Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027

Simple Minds take The V Tour 2027 into the arenas of continental Europe in spring 2027, with Gary Numan as special guest. The run opens at the Unipol Forum in Milan on Friday 16 April 2027 and moves through Italy, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands before the band cross to Britain in May and finish at the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday 17 May.

The continental part of the tour has nine shows in seven cities: Milan and Bologna, Munich, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Cologne, then two nights at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on 30 April and 1 May. Venues are confirmed everywhere except Copenhagen and Cologne, where the hall had still not been named as of 6 October 2026.

This page sets out the confirmed dates and arenas, a night-by-night view of the spring, and the band's concerts in continental Europe and Ireland as documented in the setlist.fm archive, from the Point Theatre in Dublin in 1995 to the Roman theatre at Taormina in July 2025.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: confirmed dates

The V Tour is the touring cycle for Sacrosanct, the band's twentieth studio album. Jim Kerr said in April 2026 that the record was nearly finished, the band confirmed on 17 May 2026 that recording was complete, and on 3 September 2026 they announced a release date of 29 January 2027, with "Beginner Boys" as the first single. The tour starts on the other side of the world, with eight dates in Australia and New Zealand from 13 February to 1 March 2027, before the European arenas in April and May. European tickets have been on sale since 11 September 2026.

Italy comes first. After the Unipol Forum in Milan on Friday 16 April, the band play the Unipol Arena in Bologna the next evening, Saturday 17 April. Germany follows with the Olympiahalle in Munich on Tuesday 20 April and the Uber Arena in Berlin on Wednesday 21 April. Copenhagen is on Saturday 24 April, venue still to be announced, and the German leg resumes at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg on Tuesday 27 April and in Cologne on Wednesday 28 April, again with the venue to be confirmed.

The continental leg closes with two nights at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, on Friday 30 April and Saturday 1 May. It is the only city outside Glasgow to get two shows on the whole European and British run. After that the band play seven arenas in England and Scotland between 6 and 15 May, and the tour ends in Ireland at the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday 17 May 2027.

Gary Numan is listed as special guest on the tour announcement. The 2027 route is very close to the band's spring 2024 arena run, which also took in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Milan, but the scale has gone up in several places: Munich moves from the Zenith to the Olympiahalle, Amsterdam from one Ziggo Dome night to two, and Bologna is added as a second Italian arena.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: venue guide

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Unipol Forum, Milan

The Unipol Forum, long known as the Forum di Milano and later the Mediolanum Forum, stands in Assago on the south-western edge of Milan. It is the city's main indoor arena, with around 12,800 seats and close to 16,000 places with a standing floor.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Unipol Arena, Bologna

The Unipol Arena opened in December 1993 at Casalecchio di Reno, just outside Bologna. It holds up to about 20,000 people for concerts and was the home of the Virtus Bologna basketball team from 1996 to 2017.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Olympiahalle, Munich

The Olympiahalle was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich's Olympiapark, under the same tent-like roof as the Olympic stadium. It holds up to about 15,500 for concerts.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Uber Arena, Berlin

The Uber Arena opened in 2008 as the O2 World in Friedrichshain, by the Spree in eastern Berlin, and was later called the Mercedes-Benz Arena. It is Berlin's biggest indoor arena and the home of the Eisbären Berlin ice hockey club.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Barclays Arena, Hamburg

The Barclays Arena opened in 2002 in Hamburg's Volkspark, next to the football stadium, and holds up to 16,000 people. Among its earlier names was the Barclaycard Arena.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam

The Ziggo Dome stands beside the Johan Cruijff ArenA in the south-east of Amsterdam. Holding about 17,000, it is the largest indoor concert hall in the Netherlands.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 at 3Arena, Dublin

The 3Arena stands on the North Wall Quay in Dublin's docklands. It opened in 2008 on the site of the old Point Depot, a former rail goods depot used for concerts since 1988, and holds about 13,000.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: night by night

Friday 16 April 2027 — Unipol Forum, Milan. This is the opening night of the run.

Saturday 17 April 2027 — Unipol Arena, Bologna.

Tuesday 20 April 2027 — Olympiahalle, Munich. Their most recent documented Munich show was at Zenith on 13 April 2024.

Wednesday 21 April 2027 — Uber Arena, Berlin. Simple Minds last played Uber Arena on 11 April 2024 (Global Tour 2024).

