Wigan band The Lathums preparing for biggest tour to date

The tour next April and May will be the group's most high-profile string of live appearances to date.

It includes a dream date for the band at the O2 Ritz in Manchester and a return to London to play the Electric Ballroom.

Fans wanting some live music to look forward to in 2021 will be able to snap up tickets from Friday.

The band is made up of lead singer Alex Moore, who also plays rhythm guitar, multi-instrumentalist Scott Concepcion, Johnny Cunliffe on bass and Ryan Durrans behind the drum kit.

With influences including The Housemartins and The Smiths, the group is spending this summer in the studio in Liverpool recording their debut album with producers James Skelly of The Coral fame and Chris Taylor.

Next year’s UK tour, which begins in Hull on April 22 and finishes in the capital on May 12, also takes in Stoke, Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Birmingham, Leicester, Leeds, Cardiff and Oxford.

It is the latest in a series of rapid steps which have manoeuvred The Lathums into a prominent position at the forefront of the UK music scene.

The group’s melodic indie sounds and lyrics quoting literature and history have proved a hit with a growing fanbase well beyond the bounds of the borough, where previous hometown shows have sold out in seconds.

The band signed to the legendary major label Island Records, which counts U2, Amy Winehouse and Dizzee Rascal among its artists, and its compilation EP The Memories We Make recently hit the top 20 of the UK Album Chart.

Earlier this month the group released its first single for Island in the shape of All My Life.

One example of the band’s unusual approach to songwriting is Fight On, with takes its subject matter from the French Resistance.

It was not just on record that the group was racking up the plaudits, with their high-intensity live shows quickly gaining plenty of word-of-mouth acclaim on the indie scene.

That has taken them from playing bars to sharing stages with huge names in the musicindustry in just 18 months, with the group also looking forward to a number of rescheduled tour dates in the UK and Europe with Blossoms and domestic engagements with Paul Weller in 2021.

Tickets for The Lathums’ spring tour go on sale at 10am on Friday at www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk

It is not expected that the dates will change.