Patti Smith is to perform her classic album Horses in full on a tour to mark the album’s 50th anniversary.
Playing gigs across the US, UK and Europe, Smith’s band will feature guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, each of whom played on the original recording. The tour includes two UK dates, at London’s Palladium on 12 and 13 October, with Dublin, Madrid, Bergamo, Brussels, Oslo and Paris also featuring on the European run. The US tour will visit Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington DC and Philadelphia.
Horses was Smith’s 1975 debut album, and came to be seen as a foundational text in New York’s punk scene, although Smith rejected the term punk, instead describing Horses as “three-chord rock merged with the power of the word”. Featuring a portrait by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe on the cover, Horses has long been regarded as one of the decade’s great albums, and is included in the National Recording Registry in the US Library of Congress.
Horses will also be commemorated with a tribute concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall on 26 March, featuring stars such Michael Stipe, Kim Gordon, the National’s Matt Berninger, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O and Sharon Van Etten who will perform album tracks backed by a band including the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea.
Smith has weathered bouts of ill health in recent years, including on tour. In January she collapsed while on stage in Brazil after experiencing a migraine over several days. In December 2023, she was hospitalised while in Italy and cancelled tour dates there after being told by doctors to rest.
But her live performances remain as spirited and distinctive as ever, with the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis describing a June 2024 concert as “moving, powerful and unexpected, a perfect reminder that, 12 years after her last album, Patti Smith is still in constant motion.”
Horses 50th anniversary tour dates
October
6 Dublin – 3Arena
8 Madrid – Teatro Real
10 Bergamo – Chorus Life Arena
12, 13 London – The Palladium
15, 16 Brussels – Cirque Royale
18 Oslo – Sentrum Scene
20, 21 Paris – L’Olympia
November
10 Seattle – Paramount theatre
12 Oakland – The Fox theatre
13 San Francisco – The Masonic
15 Los Angeles – Walt Disney Concert Hall
17 Chicago – Chicago theatre
21, 22 New York City – The Beacon
24 Boston – Orpheum theatre
28 Washington DC – The Anthem
29 Philadelphia – The Met