Saturday 24 April 2027 — venue to be announced, Copenhagen. Night 1 of 2 at this venue. Their most recent documented Copenhagen show was at Royal Arena on 8 April 2024.

Tuesday 27 April 2027 — Barclays Arena, Hamburg. Their previous show at this venue was on 10 April 2024, on the Global Tour 2024.

Friday 30 April 2027 — Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam. This is show 1 of the 2-night stand here. Simple Minds last played Ziggo Dome on 6 April 2024 (Global Tour 2024).

Thursday 6 May 2027 — The O2, London.

Friday 7 May 2027 — Co-op Live, Manchester.

Saturday 8 May 2027 — Utilita Arena Birmingham, Birmingham.

Monday 10 May 2027 — Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, Nottingham.

Tuesday 11 May 2027 — First Direct Arena, Leeds.

Thursday 13 May 2027 — Utilita Arena Newcastle, Newcastle.

Friday 14 May 2027 — OVO Hydro, Glasgow. 2 nights are booked at OVO Hydro; this is number 1.

Monday 17 May 2027 — 3Arena, Dublin. Their previous show at this venue was on 18 March 2024, on the Global Tour 2024. This venue closes the tour.

Before the Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: European concert history

Simple Minds have been a European touring band since the early 1980s. The second leg of the New Gold Dream tour in 1983 took them to Roskilde in Denmark and Rock Werchter in Belgium, and their double live album Live in the City of Light (1987) was recorded mainly over two nights in Paris in August 1986, during the Once Upon a Time tour. In September 1989, on the Street Fighting Years tour, their concert in the Roman amphitheatre of Verona was filmed and released as the video Verona. Bono also appeared with them on stage at their Croke Park concert in Dublin.

The setlist.fm archive used for the table below begins in Ireland: the Point Theatre in Dublin on 17 March 1995 on the Good News from the Next World tour, two nights at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in July 1998 on the Néapolis tour, the Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney in June 2004, and two nights at the Ambassador Theatre in Dublin in January and February 2006 on the Black & White 050505 tour. The Graffiti Soul tour of 2009 brought shows in Copenhagen, at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, at The O2 in Dublin and at 013 in Tilburg.

The early 2010s were a long run of summer dates. The Greatest Hits + tour of June to August 2011 played mainly festival sites in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Gibraltar and Serbia, including a free concert in Belgrade on 18 August 2011 in front of 110,000 people. The 5X5 Live tour of 2012, which revisited the first five albums, played the Grote Zaal of Amsterdam's Paradiso, Store Vega in Copenhagen and the Olympia in Dublin, before a 25-date run of summer festivals that started in Vienna on 23 June and ended in Germersheim on 22 September 2012.

From 2013 the band settled into a pattern of indoor tours in the north and open-air summers in the south. They played two nights at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam in November 2013 and again on the Big Music Tour in November 2015, when they also played the 3Arena in Dublin. The Acoustic Live tour of spring 2017 went to seated halls: the Colosseum Theater in Essen for two nights, the Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt, the Admiralspalast in Berlin, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden and the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam. The Walk Between Worlds tour of 2018 then mixed a small club in Berlin with summer squares and castles in Italy and Germany, from the Sferisterio in Macerata to the Zitadelle in Mainz.

The 40 Years of Hits tour was cut short in March 2020; the archive's last date before the stop is Store Vega in Copenhagen on 10 March 2020, the day before a cancelled show in Herning. Rescheduled to 2022, it became one of the band's longest European runs: the 3Arena in Dublin on 17 April, the Ziggo Dome on 19 April, the Barclays Arena in Hamburg on 21 April, and then more than a dozen German halls from Ludwigsburg to Aurich, plus Herning and Copenhagen in Denmark. The summer moved to Italy, ending at the Arena di Verona on 18 July 2022.

The Global Tour of 2024 is the closest model for 2027. It opened at the 3Arena in Dublin on 18 March, played the Ziggo Dome on 6 April, the Royal Arena in Copenhagen on 8 April, the Barclays Arena in Hamburg on 10 April, the Uber Arena in Berlin on 11 April, the Festhalle in Frankfurt on 12 April, the Zenith in Munich on 13 April and the Forum in Assago near Milan on 20 April, followed by an Italian summer that included two nights at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. The 2025 dates were open-air: Trinity College in Dublin on 1 July, Mönchengladbach, Weert, the Loreley, the Arena di Verona on 15 July, Lucca, and two nights at the Teatro Greco in Taormina on 26 and 27 July 2025.

