Leee John is set to hit the road next spring to celebrate 40 years of hits with Imagination and as a solo artist. 

Launching on May 8 in Glasgow, the run will see the star travel across the country taking in a date at London’s indigo @ The O2 on May 11, before concluding with the finale at Manchester’s RNCM on May 19. 

It follows the release of the career-encompassing ‘40 Years’ box set earlier this year, tracing his career back to 1981 when the group first burst onto the British music scene in 1981 with their debut single, Body Talk 

Included are the classic albums ‘Body Talk’ (1981), ‘In the Heat Of The Night’ (1982), ‘Scandalous’ (1983) and ‘Closer’ (1987), along with various recordings from across the decades. 

Later this year will see the release of a Leee John Of Imagination live album, recorded in 2022 at the legendary Olympia in Paris, with its release date soon to be announced.

Tickets are on sale now. The full list of dates is below.

MAY 2024

8 – St Lukes, Glasgow 

9  – Wylam Brewery, Newcastle 

10 – Old Fire Station, Carlisle

11 – indigo @ The O2, London 

12 – Concord, Eastleigh

14 – Palace Theatre, Southend

15 – Town Hall , Birmingham

16  – Epic Studios, Norwich 

17  – Subscription Rooms, Stroud 

19 – RNCM, Manchester 

Earlier this year, John revisited four decades of success and revealed he’s drawing on his early years with Imagination as he works on new material with original producer, Tony Swain.

“Right now, it’s an important time for bringing people closer together through music,” he told RETROPOP. “A lot of people, especially in France and the US, want that kind of music and there’s a guy in Belgium I’ve been working with and every time he will do like an Imagination baseline. So I’m going to do some stuff with him. 

“I don’t want to disappoint people and make them think I’m doing another Just an Illusion or Music and Lights, because I’ve got to move with the times. But I will give a little nod to it and perhaps I’ll reach into the bag and pick up a track that I’ve had for ages… because I have a lot of catalogue!”

Included in that catalogue is a selection of unreleased material – including early tracks Imagination demoed for the ‘Closer’ (1987) album. 

“There’s three songs I wrote with The James Boys; one is called Two of a Kind and the other is Some People, and every time I hear I get tingles, because it takes me back to those chord structures and arrangements and harmonies that we did together,” he revealed. 

“We also did one called Casualty, which is very Michael Jackson-esque, and these are the tracks that got us our second deal with BMG. We thought they were going to be on the next album, which became ‘Closer’, but they never were.” 

READ MORE: Leee John hoping to ‘take people back’ to Imagination heyday with forthcoming album [Exclusive]