Queen’s Roger Taylor Announces Solo Album ‘Violence Insane in a Beautiful World’

The Queen drummer's new LP arrives September 18 via Columbia Records, backed by a UK tour and a lead single featuring the Ndlovu Youth Choir.

Queen drummer Roger Taylor has announced a new solo album, Violence Insane in a Beautiful World, due September 18 via Columbia Records. The 10-track set includes nine original compositions written by Taylor and a cover of John Lennon's ‘Jealous Guy,' with the South African Ndlovu Youth Choir appearing on three tracks. Taylor has unveiled the lead single ‘Come On Summer (It's Party Time)' featuring the choir, and a UK tour is scheduled for September to support the release.

Album Details and Themes

Violence Insane in a Beautiful World is co-produced by Taylor and Joshua J. Macrae. Taylor sings and performs on the songs alongside members of his live band, with the Ndlovu Youth Choir contributing to three tracks in total.

Taylor was direct about the record's thematic core. “There is a theme, you know, it's in the title really, what a beautiful world we live in, don't fuck it up,” he said. “There seems to be all this insanity at the moment. The violence in the world seems to be as bad as it ever was, at any point, and certainly in my lifetime. It's just horrific, a lot of insane violence. And we do seem to be fucking up the world, plastics in the sea, you know, and all these awful wars everywhere and hatred born of different religions.”

The album is available for pre-order on vinyl or CD. The full tracklist is below.

• A Beautiful World – Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir
• Violence Insane
• What Really Matters
• Don't Photograph Food
• I See You Now
• Chump
• Spit In His Eye
• Jealous Guy
• Come On Summer (It's Party Time) – Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir
• A Great Big Beautiful World (reprise) – Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir

UK Tour Dates

Taylor will take the album on the road across the UK in September, backed by a band that includes keyboardist Spike Edney, supporting drummer Tyler Warren, multi-instrumentalist Tina Keys, bassist Neil Fairclough, and guitarist Christian Mendoza.

• Sept. 21 — O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK
• Sept. 22 — Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK
• Sept. 24 — The Alexandra, Birmingham, UK
• Sept. 25 — Opera House, Manchester, UK
• Sept. 28 — Roundhouse, London, UK
• Sept. 29 — Building Society Arena, Swansea, UK

The Ndlovu Youth Choir Connection

The Ndlovu Youth Choir, based in South Africa, appear on three tracks: the opening ‘A Beautiful World,' the lead single ‘Come On Summer (It's Party Time),' and the closing reprise ‘A Great Big Beautiful World.' Their presence gives the album an international dimension that extends well beyond Taylor's previous solo work, and their inclusion on the lead single signals how central the collaboration is to the project's identity.

What we know

• Roger Taylor's new solo album is titled Violence Insane in a Beautiful World and is set for release on September 18 via Columbia Records.
• The album contains 10 tracks: nine originals written by Taylor and a cover of John Lennon's ‘Jealous Guy.'
• The lead single is ‘Come On Summer (It's Party Time),' featuring the Ndlovu Youth Choir from South Africa.
• The Ndlovu Youth Choir appear on three tracks on the album.
• Taylor co-produced the album with Joshua J. Macrae.
• A six-date UK tour is scheduled for September 2026, with shows in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and Swansea.
• Taylor's touring band includes Spike Edney, Tyler Warren, Tina Keys, Neil Fairclough, and Christian Mendoza.

The take

Roger Taylor has maintained a solo career running parallel to Queen since the early 1980s, releasing albums including Fun in Space (1981), Strange Frontier (1984), Happiness? (1994), and Electric Fire (1998). Violence Insane in a Beautiful World would be his first solo studio album in roughly 28 years, making it a significant moment regardless of its commercial trajectory. The choice of Columbia Records as distributor signals a major-label commitment that his later solo work did not always carry. The thematic territory Taylor is staking out here, environmental damage, geopolitical violence, religious conflict, fits a long tradition of classic rock artists using late-career records to make explicitly political statements, from Neil Young's Living with War to Roger Waters's Is This the Life We Really Want? Whether that approach resonates with a mainstream audience or primarily with the existing Queen fanbase remains the open question. The Ndlovu Youth Choir collaboration is a genuinely interesting creative choice; the choir gained wide international recognition after their run on America's Got Talent in 2019 and have since become sought-after collaborators. Pairing their sound with Taylor's arena-rock instincts is the kind of unexpected combination that can either define a record or feel like a mismatch. The UK tour venues, ranging from the Roundhouse in London to the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, are mid-capacity rooms well suited to an intimate solo outing rather than a Queen-scale production.

Why it matters

For Queen fans, a new Roger Taylor solo album is a rare event, and the nearly three-decade gap since Electric Fire makes this release genuinely notable. Beyond the fanbase, the record arrives at a moment when legacy rock artists are increasingly using solo projects to address subjects that a band context might not accommodate. Taylor's willingness to engage directly with global violence and environmental destruction gives the album a weight that distinguishes it from a straightforward nostalgia exercise. The UK tour also gives fans a chance to see him in an intimate setting that Queen's stadium-scale productions rarely allow.

What's next

Violence Insane in a Beautiful World is due September 18 via Columbia Records. The UK tour runs from September 21 in Newcastle through September 29 in Swansea. The album is currently available for pre-order on vinyl and CD.

Frequently asked questions