The table below lists 117 documented European concerts by Simple Minds between 1995 and 2025, with the most shows in Dublin (15), Copenhagen (10), Amsterdam (10), Hamburg (5), Berlin (4), Taormina (3). It is not exhaustive: it only includes documented shows.

Concert data: setlist.fm

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 setlist: the songs played most often in Europe

Across the 15 most recent documented European concerts with a full song list (13 April 2024 to 27 July 2025), these are the songs that came up most often. Titles only — set lists change from night to night.

1. Alive and Kicking — played at 15 of 15 shows
2. Don't You (Forget About Me) — played at 15 of 15 shows
3. Let There Be Love — played at 15 of 15 shows
4. Promised You a Miracle — played at 15 of 15 shows
5. Someone Somewhere in Summertime — played at 15 of 15 shows
6. Waterfront — played at 15 of 15 shows
7. Book of Brilliant Things — played at 14 of 15 shows
8. Glittering Prize — played at 14 of 15 shows
9. See the Lights — played at 14 of 15 shows
10. Once Upon a Time — played at 12 of 15 shows
11. Belfast Child — played at 11 of 15 shows
12. All the Things She Said — played at 9 of 15 shows
13. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) — played at 9 of 15 shows
14. Theme for Great Cities — played at 9 of 15 shows

Before the Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: past European tours at a glance

• Global Tour 2025 (2025): 8 European shows — Dublin, Mönchengladbach, Weert, St. Goarshausen, Verona, Lucca, Taormina.
• Global Tour 2024 (2024): 13 European shows — Dublin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Assago, Rome, Bari, Senigallia, Mantova.
• 40 Years of Hits Tour 2020 (2020–2022): 29 European shows — Copenhagen, Dublin, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Ludwigsburg, Erfurt, Cologne, Berlin, Bielefeld, Hanover, Münster, Ravensburg….
• Walk Between Worlds Live'18 (2018): 13 European shows — Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Macerata, Marostica, Udine, Genoa, Weert, Karlsruhe, Bonn, Norderney, Mainz….
• Acoustic Live 2017 (2017): 11 European shows — Essen, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Baden-Baden, Amsterdam, Dublin.
• Big Music Tour (2015): 6 European shows — Aarhus, Odense, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin.
• The Greatest Hits Live 2014 (2014): 1 European show — Copenhagen.
• Greatest Hits Tour (2013): 2 European shows — Dublin.
• Live 2012 (2012): 1 European show — Eindhoven.
• 5X5 Live (2012): 4 European shows — Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Aarhus.
• Greatest Hits Forest Tour 2011 (2011): 1 European show — Killarney.
• Graffiti Soul Tour (2009): 5 European shows — Landgraaf, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dublin, Tilburg.
• Night of the Proms 2008 (2008): 1 European show — Rotterdam.
• Black & White 050505 (2006): 3 European shows — Dublin, Galway.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 and European festivals

Festivals have been part of the band's European story from the start. They played Roskilde and Rock Werchter in July 1983, and Rock Werchter's line-up history lists them again in 1984 and 1986. The setlist.fm archive adds the main stage of Electric Picnic at Stradbally Hall in Ireland on 31 August 2014, the Dyrehaven site at Skanderborg in Denmark in August 2014, open-air shows at Weert in the Netherlands in 2014, 2018 and 2025, the KUNST!RASEN open-air stage in Bonn in 2018 and 2022, and the Stadspark in Groningen in June 2022.

The 2027 European leg, by contrast, is made up entirely of the band's own arena concerts. No European festival appearances for summer 2027 had been announced as of 6 October 2026.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: career and records

Simple Minds grew out of the Glasgow punk band Johnny & The Self-Abusers. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, friends since the age of eight, kept the group going under a new name taken from a line in David Bowie's "The Jean Genie", and played their first concert at Satellite City in Glasgow on 17 January 1978. Their debut album Life in a Day came out on Arista in 1979, followed by Real to Real Cacophony and Empires and Dance, records the critics liked more than the public did.

