Fat Dog return with ‘Go Fuck Urself’, a slicker provocation before a packed 2026 run

Fat Dog have kicked off 2026 with ‘Go Fuck Urself’, a playful, retro-minded single that lands as the South London band step back into view between festival dates and a sizeable headline tour later this year.

The track arrives after the former NME Cover stars followed their 2024 debut album WOOF. with two standalone singles last summer, Peace Song and Pray To That. Here, they sound less like a band easing into a new phase than one deliberately leaning into momentum. Go Fuck Urself pulls from ’80s-flavoured synths and a pulsing electro-pop framework, a shinier lane than the ragged post-punk edges that helped define their arrival, but still wired with the same sense of chaos control.

Frontman Joe Love keeps the writing blunt and deadpan. “Some jokers play the same old game / No one to annoy / Find a mirror and the person to blame,” he sings before the chorus snaps into view: “Go and fuck yourself/ I’m going to take you all down/ before I take myself”. It is the sort of line that works because the band do not overstate it; Fat Dog have always understood that the performance is part of the point.

The single was co-produced by Love and Oli Bayston, whose credits include Mary In The Junkyard and Kelly Lee Owens. Its release is paired with a gritty video that finds Love psyching himself up to enter the wrestling ring, a suitably weird visual coda for a band that has built its reputation on turning excess into a live-language of its own.

‘Go Fuck Urself’ is Fat Dog’s first new music of 2026, but it also arrives in the middle of a busy touring year. The band are set for festival appearances at Pinkpop and Sheffield’s Rock’n’Roll Circus, while higher-profile stops include supporting Kneecap at Crystal Palace Park on June 27 and opening for Foo Fighters at arena shows in Berlin, Vienna and Milan.

The scale of those slots says something about where Fat Dog sit now: still a band with a prankish streak, but no longer operating only at the margins. Their live schedule stretches across most of the year, beginning with dates in Europe in May and running through to a final UK show at Rock City in Nottingham on December 3. A run like that does not just fill the diary. It marks the point where a cultish live act starts being booked like a serious touring proposition.

Their 2024 debut, WOOF., set that up. NME handed the album a five-star review and called it “unserious, unhinged and sensational”, noting how openly the band rejected self-importance. “It’s clear from the get-go that this is not a band who take themselves seriously,” the review said, pointing to drummer Johnny ‘Doghead’ Hutchinson’s “ever-present latex dog mask”. But the same review also made the more telling point: “they’ve committed to the bit, and it makes the intricate and occasionally miserable post-punk that’s inundated the UK recently seem like a bore in comparison.”

That commitment was already part of the story before the album arrived. During their time on The Cover, keyboardist Chris Hughes told NME that the reaction to the band live had become something they could feel in the room. “What we’ve got as a band is special. I hear things from my friends who are in other groups, and there just seems to be constant animosity elsewhere,” he said. “We get these moments where everything lines up: sometimes, we all look at each other on stage, and quietly recognise that we’re playing a really good gig. It’s an amazing feeling.”

On the evidence of ‘Go Fuck Urself’, Fat Dog are still working in that space between mischief and scale, with enough confidence to make a pop-leaning turn feel like a continuation rather than a detour.

Check out a list of shows below and visit here for tickets.

Fat Dog’s 2026 live shows are:

MAY
13 – Nuits Sonores, Lyon, FR
16 – Get Together, Sheffield, UK
23 – Shindig Festival, Malmesbury, UK
24 – Bearded Theory, Derbyshire, UK
30 – Dauwpop Festival, Hellendorn, NL
31 – Ekko, Utrecht, NL

JUNE
6 – Beau Weekend, Nimes, FR
14 – Kesärauha Festival, Turku, FI
21 – Pinkpop Festival, Landgraaf, NL
22 – In Music Festival, Zagreb, HR
27 – Crystal Palace Park, London, UK (supporting Kneecap)

JULY
1 – Olympiastadion, Berlin, DE (supporting Foo Fighters)
3 – Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, AT (supporting Foo Fighters)
5 – Ippodromo Snai La Maura, Milan, IT (supporting Foo Fighters)
10 – Pohoda Festival, Trenčín, SL
11 – Décibulles Festival, Neuve-Église, Alsace, FR
12 – Chauffeer Dans La Noirceur, Normandy, FR
17 – Rock Herk, Herk-de-Stag, BE
18 – Dour Festival, Dour, BE
23 – SEI Festival, Brindisi, IT
24 – TV Spenta, Siena, IT
25 – Deershed, Topcliffe, UK

AUGUST
8 – Pop Messe, Brno, CZ
29 – Rock’n’Roll Circus, Sheffield, UK

SEPTEMBER
5 – End of the Road Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, UK
17-19 – Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg, DE

OCTOBER
24 – O2 Academy Brixton, London, UK
29 – De Roma, Antwerp, BE
30 – Tivoli, Utrecht, NL
31 – Elysee Montmarte, Paris, FR

NOVEMBER
1 – Stereolux, Nantes FR
3 – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, FR
4 – Die Kantine, Cologne, DE
6 – Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
7 – Loppen, Copenhagen, DK
14 – Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, UK
18 – Whelans, Dublin, IE
19 – Whelans, Dublin, IE
24 – Depot, Cardiff, UK
25 – O2 Academy, Bristol, UK
26 – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK
27 – O2 Academy, Leeds, UK
28 – Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, UK

DECEMBER
3 – Rock City, Nottingham, UK