There is always a risk with arena support slots that the crowd treats them as background noise. People are still finding their seats, still queueing for drinks, still waiting for the artist they came to see. But watching ADMT open for Louis Tomlinson in both Manchester and Glasgow, it became obvious very quickly that this was not going to be one of those situations.
From the first song, there were fans at barricade singing the lyrics back to him, and by the second or third track, that energy had started to move through the rest of the room too.
The Doncaster singer-songwriter, whose real name is Adam Taylor, walked out onto stages he had dreamed about playing his whole life and somehow managed to make rooms of more than 20,000 people feel personal. Warm acoustic moments sat beside huge singalong choruses, while his openness around mental health, loneliness and self-worth cut through instantly with an audience already deeply connected to emotional honesty in music. His songs carry that same quality: direct, human and unafraid of sitting with the difficult stuff.
It felt like the perfect match of artist and audience. Louis Tomlinson’s fans have built a reputation for embracing authenticity, and across Manchester’s Co-op Live and Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, there was genuine warmth towards ADMT from the second he stepped on stage. By the end of each set, it no longer felt like fans politely welcoming a support act. It felt like people discovering an artist they were ready to take with them.
That reaction has continued online too, with fans sharing clips, streaming his music and connecting with the story behind his debut album, From Good To Bad And Then Back Again, which arrives tomorrow, 15 May, via BMG. After the arena run opened him up to a new wave of fans, ADMT now heads into release week with that support behind him and a much bigger room ready to listen.
Following the response to CultureCues’ recent Louis Tomlinson feature, ADMT spoke to us about supporting the tour, the emotional impact of those arena shows, the way Louies embraced him so quickly, and why this next chapter feels bigger than anything he has experienced before. It arrives just as his debut album prepares to meet the audience he has been building towards.
“It was pure energy”
What was it like stepping out in front of Louis Tomlinson’s arena crowd each night?
“I’ve been blessed enough to have some pretty sick experiences in my life, but that’s a high I cannot explain. It’s pure energy. Everyone was so cool, just so much love from those guys, man.”
What stood out in Manchester and Glasgow was how naturally ADMT balanced the size of the room with the intimacy of the songs. He could let the bigger choruses fill the arena, then pull everything back into something more conversational when he spoke about mental health, loneliness and finding your way through difficult days. That genuineness carried off stage too, from meeting fans outside the venue before the show to coming down to barricade after his set, taking photos, chatting properly and making the whole thing feel personal.
“Every night I went out there with imposter syndrome and every night those guys made me feel like I belong.”
You described the tour as the most incredible experience of your life. What made it feel that way?
“I think it’s that full circle moment relived each night. Those stages I’ve dreamt of playing my whole life. Call it manifestation, praying, whatever you like, but that’s what I dreamt of, you know? And every night I went out there with imposter syndrome and every night those guys made me feel like I belong.”
That feeling of belonging sits at the centre of a lot of ADMT’s music. Before the arenas and sold-out tours, he spent years busking across Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds during the pandemic, building a following through emotionally open performances. His music later exploded online after his striped back acoustic cover of 50 Cent’s “Best Friend” went viral, eventually earning praise from the rapper himself. But even with the growing audience, the Louis Tomlinson tour felt like a genuine turning point.
“I think I’ve searched for that feeling since I was a kid and each show I felt it. It was just pure magic.”
How did Louis’ fans respond to you from the stage?
“Honestly I didn’t expect as much love as I felt, maybe that’s my own insecurities, I don’t know. But as cliché as it sounds, it felt like family, like I’d known those guys forever. I heard Louis fans were some of the best fans in the world and honestly they were just that. Pure love every single night regardless of where we were in the world. That’s what humanity should be, I feel. Just good humans giving good energy.”
“That’s what humanity should be, I feel. Just good humans giving good energy.”
That sense of community was something CultureCues explored heavily in our original Louis Tomlinson feature, and hearing it reflected back from somebody standing on stage every night only reinforces it further. There is a reason Louis’ tours resonate so emotionally with people, and part of that comes from how openly both artist and fans embrace vulnerability, loyalty and connection.
Did Manchester or Glasgow have any particular moments that stood out?
“Honestly, the Scots always give the best mental energy whenever I’ve played there in the past and it was just that in Glasgow. They’re nutters, haha, I love em. Manchester being so close to home for me just felt something special. I’m a proud northerner so being back there was mint.”
