Cardinal Black bring Midnight At The Valencia to Manchester Academy 2

Following the release of their acclaimed second album Midnight At The Valencia earlier this year on Thirty Tigers, Welsh trio Cardinal Black are heading to Manchester Academy 2 as part of their biggest-ever UK and European tour.

The Manchester gig is one of 13 UK and Ireland dates they are playing. The tour opens in Nottingham and finishes with a gig at London’s KOKO.

Frontman Tom Hollister, guitarist Chris Buck, and drummer Adam Roberts have built a reputation as one of the most exciting live forces in British rock. With Midnight At The Valencia, the band took a bold leap forward — blending soulful vocals, searing guitar lines, and cinematic production into a record that’s already being hailed as their finest work to date. Produced by Cyrill Camenzind in Zurich, the album is a tapestry of love, loss, and resilience, and features standout tracks including the swampy, blues-infused single Keep On Running and the soaring, hopeful closer Your Spark.

Speaking at the time of releasing the album, Cardinal Black explained that with Midnight At The Valencia, the band set out to create a record that represented their “10,000 hours” of work, having played in just about every backwater dive bar and neon-soaked club they’d come across. “It’s a long, shared history we have,” Hollister said. “We feel like we’ve paid our dues, and this album is the culmination of all that effort.”

The Manchester date will see the band perform these new songs alongside favourites from their chart-topping debut, creating a setlist that captures the full arc of their remarkable journey — from university dive bars to sold-out international stages. Their live shows are renowned for Hollister’s evocative vocals and Buck’s virtuosic playing, which has won plaudits from the likes of Slash and Jason Isbell.