When Jon McClure ('The Reverend') and his band of Makers emerged into a post-Arctic Monkeys Sheffield, blinking at the spotlights now blazing down on the city, it seemed as if their brand of electro-fuelled indie pointed the way forward.

Certainly Reverend and the Makers' debut album, 2007's 'The State of Things', was a good start and it got all the usual indie flag-wavers very hot under the grandad shirt. The stand-out single, and still the band's biggest hit, was the epic 'Heavyweight Champion of the World'. After hearing Heavyweight, with its energy and a compelling narrative delivered by McClure, XFM daren't stand up for a month.

The single topped the indie charts, as did follow-ups 'He Said He Loved Me', 'Open Your Window' and 'Silence is Talking', and McClure found more fame as a leading blade of the Sheffield music scene, forming 'supergroup' Mongrel and guesting on XFM. With the second record, 2009's 'A French Kiss in the Chaos', McClure led his flock into more politicised territory. He urged Steel City counterparts Arctic Monkeys to stop writing about 'girls at bus-stops' and focus on the bigger issues facing society today.

Jon McClure also found notoriety with some choice soundbites on, among other things, the sad demise of reality TV patsy Jade Goody (mostly taken out of context, it should be pointed out).

Into 2012, and Reverend and the Makers report that a third album is in the process of being completed and, with UK dates already scheduled for May, an October headline tour has also been announced.

The May dates begin in Glasgow on 4th May, then Leeds (Live at Leeds 2012), Manchester and London (Scala) followed by a hometown gig at the Leadmill in Sheffield on 11th May 2012 (tickets now, priced £10, £20 for the Leeds gig).

The autumn tour begins in Newcastle on 11th October, taking in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Birmingham and many more, before the final show at the Shepherds Bush Empire on Friday 26th October 2012.

We have tickets for the autumn gigs available now, priced £15 for London and £12.50 for all other dates.