URBAN poet Mike Skinner is back on tour with The Streets this October - with a show at Manchester Academy.

The wordsmith, who will play the venue on Sunday, October 5, will be looking to remind audiences of the talent that saw a meteoric rise to fame.

Six years ago The Streets’ Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Original Pirate Material seemed to emerge from nowhere and established Mike Skinner as a witty and original MC-ing proposition – a phoenix from the ashes of the UK garage scene.

His follow up A Grand Don’t Come For Free, a concept album, a hip-hopera, whatever you wanted to call it, took things to a completely different level with three million copies sold, a number one single and album and multiple Brit and Ivor Novello awards.

His last album The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living, released in 2006, was nothing short of a voyage to the heart of celebrity darkness.

And now with his fourth album close to completion he has cheekily put up samples of four new tracks on his myspace page (myspace.com/thestreets).

Sounding like classic Skinner in action it bodes well for the full LP.

Tickets priced £17.50 are on sale now from gigsandtours.com and the 24-hour hotline 0871 2200 260.

For more information visit myspace.com/thestreets.