The move to Virgin brought Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call (1981), their first UK top-20 album, and New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) (1982), which reached number 3 and spent 53 weeks on the UK chart with "Promised You a Miracle" and "Glittering Prize". Sparkle in the Rain (1984) entered the UK chart at number 1. In 1985 "Don't You (Forget About Me)", recorded for the film The Breakfast Club, went to number 1 in the United States, and Once Upon a Time reached number 1 in the UK and the Netherlands.

Street Fighting Years (1989) also went to number 1 in the UK, and "Belfast Child" topped the singles charts in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. Real Life (1991) and Good News from the Next World (1995) both reached number 2, before a quieter period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The band returned to the UK top ten with Graffiti Soul (2009), and Walk Between Worlds (2018) and Direction of the Heart (2022), the latter recorded in Hamburg, both peaked at number 4.

Simple Minds have sold more than 60 million albums and were the most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s. They received the Q Inspiration Award in 2014 and an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection in 2016. Today the core of the band is still Kerr and Burchill, with a touring line-up of Gordy Goudie, Sarah Brown, Ged Grimes, drummer Cherisse Osei and keyboard player Erik Ljunggren.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: two nights at the Ziggo Dome

Amsterdam has a special place in the band's recent history. Their live album Live in the City of Diamonds, released on 25 April 2025, was recorded at a sold-out Ziggo Dome on 6 April 2024, completing a series of "Live in the City" records that began with Live in the City of Light in 1987. In 2027 they return to the same arena for two nights, Friday 30 April and Saturday 1 May, the last continental shows before the British leg.

The archive shows how the Amsterdam audience has grown: two nights at the Heineken Music Hall in November 2013 and again in November 2015, the Grote Zaal of Paradiso for the 5X5 Live tour in 2012 and the Walk Between Worlds tour in 2018, Koninklijk Theater Carré for the acoustic show in May 2017, then the Ziggo Dome in April 2022 and April 2024. The Netherlands is also where "Belfast Child" and Once Upon a Time went to number 1.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: a German spring

Germany has four of the nine continental dates: Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. It has been the band's busiest European market in the archive for a decade. In spring 2022 they played fifteen German halls in five weeks, from the Barclays Arena in Hamburg and the Palladium in Cologne to Ludwigsburg, Erfurt, Bielefeld, Hanover, Münster, Ravensburg, Saarbrücken, Offenbach, Aurich, Bremen, Erlangen and Freiburg. The 2017 acoustic tour went to concert halls in Essen, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Berlin, Hamburg and Baden-Baden.

Hamburg is the German city they know best: the Barclays Arena, under its earlier name of Barclaycard Arena, hosted them in December 2016, again on 21 April 2022 and on 10 April 2024, and their 2022 album Direction of the Heart was recorded in the city. In 2027 the Hamburg arena date is Tuesday 27 April. Berlin's Uber Arena, where they played on 11 April 2024, has them on Wednesday 21 April, and Munich steps up to the Olympiahalle on Tuesday 20 April after the Zenith in 2024 and the Tollwood Musik-Arena in 2022. The Cologne venue on 28 April had not been announced as of 6 October 2026; the last Cologne show in the archive is the Palladium on 1 May 2022.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: Milan, Bologna and the Italian connection

Italy is close to the band's heart: Kerr and Burchill were both living in Sicily when pandemic restrictions kept them from travelling to the UK, and Direction of the Heart was largely written and demoed there. The archive is full of Italian summer nights in historic places, including the Arena di Verona in July 2022 and July 2025 (plus a short set there in September 2023), the Teatro Greco in Taormina in 2022 and twice in 2025, Piazza Napoleone in Lucca and Piazza Sordello in Mantua.

The 2027 tour starts indoors instead, with two arenas on consecutive nights. The Unipol Forum in Assago, where they played on 20 April 2024 under its previous name of Mediolanum Forum, opens the tour on Friday 16 April. The Unipol Arena at Casalecchio di Reno, outside Bologna, follows on Saturday 17 April; it is the first Bologna date in the archive. Verona itself has a long history with the band: the concert they filmed there in September 1989 was released as a live video in 1990.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: Dublin, Copenhagen and the end of the road

Ireland gets the final night of the whole European tour, at the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday 17 May 2027. Dublin appears in the archive more than any other city: the Point Theatre in 1995, the Olympia in 1998, 2012, 2013 and 2017, the Ambassador in 2006, The O2 in 2009, the 3Arena in 2015, 2022 and 2024, and an open-air show at Trinity College on 1 July 2025. Outside Dublin they have played Killarney, Galway, Cork and Stradbally.

