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Photo : Debbie Ellis
A Certain Ratio have announced a special October 2026 UK tour celebrating two landmark albums from their catalogue, Sextet and Force.
Tickets: https://bandonthewall.seetickets.com/event/a-certain-ratio/band-on-the-wall/3628237
The Manchester post-punk pioneers will perform both records in full each night, with an interval between the two sets and further surprises promised.
The tour opens in Birmingham on 7 October, includes a London show at Dingwalls on 9 October, and finishes with a homecoming date at Manchester’s Band on the Wall on 24 October.
The shows mark 45 years since A Certain Ratio went into Revolution Studios in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport to record Sextet, which was released in 1982, and 40 years since the release of Force in 1986. Force was also recorded in Stockport, this time at Yellow 2.
Sextet remains one of ACR’s most celebrated albums. Self-produced by the band, it spent 11 weeks in the UK Independent Chart and reached number one. The record includes the atmospheric ‘Lucinda’ and long-standing live favourite ‘Knife Slits Water’.
Force, meanwhile, stands as one of the band’s most accessible and commercially minded releases. Produced by ACR with the late Stuart “Jammer” James, it was their final album for Factory Records and includes the brilliantly funky ‘Mickey Way’ and live favourite ‘Si Firmo O Grido’.
The two records are markedly different in character but unmistakably A Certain Ratio, making the chance to hear them performed back-to-back especially enticing.
The band say: “We’re celebrating these two milestones with this tour. To say we are very excited is an understatement. It will be a real challenge, which we’ve already started preparing for, with nine months to go!”
There will be no support act, with A Certain Ratio playing two full sets each night.
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