Both Manchester and Glasgow had immediate live energy, but Manchester carried something slightly different for ADMT. Being so close to home gave the set an extra sense of northern pride, the same feeling that runs through “North”, where he sings about Yorkshire, mates who will sort you out and the kind of place that stays with you wherever you go. Watching somebody from Doncaster stand in an arena that size, clearly taking it all in, gave the performance another layer. Glasgow, meanwhile, brought its usual full-force chaos from the floor. The Hydro crowd gave him plenty to work with, and he clearly loved every second of it.
What would you say to fans who discovered your music through this tour?
“I guess all I can say is thank you, yano. Thank you for welcoming me with open arms. I speak about mental health a lot and just seeing people’s love and reactions during and after the shows has given me a lot of happiness, a lot of peace. That’s something you can’t buy. I’m just mad grateful.”
That gratitude makes sense when you see how central those conversations are to his work, both in the songs themselves and in the way he speaks to a crowd. During the tour, one of the most emotional moments came with “Overboard”, when ADMT took time to speak directly to the crowd about mental health and the importance of removing some of the stigma and silence that still surrounds it, particularly for working-class people and young men. He did not present himself as somebody with all the answers, or fall back on neat clichés about everything magically getting better. Instead, he spoke honestly about struggling himself and wanting people to feel less alone in those thoughts.
That same care runs through the song itself. “Overboard” does not speak about mental health from a distance, but from the middle of it: “I been there, I been on my knees too / I’ve done my time alone in the dirt.” Later, he captures the quiet isolation of trying to keep going while feeling invisible: “I know how it feels to be see-thru / To fade away, get lost in the crowd.”
Inside rooms filled with thousands of people, “Overboard” still felt deeply personal. You could feel the crowd listening closely, not just to the music, but to what he was trying to say underneath it.
“It feels like a happiness that I’ve spent a long time trying to find.”
With your debut album out on 15 May and sold-out headline dates coming up, what does this next chapter feel like for you?
“Honestly, it feels like I’m truly blessed and forever grateful to be living my truth and being accepted for it too and it’s all thanks to the people who dedicate their time and energy into supporting what I do. Also feels like I may even be able to afford to move out of my mum’s place at this rate! All jokes aside, it just feels like a happiness that I’ve spent a long time trying to find.”
For all the vulnerability in ADMT’s music, and all the seriousness of the issues he writes and speaks about, he never seems defined only by the difficult parts. You can feel the weight of those experiences when he sings, but on stage and afterwards with fans, he comes across as warm, cheeky, grateful and genuinely joyful to be there. That joke about finally being able to move out of his mum’s place says a lot. Even in the middle of a huge career moment, he still sounds like himself.
That next chapter is already moving quickly. ADMT’s debut album From Good To Bad And Then Back Again arrives tomorrow, 15 May, featuring tracks including “Turn The Page”, “Homeless” and “Cover To Cover”. The record explores love, mistakes, mental health and resilience, with ADMT previously describing it as “growth, making mistakes, feeling everything a bit too much and not always knowing where to put it.”
Alongside the album release, his entire We Made It This Far 2026 headline tour has now sold out, while tickets for his biggest tour to date, the 2027 From Good To Bad And Then Back Again UK and Ireland tour, are already on sale here. The run will see him return to Manchester and Glasgow, while also heading to London, Newcastle, Leeds, Dublin, Belfast and more.
For CultureCues, what feels exciting is how much of this momentum still seems rooted in real connection. ADMT has gone from busking through city centres during lockdown to standing in front of thousands of people in arenas, but the heart of it still feels close enough to reach. The honesty is still there. The gratitude is still there. So is the cheeky northern warmth that makes fans want to root for him.
Online, plenty of Louies have already joked that he has been adopted into the family now, which feels about right. The Louis Tomlinson support run may have introduced ADMT to a much wider audience, but the response suggests many of those fans are not just passing through.
With From Good To Bad And Then Back Again, ADMT steps into an era that feels genuinely promising. He has the songs, the live presence and the kind of sincerity people want to hold onto. Judging by the reaction inside those arenas, plenty of fans are ready to carry that next chapter with him.
From Good To Bad And Then Back Again is released tomorrow, 15 May, and is available to pre-save now.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.