The March Violets reissue ‘Turn to the Sky’ single, announce new UK and EU tour dates
The March Violets reissue their 1986 single “Turn to the Sky” b/w “Miss Amanda Jones” on September 18, and add UK, Czech and Brazilian tour dates.
The March Violets reissue “Turn to the Sky” b/w “Miss Amanda Jones” on digital services on September 18, 2026, and have added a second run of tour dates across the UK, continental Europe and Brazil. The English post-punk and gothic rock band released “Turn to the Sky” as a single in February 1986 on London Records, and the version now being reissued is the re-recording made the following year for the John Hughes film “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
The reissue pairs that 1987 film version of “Turn to the Sky” with “Miss Amanda Jones,” a cover of the Rolling Stones song that the band recorded for the same soundtrack. Both tracks had previously been available only on the film’s soundtrack album. Producer Stephen Hague, working from the band’s 1986 original, re-recorded “Turn to the Sky” for the film, and the band performed the song on screen, spending two weeks on the production’s Hollywood set. “Some Kind of Wonderful,” directed by Howard Deutch and written and produced by John Hughes as a follow-up to his 1986 hit “Pretty in Pink,” stars Lea Thompson as Amanda Jones, the character the film’s title track and the Rolling Stones cover both reference.
The tour, billed as the second leg of the “Unnatural History” run, follows 14 UK dates the band played in June and July 2026 in support of their “Natural History” album reissue. Alongside that 1980s catalogue, the band also performs songs from Crocodile Promises, their 2024 album, and have said a further album is half-finished.
Tour dates for The March Violets
- October 27, 2026 – Prague, Czechia – Lucerna Music Bar
- October 31, 2026 – Whitby, UK – Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival, Pavilion Theatre
- November 1, 2026 – Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK – The Cluny
- November 3, 2026 – Edinburgh, UK – Speakeasy
- November 5, 2026 – Derby, UK – The Hairy Dog
- November 6, 2026 – Huddersfield, UK – Amped
- November 8, 2026 – Bedford, UK – Esquires
- November 10, 2026 – London, UK – New Cross Inn
- November 11, 2026 – Brighton, UK – Komedia
- February 6, 2027 – Sao Paulo, Brazil – Wave Festival
Ticket and merchandise links for the dates are listed on the band’s official site.
About The March Violets
The March Violets formed in Leeds in December 1981, when guitarist Tom Ashton, bassist Laurence “Loz” Elliott, and singers Simon “Detroit” Denbigh and Rosie Garland met at Leeds University. Sisters of Mercy singer Andrew Eldritch released the band’s debut EP, “Religious as Hell,” on his Merciful Release label on August 28, 1982. Seven March Violets singles reached the UK Indie Chart, and the 1984 compilation “Natural History” reached number three on that chart.
Cleo Murray replaced Garland as the band’s main vocalist from the 1983 single “Snakedance” onward. In 1986 the band signed to the major label London Records and released “Turn to the Sky,” written by Murray, Elliott and Ashton, as its final single before splitting. The band, by then made up of Ashton, Elliott, drummer Andy Tolson and Murray, went on to record and perform “Turn to the Sky” and “Miss Amanda Jones” for the 1987 film “Some Kind of Wonderful.”
The band reunited in 2007 for a one-off Leeds show with Denbigh, Garland and Ashton, joined by Matt Thorpe (of Isolation Division) on bass, and reformed again in 2010. That lineup of Garland, Ashton and Thorpe released a five-CD boxset in 2022 and the album Crocodile Promises on Metropolis Records on July 19, 2024. The reissue of “Turn to the Sky” and “Miss Amanda Jones,” and the new tour dates announced alongside it, follow that album and this year’s “Natural History” reissue and its accompanying UK tour.
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