VAMPIRE Weekend have announced a nine-date UK tour with appearances in both Liverpool and Manchester.

The indie sensations will come to Manchester Academy on October 21 and Liverpool Academy on October 30.

The tour comes on the back of an amazing year for Vampire Weekend, which has seen the New York quartet rack up over half a million worldwide sales of their critically-acclaimed, eponymous debut album.

Influenced by both African popular music and Western classical music, Ezra Koenig (singer, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboards), Chris Baio (bass) and Christopher Tomson (drums) have described their genre of music as “Upper West Side Soweto”!

The members of the band met while attending Columbia University; they then self-produced their first album after graduation while working full-time jobs.

Declared ‘The Year's Best New Band’ by Spin magazine in March, their singles A-Punk and Oxford Comma have marked them out as artists with the talent to match their vivid imagination.

Tickets priced £13.50 are on sale now at gigsandtours.com and from the 24–hour hotline 0871 2200 260.

For more on the band visit vampireweekend.com.