Bob Dylan announces first British tour in more than five years

Bob Dylan has announced his first British tour in more than five years.

The U.S. folk and rock singer, 81, will play nine dates in October 2022 as part of his Rough and Rowdy Ways Worldwide Tour, which began in December in Milwaukee.

He will play four nights at the London Palladium before visiting Cardiff, Hull and Nottingham for arena shows, then closing with two nights in Glasgow.

The concerts will take place between Wednesday October 19 and Monday 31, with tickets going on sale on Friday July 15.

Dylan, who has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize for literature during a 60-year career, last toured Britain in April and May 2017 as part of his Never Ending Tour.

That run of shows saw him mix classic tracks such as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Tangled Up In Blue" with newer material.

Dylan has already played 74 U.S. dates as part of the "Rough and Rowdy Ways" tour, in support of his British number one 39th studio album.

The shows have drawn upon his vast back catalogue as well as songs from the critically-acclaimed new album.

All the shows will be non-phone events, with the audience required to lock their phones in a Yondr bag for the duration of the performance.

Emerging from New York City's Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, Dylan became a counter-cultural figure with the release of a series of political anthems.

Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, was the first songwriter to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, with the Swedish academy crediting him with "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

His songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times, with artists as varied as The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix and Adele finding both commercial and critical success with covers.

Dylan has to date sold more than 125 million records globally and won a best original song Oscar in 2001 for "Things Have Changed," which he penned for the film "Wonder Boys."

Tickets go on sale at 10 am (0900 GMT) on Friday July 15.