ISLINGTON soul singer-songwriter Kenny Thomas will front his all-star band at the Grand Opera House, York, on May 19 on his nine-leg Him Tour 2024.
He will showcase songs from his “lost” third album, Him, for the first time alongside his greatest hits, soon to feature on a Best Of compilation, out on November 3.
By then Thomas, 55, will have opened this autumn’s Brit Soul Ascending Tour at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall on October 31 at 7.30pm, his first Leeds show in more than 20 years.
“Live gigs are one of the most enjoyable aspects of being a musician and it’s where my fans come together for a night of soul music and serious partying. So, to announce the Him 2024 Tour is really exciting for me and the band, and it’s an opportunity for us to play songs from my third album Him, which was never commercially released,” says Londoner Thomas.
“Over three decades on from when I first started out, this tour demonstrates that soul music is here to stay.”
Thomas’s Best Of, released on vinyl and CD, will feature all his hits, such as Thinking About Your Love, Best Of You, Outstanding and Trippin’ On Your Love, plus fan favourites and thought-to-be lost masters from the rediscovered Him.
He sold 600,000 copies of his platinum debut album for Chrysalis Records, 1991’s number three-charting Voices, and his 1993 follow-up, the gold-selling Wait For Me, peaked at number ten en route to Thomas notching eight Top 40 singles and receiving two Brit Award nominations for Best Male Vocalist and Best Newcomer. He later released Crazy World in 2006 and Breathe in 2011.
In lockdown, Gary Barlow invited Thomas to sing Thinking About Your Love on his Crooner Sessions, which became a viral hit. In 2021, Thomas’s autobiography, Baring My Soul, was published, leading to a feature on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops documentary after performing on the show nine times.
In April 2022, he headed out on a club tour. Now come two theatre tours, Brit Soul Ascending in November and December, then the Him 2024 next spring. Box office: Leeds, 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com, on sale now; York, atgtickets.com/york, on sale from Friday morning.