Adele announces first tour since 2011

The singer had to end her last tour early due to vocal problems

Adele is to embark on a UK and European arena tour next year - her first tour for five years.

The star will start in Belfast next February and visit Dublin, Manchester, London, Glasgow and Birmingham before moving on to mainland Europe.

Tickets for the UK dates go on sale to members of her website on 1 December before going on general sale on 4 December.

Her third album 25 has sold 737,000 copies in the UK in just six days.

It has also sold almost three million in the US since its release on Friday.

In interviews, the singer has suggested she may not tour, blaming stage fright, her chequered vocal health, motherhood, and saying she finds touring lonely.

'I have been bluffing'

"There is something quite lonely about going on stage in front of loads of people and then everyone going home," she told BBC Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw.

"It sounds really silly. I'm sure they would hang out with me, if I invited them back to my hotel, but I feel quite on my own a lot on tour."

But in a short video posted to accompany the tour announcement, she said: "I have been bluffing this whole time and I'm so relieved to tell you I am of course coming on tour."

Her last tour, in 2011, ended prematurely due to the discovery of a haemorrhage on her vocal cord, which required surgery.

With huge demand likely for her gig tickets this time, her tour website carries a request that purchasers do not sell tickets on for a profit.

Ticket touting 'not tolerated'

Reselling tickets at inflated prices is common for sold-out gigs and is not illegal. But it often causes consternation among genuine fans and the site says: "The resale of tickets will not be tolerated."

The tour announcement came after 25 set a new record for the most albums sold in a UK chart week, overtaking the previous record of 696,000 set by Oasis's Be Here Now in 1997.

However the Oasis album only went on sale three days before the end of the chart week, whereas Adele has notched up her total in six days.

Sales of Adele's third album far outstrip those of any other release in recent years. No other artist has even sold 100,000 copies in a single week this year.

One Direction came closest when their LP Made in the AM sold 93,000 last month - including more than 7,000 from streaming data, which Adele does not have because 25 is not available on streaming services.

Last year, Ed Sheeran's X sold 182,000 in its first week, Coldplay's Ghost Stories sold 168,000 and Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour shifted 101,000.

Adele UK tour dates:

• 29 Feb & 1 March 2016 - SSE Arena, Belfast

• 4 & 5 March - 3Arena, Dublin

• 7 & 8 March - Manchester Arena

• 15, 16, 18 & 19 March - The O2 Arena, London

• 25 & 26 March - The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

• 29 & 30 March - Genting Arena, Birmingham

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