Sam Fender tour announced, with ballot for Newcastle tickets

Sam Fender has announced a new UK and European tour.

The singer-songwriter will hit the road in December - his first full UK tour since 2022.

He will start in Dublin in Ireland on 2 December, before heading to Leeds, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

The North Shields-born musician will end the UK leg of the People Watching tour in Newcastle on 20 December, with tickets only available through a ballot for fans with North East postcodes.

Fender, who teased the announcement on his website, last performed in Newcastle in June 2023, with two sell-out shows at Newcastle United's St James' Park.

Tickets for Newcastle's Utilita Arena gig will only be available for fans with postcodes beginning with NE, DH, SR, DL, TS, ticket purchasing site Kilimanjaro Live said.

Winning ballot entries will be selected at random and fans will be limited to buying four tickets each.

The ballot for Newcastle tickets is open and will end on Monday.

The Seventeen Going Under star will travel to Europe for nine gigs from March, including stop offs in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Tickets go on general sale on 25 October at 10:00 BST.

Fender's previous albums, 2019's Hypersonic Missiles and 2021's Seventeen Going Under, both topped the UK charts, with the latter nominated for the Mercury music prize.

He has won two Brit awards, which have both been turned into beer hand pulls at the Low Lights Tavern in North Shields - the North Tyneside pub he worked at and where he was discovered.