SKA legends The Specials are to play York Barbican on May 19 2019 on their 40th anniversary tour in support of Encore, their first new recordings in 37 years.

The Coventry band's spring travels will take in further Yorkshire shows at Leeds O2 Academy on April 30, Scarborough Spa’s Grand Hall on May Day Bank Holiday, May 6, and Sheffield O2 Academy on May 10.

Next year marks not only the 40th anniversary of the formation of The Specials and the Two-Tone record label in Coventry, but also ten years since the band re-formed to play live again.

In the line-up will be three remaining founders, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter, plus Steve Cradock, Nikolaj Torp Larsen, Kenrick Rowe and the "touring band they've had for seven years".

The Specials made their belated York debut with a sold-out Barbican show on November 1 2016 and tickets for their return will go on sale on Friday at 9am on 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

Encore, the first Specials material by founding members Hall, Golding and Panter since their chart-topping, anti-Thatcherite single Ghost Town in 1981, will be released via Universal Music/Island Records on February 1. The ten-track album was produced by Hall, Golding and Panter in tandem with Danish musician/producer Nikolaj Torp Larsen.

The track listing will be Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys; B.L.M.; Vote For Me; The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum (first recorded by Hall, Golding and Neville Staple's Fun Boy Three in 1981); Breaking Point; Blam Blam Fever; The Ten Commandments; Embarrassed By You; The Life And Times Of A Man Called Depression and We Sell Hope. Available on CD and vinyl, the CD version will be accompanied by a second disc, The Best Of The Specials Live.

Paul Williams, The Specials' biographer, Specialized Project founder and lead vocalist of The Skapones ska band, who used to live in York, welcomes the new album.

"Exciting times! I have the new album and it's brilliant," he says. "Not a ska knees-up; very grown-up, mature, with loads of politics and social commentary.

"I think it's a great move. This is The Specials 2019 not 1979. They sound fantastic."  

Tickets for Scarborough will be on sale on 01723 821888 and at scarboroughspa.co.uk; tickets for all 31 British and European tour dates can be booked at axs.com, ticketmaster.co.uk and seetickets.com.