The comedian Peter Kay has announced he will perform his new standup show in year-long monthly residency at London’s 02 arena.
Speaking in a rare radio appearance, Kay thanked fans for their response to Sunday’s announcement of his first live tour for 12 years. “It’s been proper overwhelming,” he told BBC Radio’s 2 Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
He used the broadcast to reveal that the new tour would include a performance next month at London’s O2, followed by a show each month at the same venue until November 2023.
In response to initial disappointment from fans that the first details of the tour included no London dates, Kay said: “Course I’m not gonna not do London … I’m doing the 02 once a month.”
He will be the first artist to perform a monthly residency at the venue, 02 said.
Kay said: “There’s basically been me and Prince have done it, and look what happened to him.”
Kay said he wanted tickets to the show to be affordable. “I said we’re doing this tour, and literally two weeks after all gas prices have gone up and everything else, and petrol. I’ve thought God you’ve got to do something. So I said: ‘Why don’t we do them at the same price, starting from £35. You’ve gotta meet people half way. It’s bad times. That’s why people need a laugh.”
He added: “That’s why it were on news because it was something happy for once instead of gloom and doom – a bit like when you had a panda at the end of Newsround.”
Kay said he “could not get over” watching BBC One’s evening news anchor reporting his tour. “Huw Edwards was on the news with a picture of me behind him. He was doing the Queen’s funeral and he’s talking about me …
“Huw Edwards said he had to get some tickets at the end. Huw Edwards is going to queue up for tickets … Him? I cannot get my head [around] it.”
Kay has been largely out of the spotlight since a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018.
Following Sunday’s announcement of his new tour, Kay’s official website appeared to crash briefly under increased online traffic.
Kay said: “I really appreciate whatever has been happening in the last few days. It’s so lovely. And so nice. And it’s proper overwhelming. I hope I do you a good show.”
Kay’s tour will start on 2 December at the Manchester AO Arena and will also include dates in Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Belfast, Newcastle, Dublin, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Kay rose to fame with the mockumentary series That Peter Kay Thing and later masterminded shows including Phoenix Nights and Car Share.
