JJ72 have announced their return to the fray, with a series of Ireland and UK dates in May.

The tour will comprise ten dates in all, with five of these on home turf. On the tour, the band will showcase new material from their as yet untitled third album, which is scheduled for summer release on Lakota Records. They also plan to play a series of summer festival dates, which will be followed by a more extensive autumn tour.

This will be JJ72’s first sustained outing since the introduction of Canadian born Sarah Fox, who replaced original member Hillary Woods on bass guitar.

Formerly of The Fangs, a Canadian rock outfit, Sarah joined the JJs in 2003, and features on the new album. “It’s been great to team up with Mark and Fergal,” she told hotpress.com. “I’m proud to be part of such a great band and I am very excited about our future together.”

“It’s been a transitional time for us,” the band’s lead singer and main songwriter Mark Greaney reflected. “We’ve been finding our new sound for this album. By bringing in Sarah and encompassing her musical background and ideas into the framework, we’ve also taken some time to create a new energy and momentum for the band.

“These will be our first live shows for over a year,” he added. “It’ll be great to get out on the road again and to try out the new songs. These dates are really for the fans, so that they can be the first to hear the songs on the new record.”

As yet, there is no Dublin date in the tour schedule.

In relation to the new album, we can expect both continuity and a sense of adventure.

“We’ve used, Ian Caple who was involved in production of the debut album, and who’s also produced Tindersticks and Ryan Adams,” Greaney revealed. “And we’ve also worked with Joe Baresi (Queens of the Stone Age), so there’s some really solid production and a pretty hard sound.”

To date, JJ72 have sold 650,000 albums worldwide, spawning a series of UK and Ireland hit singles over the past four years.

A preview of new material is available as a download from www.jj72.com.

The complete list of Irish and UK tour dates reads as follows:

Friday, May 6 @ An Cruisin Lan, Cork
Saturday, May 7 @ TEN, Waterford
Sunday, May 8 @ Dolan's, Limerick
Tuesday, May 10 @ Roisin Dubh, Galway
Wednesday, May 11 @ Royal Theatre Ruby Room, Castlebar
Thursday, May 12 @ Spring & Airbrake, Belfast
Saturday, May 14 @ King Tuts, Glasgow
Sunday, May 15 @ Cockpit, Leeds
Tuesday, May 17 @ Academy III, Manchester
Wednesday, May 18 @ 93 Ft East, London
Friday, June 10 @ Download Festival (Main Stage), Donnington