Copenhagen, on Saturday 24 April, is the only Scandinavian date on the 2027 route, and the venue was still to be announced as of 6 October 2026. The band have played the city many times in the archive: Falconer Salen in 2009 and 2015, Store Vega in 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2020, Tivoli in 2014, KB Hallen in 2022 and the Royal Arena on 8 April 2024.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: what to expect live

Recent European Simple Minds concerts have run to between 16 and 24 songs, and the core of the set has hardly changed: "Waterfront" usually opens, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" and "Alive and Kicking" come near the end, and Cherisse Osei has a drum solo in the middle. At the Ziggo Dome on 6 April 2024 the 19-song set ran from "Waterfront" and "Love Song" through "Sons and Fascination", "This Fear of Gods", "She's a River", "Glittering Prize", "Promised You a Miracle", "New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)" and "Belfast Child", and finished with "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself".

The summer 2025 sets in Italy were shorter and leaned on the 1980s albums. At the Arena di Verona on 15 July 2025 the band played 18 songs, including "Once Upon a Time", "Oh Jungleland", "Let There Be Love", "I Wish You Were Here", "Someone Somewhere in Summertime", "Ghost Dancing", "Theme for Great Cities", "All the Things She Said" and "See the Lights". The 2022 arena tour ran to 23 or 24 songs a night, and the longest sets in the archive, 26 songs, come from the 5X5 Live tour in 2012 and the Big Music Tour in 2015.

The 2027 set will be the first in Europe to include songs from Sacrosanct, due on 29 January 2027, but no set list for The V Tour had been published as of 6 October 2026. Gary Numan's opening set is announced for the tour; the starting times for each night are set by the venues.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027 tickets and presales

Tickets for the European dates of The V Tour 2027 have been on sale since 11 September 2026 through the official ticketing outlets of each country. Italy, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland each have their own primary sellers, and the arena's own website usually links to the right one. Amsterdam has two nights, so check the date on your ticket before you buy.

For Copenhagen on 24 April and Cologne on 28 April the venue had not been named as of 6 October 2026. Wait for the official announcement before buying anything for those two cities, and treat any listing that names a hall before then with suspicion.

There is no public Simple Minds presale code to buy or share. Codes or "guaranteed" seats offered on social media are not genuine; if an arena sells out, use the official resale service of the country concerned. The alert buttons on this page will tell you about extra dates and returned tickets.

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: indicative ticket prices

Indicative European price grid by category for the Simple Minds 2027 dates. Final prices are set by the promoter at on-sale and vary by city, venue and demand; booking fees may apply.

Category	Price
Category 4 — upper tier	€39
Category 3 — stands	€65
Category 2 — lower tier	€89
Category 1 — floor / standing	€109
Golden Circle / Front of Stage	€149
VIP Package	€279
Hospitality / Suite	€549

Simple Minds Europe Tour 2027: questions and answers

When does Simple Minds' European tour start?

At the Unipol Forum in Milan on Friday 16 April 2027, followed by the Unipol Arena in Bologna the next night.

Who is the support act?

Gary Numan is announced as special guest on The V Tour 2027.

Are Simple Minds playing Germany in 2027?

Yes, four times: the Olympiahalle in Munich on 20 April, the Uber Arena in Berlin on 21 April, the Barclays Arena in Hamburg on 27 April and Cologne on 28 April (venue to be confirmed).

How many Amsterdam shows are there?

Two, at the Ziggo Dome on Friday 30 April and Saturday 1 May 2027.

Is there an Irish date?

Yes, the 3Arena in Dublin on Monday 17 May 2027, the last night of the European tour.

Where is the Copenhagen show?

The date is Saturday 24 April 2027, but the venue had not been announced as of 6 October 2026.

Are Simple Minds playing Paris, Brussels or Spain?

No French, Belgian or Spanish date had been announced as of 6 October 2026.

When did tickets go on sale?

European tickets have been on sale since 11 September 2026.

What is the new album?

Sacrosanct, the band's twentieth studio album, due on 29 January 2027, led by the single "Beginner Boys".