Pantera announce first UK and Ireland headline tour in 20 years
Pantera have announced their first UK and Ireland tour in 20 years – find ticket details below.
The heavy metal icons will be headed across the pond in early 2025, and the tour will mark their first time performing headline shows here in two decades.
They first announced plans to reunite with a revamped line-up back in July 2022 – this saw Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne) on guitar and Charlie Benante (Anthrax) on drums joining original members, frontman Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown.
The news broke following the band signing a deal with Artist Group International for a series of US tour dates.
Wylde took on the role from late guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was killed onstage in 2004. Benante, meanwhile, fills the role left by the late Vinnie Paul who died from medical complications in 2018.
While the reformed line-up have taken to the stage multiple times across the US since reforming – including acting as support for Metallica on their ‘72 Seasons’ tour – their dates in the UK and Ireland have been limited. Up until now, they had only been booked to perform in the UK at this year’s edition of Download.
Now, they have confirmed a headline tour set for early 2025, which includes five shows and kicks off at the OVO Hydro arena in Glasgow on February 18. The tour continues the following night (19) with a stop lined up at First Direct Arena in Leeds, followed by a gig at the 3Arena in Dublin two days after that (21).
A penultimate show is scheduled for the BP Pulse Live venue in Birmingham on February 23, before the tour concludes with a stop at London’s OVO Arena Wembley on February 25.
Tickets go on sale June 21, and various pre-sale and VIP options are also available. Visit here for tickets and check out a full list of new tour dates below.
Pantera’s 2025 UK and Ireland tour dates are:
FEBRUARY
18 – Glasgow @ OVO Hydro
19 – Leeds @ First Direct Arena
21 – Dublin @ 3Arena
23 – Birmingham @ BP Pulse Live
25 – London @ OVO Arena Wembley
As aforementioned, the first UK gig Pantera have lined up is for Download Festival later this weekend, and the performance will mark their first UK appearance in three decades.
It also comes following Anselmo and Brown speaking publicly for the first time about their reformation and new line-up. “It’s empowering. It is incredibly beautiful, and you feel so much love when you’re up there. And if you take it in, it’s a great feeling, man. These days, man, that’s where me and Rex, you know, we get to dig the shows more,” Anselmo said, also going on to compare how the band have changed compared to their early days.
“When we were younger, we were at war and when we were onstage; we were just angry and at war, man. Now it’s — the songs are there. I can concentrate on singing the fricking songs, number one. Geez, that’s a relief for me, man. I don’t have to break my fricking body in part anymore.”
The reformation of Pantera has also been marred by controversy, following Anselmo being accused of racism in recent years.
Last year, two major German festivals removed Pantera from the line-up over an outcry relating to past allegations of racism, which was followed by a cancelled appearance in Vienna.
They were due to perform at 2023’s Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, however, it was confirmed that they had been removed from the line-ups following a public outcry.
“In the last few weeks, we have had many intensive conversations with artists, our partners and you, the festival fans, we have continued to deal with the criticism together and decided to remove the band from the programme,” read a statement from the festival at the time.
The allegations of racism date back to 2016 when frontman Anselmo offered to leave his band Down following an incident in which he was filmed carrying out a Nazi salute and shouting “white power”.
Anselmo was forced to apologise after being caught on film making the salute at the end of his performance at Dimebash 2016, a festival held in Hollywood in tribute to his late bandmate Dimebag Darrell.
Anselmo initially dismissed his actions as a “joke” before later issuing a statement that read: “Every citizen in this entire world has the unalienable right to live with dignity and respect without hate or oppression. And I mean this, with all of my crushed, yet, guilty heart.
“It’s common knowledge that we can choose to either learn from our mistakes, or continue on a path of insensitivity and destruction. I am utterly responsible for the mistakes I have made, and can only give you my word to no longer do them in the present, through action, not just mere words.”
His actions were condemned by members of the music world at the time, including Machine Head frontman Rob Flynn who addressed the story in a video, calling Anselmo a “bully” and saying: “I was there, and I could tell you for a fact that there wasn’t a chardonnay or a pinot grigio in sight backstage. In fact, the only thing you were drinking, Phil Anselmo, was Becks German beer. Maybe that’s where the joke came from.”
Anthrax’s Scott Ian described Anselmo’s actions as “vile” soon after the event. “Friends,” Ian posted on his website, “Hate speech. Racism. Inflammatory rhetoric. All dangerous no matter what the context. I have ZERO TOLERANCE for any of this and to not speak out against them is as dangerous as the acts themselves.”
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
