1 October 2026 – Andy White Turns Forty Years of Songs Into Poetry, New Music and a Melbourne Homecoming

Northern Irish songwriter, poet and author Andy White will return to Melbourne's Merri Creek Tavern on November 12 for a show combining forty years of songwriting with the Australian launch of his third poetry collection and an early preview of a new album due in 2027. White's debut Rave On Andy White appeared in 1986, meaning the performance effectively connects four decades of work without turning into a straightforward anniversary exercise.

The new poetry book, Written To Be Read Quickly, contains almost fifty poems edited by Belfast novelist Robert McLiam Wilson and moves between humour, reflection and darker observations on contemporary life. More intriguing for music listeners, White will use the Melbourne performance to introduce songs from his next record, a love story, currently scheduled for 2027. That title is charmingly unambiguous from somebody whose career has rarely required elaborate marketing smoke.

The show illustrates the unusually porous border between White's songwriting and poetry: neither feels like the secondary activity. Independent artists with careers measured in decades increasingly face pressure either to live permanently inside their back catalogue or pretend their history never happened. White has chosen the more interesting middle route, putting new poems and unreleased songs beside work reaching back to 1986. Forty years later, apparently there are still things left to write.