The Molotovs Add Second London Show As Wasted On Youth Hits The Top 3
The Molotovs are not having a quiet year. The sibling duo have announced a second London date on their upcoming Welcome To Urbia tour after a staggering rush on tickets — with fans snapping up 10,000 seats a full six months before the first show. The news follows the top 3 chart success of their debut album Wasted On Youth on Marshall Records, a record that has arrived with the kind of momentum most new bands only dream about.
Both London shows will take place at the 2,300-capacity O2 Forum in Kentish Town — the same venue where Matt (17) and Issey Cartlidge (19) played their very first gig as The Molotovs, a 20-minute support slot for The Libertines as soon as the doors opened. The fact that they are now returning to headline two consecutive nights says everything about how far they have come.
A Chart War, A TV Debut and Two Continents
Wasted On Youth entered the Official Charts at number 3, with The Molotovs and Lily Allen locked in a playful chart rivalry before Olivia Dean’s Grammys appearance sent her back to the summit. Matt’s Instagram comment — joking that they were “in a chart war with some new, unsigned band called Lily Allen” — was met with a characteristically warm response from Allen herself: “It’s all love baby, @TheMolotovs, hope you win the war.”
Recorded at Marshall Studio with producer Jason Perry and mixed and mastered by Blair Crichton of Dead Pony, the album features Matt and Issey alongside drummer Noah Riley. It is a life-affirming burst of new wave, punk, indie and garage rock that draws on the influence of Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, Blondie and The Damned, while remaining fiercely its own thing.
The record opens with ‘Get A Life’, a direct strike against the toxic culture of social media negativity, before moving through the pressures of coming of age in tracks like ‘Daydreaming’ and the hazy ‘Popstar’. The title track anchors the album with an anthem of self-doubt and defiance, while closer ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’ rounds things off as a powerful call to arms.
Sold-Out Tours and Waiting Lists
The band’s sold-out Wasted On Youth tour preceded the album’s release, and the Welcome To Urbia outing has already outgrown itself before it has begun. Promoters have been forced to open waiting lists for several shows, and venues in Leeds, Belfast and Dublin have been upgraded to meet demand.
This weekend, The Molotovs take their story to a national audience with a performance on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday 21st March, where they will perform ‘Today’s Gonna Be Our Day’ — the track that hit the top of the physical singles charts last June.
The Welcome To Urbia tour dates are as follows:
- September 2026 — Nottingham
- September 2026 — Brighton
- September 2026 — Glasgow
- September 2026 — Newcastle
- September 2026 — Sheffield
- September 2026 — Leeds
- September 2026 — Liverpool
- September 2026 — Manchester
- September 2026 — Cardiff
- September 2026 — Birmingham
- September 25 — O2 Forum London
- September 26 — O2 Forum London
The run also precedes sold-out arena dates with Yungblud, confirming that The Molotovs are building towards something considerably larger than two nights at the Forum — however significant those two nights already are.
How It All Started
Issey Cartlidge recalled how The Molotovs first came to share a stage with The Libertines, in a story that has already taken on the quality of rock mythology.
“We met them down in Margate at their hotel, the Albion Rooms. We were getting ready to busk on the beach, and it was absolutely pissing it down. Carl Barât saw us and invited us into the studio to just come in and play. We ended up chatting, and he invited us on that first tour. That was a 20-minute set as soon as the doors opened at the O2 Kentish Town Forum — and now we’re doing two headline shows after the first sold out!”
WASTED ON YOUTH OUT NOW ON VINYL, CD AND STREAMING PLATFORMS VIA MARSHALL RECORDS HERE
BUY TICKETS FOR THE ‘WELCOME TO URBIA’ TOUR HERE
