US rock star Bruce Springsteen returning to Sunderland in May

The 26 European dates announced so far don’t include any in Scotland but one of his three English shows with the E Street Band is only an hour and a half’s drive south of the border.

That’s at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on Wednesday, July 22.

That’ll be his second visit to the Wearside football ground, his prior one having been back in 2012.

Tickets cost from £127.50. For details, go to https://brucespringsteen.net/tour/

His other two shows in England are at London’s Wembley Stadium on Thursday, July 25, and Saturday, July 27.

The New Jersey-born 74-year-old is also visiting Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, stopping off at Cardiff, Belfast, Kilkenny, Cork and Dublin.

Springsteen’s current tour is his second in as many years after having been off the road since 2017, his 2023 tour having included a date at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium last May, as well as shows in London and Birmingham.

He’s got no new product to promote this time round, his most recent album, his 21st, being 2022’s Only the Strong Survive, a 15-track collection of covers of R&B and soul songs.

It was a No 2 hit in the UK, his tenth LP on the trot to make the top ten, eight of those having been chart-toppers – 2002’s The Rising, 2005’s Devils and Dust, 2007’s Magic, 2009’s Working on a Dream, 2012’s Wrecking Ball, 2014’s High Hopes, 2019’s Western Stars and 2020’s Letter to You.

Springsteen’s not been a stranger to recording studios in the interim, however, having duetted with Brian Fallon on the title track of the Gaslight Anthem’s 2023 comeback album, History Books, and released the single Addicted to Romance with Patti Scialfa in September, taken from the soundtrack to the Rebecca Miller-directed film She Came to Me.

He’s also got a new compilation album out today, Best of Bruce Springsteen, featuring 18 tracks on CD and vinyl and 31 on download, with the top-ten hits Dancing in the Dark, Born in the USA and Streets of Philadelphia among them.