Dead Dads Club, the new project of former Palma Violets frontman Chilli Jesson, has announced a headline tour across the UK in May 2026. The band released its self-titled debut album in January via Fiction Records. Tickets are on sale now.
Dead Dads Club kicked off the tour announcement following the January release of their debut album, produced by Fontaines D.C. guitarist Carlos O’Connell. The album explores themes of grief and loss, drawing from Jesson's experience of losing his father to drug addiction at age 14. It marks Jesson's return after Palma Violets' 2013 debut, a brief project called Crewel Intentions, and solo work, including live performances with Fontaines D.C. in 2023 where he met O’Connell. Jesson described the record to NME as adaptable in interpretation. “This record can be interpreted, lyrically, as a very specific time for me, or it can be loss in general,” he said. “This was an album that I’d wanted to write since I was 15, but I didn’t have the capability to get it out. I never used to really speak about it – at all. I used to be a fucking closed book with this subject.” His sister Georgie Jesson recently published a poetry book on the same theme, which inspired him. The tour begins on May 12 at Birmingham’s Sunflower Lounge, followed by shows in Cardiff at Clwd Ifor Bach on May 13, Brighton’s The Great Escape on May 14, Norwich’s Voodoo Daddy’s on May 15, London’s Camden Assembly on May 19, Bedford’s Esquires on May 20, Liverpool’s Rough Trade on May 21, and ends at Southampton’s Zerox on May 22. NME awarded the album four stars, noting that Jesson has found his musical direction through personal reflection.