JUDAS PRIEST: U.K. Tour With QUEENSRŸCHE Officially Announced

British metal legends JUDAS PRIEST have announced the U.K. leg of their final "Epitaph Tour". Support on the trek will come from QUEENSRŸCHE and RIVAL SONS.

The dates are as follows:

July 15 - Newport Centre - Newport, UK
July 16 - O2 Apollo - Manchester, UK
July 17 - The Dome - Doncaster, UK
July 19 - SECC - Glasgow, Scotland
July 20 - Metro Arena - Newcastle, UK
July 21 - Civic Hall - Wolverhampton, UK
July 24 - BIC - Bournemouth, UK

Tickets For JUDAS PRIEST's Manchester and Wolverhampton shows are on sale from 9 a.m. on March 1.

JUDAS PRIEST announced in December that they will head out on their farewell world tour beginning in 2011. The band intends to hit all major cities across the globe as they sign off on a career that has lasted for nearly 40 years. The "Epitaph" tour will launch in early June and hit a number of European festivals throughout the summer, with more dates yet to be confirmed.

JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing recently answered a number of new fan questions via his official web site. When questioned about his plans for the future after PRIEST completes its farewell tour, Downing replied, "To be perfectly honest I have not given any thought as to possible case scenarios after the final tour. At the moment though I feel that PRIEST has played its part in music history and feel very proud to have achieved what we have. So there is a good positive feeling inside me and of course I feel very indebted to the fans all over the world. As for the future, we probably need the help of Nostradamus."

According to a posting on JUDAS PRIEST's official web site, the band is currently working on new material. The message adds that "all is going really well" and promises that more details will be made available at a later date.

A separate posting on JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton's official web site reads, "As you may already be aware, PRIEST have announced a fair well world tour beginning this summer.

"We are all excited about the tour and are currently having meetings to discuss the stage production, but above all the set list. We intend to include some classic PRIEST songs that we haven't played before and of course the old favorites that everybody will want to hear.

"To put everyone's mind at rest, this is by no means the end of the band. In fact, we are presently writing new material, but we do intend this to be the last major world tour."

JUDAS PRIEST's most recent double-disc concept album, "Nostradamus", sold 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart. This marked the band's highest-ever chart position in the U.S. In Canada, the CD opened at position No. 9 after shifting close to 4,000 units.

JUDAS PRIEST's previous studio CD, "Angel of Retribution", premiered with 58,000 copies in the U.S. back in March 2005 to debut at No. 13.