Beth Orton brings The Ground Above to Alexandra Palace Theatre next week

Beth Orton brings her latest album, The Ground Above, to Alexandra Palace Theatre next Thursday, 22 October, giving London listeners a chance to hear the singer-songwriter’s current work in one of the capital’s most distinctive performance spaces.

The date sits within her autumn touring schedule and connects a new recording chapter with a venue whose restored Victorian character is part of the attraction. For fans planning a night out next week, the essential distinction is the room: this appearance is advertised for the Theatre at Alexandra Palace.

A London date for the new album

The venue’s official listing confirms Thursday 22 October, with doors opening at 18:30. It describes the concert as a visit with The Ground Above and places it within a catalogue reaching back to Trailer Park in 1996, through Comfort of Strangers and Weather Alive.

Doors time is useful for planning your arrival, but it should not be treated as the exact moment the headline performance begins. Check the latest event information before travelling, including any age restrictions, access arrangements and updates from the organiser.

Inside The Ground Above

Partisan Records’ introduction to the album says Orton produced it herself, following the approach of 2022’s Weather Alive. The label describes a process that developed from live recordings and continued over roughly a year, with collaborators including Shahzad Ismaily, Sam Beste, Chris Vatalaro, Vishal Nayak and Tom Herbert.

The record’s themes include identity, motherhood, survival and renewal. Those are the label’s descriptions of the material, rather than a promise about the mood or running order of next week’s show. A concert can place familiar recordings in a different relationship with the musicians and audience around them.

The same release announcement introduces Cigarette Curls, featuring vocal contributions from Nick Hakim, and points to a live-recorded video. It gives listeners a specific starting point for exploring the album before the London date.

A listening route before Thursday

The label’s album listing gives a release date of 26 June 2026 and an eight-track sequence. The title track opens the record, with Before I Knew, Cigarette Curls and Waiting following; Otherside closes it.

A useful way into an unfamiliar album is to hear it in order once, then return to whichever track stays with you. Listen for the spaces between the vocal and the instruments as well as the melody itself. That approach leaves room to notice what changes when music moves from a recording into a shared room.

Fans arriving through an older record can make their own small listening sequence across different periods of Orton’s work. There is no confirmed set list in the venue announcement, so an old favourite should be treated as a listening choice rather than a guaranteed song on the night.

The theatre’s own second life

Alexandra Palace’s history of the Theatre traces the room back to 1875. Its early programme included opera, drama, ballet and pantomime, while its later uses included cinema and a BBC props store and workshop.

The Palace’s wider history records the 2018 restoration of the East Wing and the reopening of the Victorian Theatre after about eighty years of closure. That history makes the building more than a neutral backdrop: a modern concert continues a long story of public entertainment on the site.

Where the London show fits

Partisan’s tour calendar places Orton in Leeds on 16 October, Glasgow on 17 October, Bristol on 19 October and Norwich on 21 October, ahead of Alexandra Palace. London is therefore part of a run of performances across the country rather than an isolated album launch.

For next Thursday, use the venue’s own ticket link to check current availability and choose the arrangements that suit you. Save the event details, plan the journey home and allow enough time to find the Theatre entrance. The combination of Orton’s new material and the room’s history offers a clear reason to put this north London date in the diary.