Yard Act to support The Hives on massive 2025 UK and European tour

Yard Act are set to support The Hives on their 2025 UK and European headline tour. Find all the details below.

This autumn will see The Hives hit the road for an extensive world tour in support of their seventh album ‘The Hives Forever Forever The Hives’, which is out on August 29 via PIAS (pre-order/pre-save here).

The Swedish indie band are scheduled to play shows in Australia and North America this summer and into autumn. Later this year, they’ll take to the stage in the UK and Europe – where Yard Act will serve as the support act.

Pelle Almqvist and co. are due to perform at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena (November 24), Glasgow’s OVO Hydro (26), The Warehouse at Manchester’s Aviva Studios (28) and London’s Alexandra Palace (29). Find any remaining UK tickets here.

Confirming the support slot on social media recently, The Hives wrote: “That’s right! Your king has spoken. Yard Act will be joining The Hives, not just at their Alexandra Palace show but on the whole UK/EU tour. A worthy contender, let’s see if they can handle The Hives.”

Yard Act also shared the news in a video, where they joked about “whether it was a good look for us to be a support act”. Frontman James Smith added: “Pelle said, ‘They are the best band in the world, and if there was only one band to look inferior to – it’s The Hives.

“And so we agreed that for now, in this timeline, we will accept the fact that we are the second-best band in the world, for the time being. And we may use the next two months to poison Pelle and bring The Hives to their knees.”

In the comments section, The Hives responded: “A pleasure to share the stage with the second best band in the world .” Watch below.

The Hives’ 2025 UK and European headline tour dates are: 

OCTOBER
17– Sentrum Scene, Oslo
18 – KB Hall, Copenhagen
21 – Colombia Halle, Berlin
24 – Zenith, Munich
25 – Haus Auensee, Leipzig
26 – Gasometer, Vienna
28 – Xtra, Zurich
29 – Alcatraz, Milan

NOVEMBER
01 – San Jordi Club, Barcelona
02– Movistar Arena, Madrid
04 – Sagres Campo Pequeño, Lisbon
19 – Forest National, Brussels 
20 – Le Zenith, Paris
22 – AFAS, Amsterdam
24 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
26 – Ovo Hydro, Glasgow
28 – Aviva Studios, Manchester
29 – Alexandra Palace, London

DECEMBER
01 – Palladium, Cologne
02 – Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt
03 – Sporthalle, Hamburg
06 – Avicii Arena, Stockholm

Yard Act, whose second album ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ arrived in 2024, will play a one-off headline show at Blackpool Tower next Wednesday (May 21). Two days later (May 23), they’ll take to the stage at Bearded Theory 2025.

The Mercury Prize-nominated Leeds group’s other festival appearances for this year include Live At Leeds: In The Park, Isle Of Wight, Green Man and Pukkelpop.

Yard Act embarked on a UK and European tour last year in support of their latest record. The run of dates included a show at the Eventim Apollo in London. In a four-star review of that performance, NME praised the band’s “showmanship for a boisterous tour finale”.

“Their anthems of laughing through the struggle reach their most cathartic form tonight when belted out like it’s the last gig on Earth, particularly for the celebratory ‘Dream Job’ as the room comes together to mark this moment: ‘Ace, top, mint, boss, class, sweet, dece, not bad‘,” it read.

“The setlist builds to an explosive peak with ‘The Overload’. Soon after, the tender ‘A Vineyard For The North’ closes the first set with an existential pang as Smith calls on all present to ‘have hope’ and ‘stay strong’, and the sentiment rings through to the encore of ‘100% Endurance’.”

Speaking to NME recently, The Hives’ Pelle Almqvist discussed how opening for bands like The Rolling Stones and AC/DC had led them to explore a bigger sound – which he dubbed “Arena Hives”.

“We never thought we really liked the big arena and stadium thing, but it turns out it’s pretty fun. We had a vague idea of what that would be like and basically tried to make an album of 12 singles,” he explained of the group’s upcoming LP.

Almqvist also recalled supporting Arctic Monkeys on their huge 2023 stadium tour. “I think [having us support] was also partly because there was some public opinion about their recent albums not being punk rock bangers,” he told NME. “If you throw in The Hives, you get enough of that for them to then play whatever they want. It was a clever move on their part, but we’re also very thankful. It was a very fun tour.”

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