Men Without Hats Tickets

Men Without Hats were founded in Montreal in 1980 by brothers Colin and Ivan Doroschuk. With Ivan as main songwriter and lead vocalist and Colin on guitar, the rest of the band was made up of a perpetually changing roster of musicians, including a third Doroschuk brother, Stefan.

The band took its name from the Doroschuks’ refusal to wear hats during the cold Canadian winters. Their 1980 debut EP Folk Of The 80’s [sic] was a minor splash in Canada, introducing their adopted countrymen to Men Without Hats’ penchant for synth pop played with a punk attitude.

The band’s second album propelled them to international fame, thanks to the enduring hit The Safety Dance. The single, inspired by Ivan’s expulsion from a club for pogoing, was a top ten hit in the UK and Ireland and went to No.1 in South Africa, turning Men Without Hats from a very Canadian affair to international synth pop stars.

While their next two albums failed to build on The Safety Dance’s success, they did help the band mark out their territory as one of the defining acts of synth-driven new wave. Inspired by the grunge explosion in the early ’90s, Men Without Hats made a brief foray into alt-rock for Sideways, before returning to their defining sound on 2003’s No Hats Beyond This Point.

As synth started to make their presence known again in the early ’10s, Ivan Doroschuk revived Men Without Hats with a new line-up to record their first album in nine years, 2012’s Love In The Age Of War. Two new albums were touted by the band for release in 2021 and 2022, entitled Again Part 1 and Again Part 2, alongside an accompanying UK tour.

Men Without Hats 2022 UK tour dates

17th May – O2 Academy2 Oxford
20th May – O2 Academy2 Leicester
21st May – O2 Academy2 Liverpool
24th May – O2 Academy2 Sheffield
25th May – O2 Institute2 Birmingham
26th May – O2 Academy Islington