brixton openers, and autumn dates in Copenhagen list Alex Spencer.

Where they are now (September 2026)

As of 7 September 2026 the band are between summer festival appearances and another run of European rooms. Ticketing pages list September club shows in Paris (Alhambra, 16 September), Milan (Santeria Toscana 31, 21 September) and Villeurbanne/Lyon (Le Transbordeur, 22 September), then Spain (Madrid’s Moby Dick Club, 24 September; Barcelona’s Razzmatazz 3, 25 September). Amsterdam follows with a Halloween Special at Melkweg on 31 October before Scandinavia (Copenhagen’s Lille VEGA, 23 November, with Alex Spencer; Stockholm and further cities appear on international listings) and additional mainland dates into late autumn.

The move up from clubs to full rooms has been reflected back by their audience. On the album release weekend they took a Manchester club show like a victory lap, with a crowd already singing new material. Ticket platforms carry recent fan notes about the vocals and the band’s habit of hanging back to sign records; that kind of post‑show time is rare as rooms get bigger, and it’s part of why their following tends to travel. The question they are asked most often now — including in interviews the week the album came out — is what the second album will look like. Longhurst’s answer in early February was that writing has already started. The more immediate task is practical: play the last months of 2026 hard, keep the doors open, and hold a live show where old songs and new sit comfortably together.