London summers can often feel like some kind of romcom, in that both ends of the good-bad times spectrum are covered; one minute you’re hot and sweating on the tube as a stranger’s armpit makes contact with your nose and knocks a coffee from your hands to a woman dressed in white who then happens to be your new boss / mother in law / important other. The next you’re wandering down a warm summer street, drinking Aperols on a rooftop with friends and finding a free waterside cinema where you end up sharing popcorn with a mysterious (but harmless) stranger who you may or may not have a rendezvous / romantic encounter with. Luckily, there are plenty of summer events kicking off to help tip the balance towards the fun frisson-esque moments rather than the former.

One of these is the King’s Cross Summer Sounds festival, which is returning for 2026. It’s a free music and performance festival which takes place across August in Coal Drop’s Yard. 2026 marks the festival’s 11th year, and they’re rolling out an impressive lineup to celebrate. In true romcom style, you just turn up, no tickets, or bookings required.

Running from 13th-23rd August, the festival is one of those things that you never really remember is on until you’re wandering through King’s Cross hearing lovely music drifting towards you, then you turn a corner and bam, there’s a full festival complete with extraordinarily comfortable deck chairs and people dancing. It’s one of those events that regenerates the “God this is a great place to live” moments.

Even though you may prioritise the vibes over being a die-hard fan of the musicians performing, that doesn’t mean there’s not a seriously decent lineup. Lightroom’s Bowie Nights takes over the stage in Coal Drops Yard for the opening night on Thursday 13 August with sets featuring unique Bowie covers played by Jack Kaye (formerly The Magic Gang) and rising alternative star Ashaine White. Plus, following those performances, the festival has promised “an explosive secret headline performance” which will be announced closer to the opening date.

On Friday 14 August, there will be performances from Little Grandad, who are fast becoming one of London’s most talked-about new bands, with support from pop, indie and R&B artist Len Blake.

It’s not all pop and indie tracks, though, as the festival will be hosting the Motown Gospel Choir to help celebrate 35 years of pioneering jazz development charity Tomorrow’s Warriors. There will also be folk music from Mishra and some more progressive instrumental folk tunes from Pons Aelius. Other performers include a West End Musical Choir, Kimmy Beatbox, Thandi Phoenix.

If you're after some summer tunes, or just happen to be passing through King's Cross in August, why not make a detour and hear some lovely live music? No tickets, no fees, no booking, and no one trying to sell you a £12 bottle of water. Good times, eh?

You can find the full lineup and all the information at the website here.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Rock band The Kinks are the quartet that launched a thousand ending credits in great noughties films. From hits like You Really Got Me to Sunny Afternoon, their lyrics have been chanted, wheezed, sung, and bopped along to for decades. Now, over twenty years after they disbanded, the two leading brothers are reuniting for a new art exhibition in London.

60 years on from forming The Kinks, Ray and Dave Davies' reunion comes in collaboration with painter Christian Furr at Gibson Garage in London. The exhibition is called Brothers, and Christian Furr has created a series of new original paintings, all based on a reimagining of a passport photograph of the brothers together, which was taken in 1968.

Running from 24th July until 6th September, the exhibition’s home will rather suitably be at the Gibson Garage, the flagship UK home of the same iconic guitar brand whose instruments formed a key part of the Kinks’ signature sound.

Artist Christian Furr is probably best known for being the youngest artist ever commissioned to paint the late Queen Elizabeth II and has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Saatchi Gallery, to name a few. Moving from monarchical royalty to musical royalty, Furr said he drew inspiration from “Matisse, punk, pop art, luminosity, and keeping that colour as bright as possible” and added that for him “that is what I see when I listen to The Kinks.”

If you were wondering how powerful the portraits are, Dave Davies was “moved to tears” when he saw the works for the first time, “and immediately began painting on them himself”.

“It was a magic moment when we crammed into the photobooth all those years ago,” Dave reminisced. “Christian Furr has done a wonderful job in developing the image into special artworks,” he added.

Ray Davies spoke about the collection saying, “It’s great to be doing something new with Dave, and seeing these paintings and the original passport photo booth picture again brings back a lot of memories.” Talking about the creativity and the Kinks’ legacy, he reflected that “Over the years it’s been amazing to see creative people take our music and make something of their own”, which is exactly what Furr has done.

Hailed as one of the 100 greatest artists of all time by Rolling Stone, The Kinks became vital influences for Blondie, The Jam, The Ramones, The Clash, Black Sabbath, The Doors, The Pretenders, and Van Halen. The Who’s Pete Townsend once said: “The Kinks invented a new kind of language for pop songwriting that influenced me from the very beginning.”Ray’s songwriting was so influential to Blur and Oasis that he earned the nickname “the Godfather of Britpop." The Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

To celebrate the exhibition, Gibson and RedHouse Originals are dropping free limited-edition prints in three secret London locations linked to the band’s history. While all paintings are signed by Ray, Dave, and Christian, a small number of signed, limited-edition prints will also be signed by Dave Davies and Christian Furr and available to fans on a first come first serve basis at the exhibition opening on 24 July.

Every painting in the exhibition will be signed by Ray and Dave Davies and Christian Furr. The paintings and a collection of limited-edition prints will be available to buy from Red House Originals, with limited edition prints starting at £195

The Kinks: Brothers is at Gibson Garage, London, from 24 July–6 September 2026. Open Monday-Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 10am-7pm, Sunday 12-6pm.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

It was an apocalyptic 39°C as Madrid’s Mad Cool festival kicked off its tenth anniversary celebrations last week, and the festival’s organisers pulled out all the stops. For good reason, too: at this rate there might not be a planet left for a 20th anniversary return.

Making the most of the time we’ve all got left, Mad Cool nabbed the line-up of summer 2026, with headliners Foo Fighters, Lorde, Pulp, Florence + The Machine and Nick Cave soaking up the UV for our sweaty pleasure across the July four-dayer.

Having melted for the cause to bring you highlights from the festival each day, here's our full final review of what's certain to be the festival to beat for 2026.

JULY 8th | DAY ONE

Jehnny Beth

Like a vampire boxer eyeing up the Mad Cool crowd for its next throat, it feels almost criminal to put Jehnny Beth onstage while the sun’s still shining. But Jehnny Beth’s familiars come out in force for the Mad Cool tent’s opening act. She puts them to the test — not only with the nu-metal tinged onslaught of Broken Rib from latest album You Heartbreaker, You, but with a literal onstage push-up competition (resulting in a very respectable 23 push-ups in 39°C heat from one game fan).

It’s with a wink and a smirk that Beth prowls — the dark tunes cut through with wit and humour. If there were any doubters to challenge Beth’s place as the coolest act at the festival, a brooding cover of Bjork’s Army of Me lays them to (eternal) rest. (GL)

The Last Dinner Party

One of the benefits of a European festival over a UK one is you can often see acts that would inhabit just-off-headliner slots earlier in the day — and with smaller crowds, too.

The Last Dinner Party’s 7:30pm Mad Cool slot equates to around 4pm in London day festival currency. And while the band’s regency era lampshade dresses aren’t the obvious fit for heatwave weather, the catchy pop tunes and knowingly arch dramatics are fit for all seasons.

As ever, singer Abigail Morris lights up the stage’s video screens with her Kate Bush-referencing dancing, while the unabashed pop structure and dynamics of the songs keep the crowd up. And when the tempo and energy is brought down with one of Lizzie Mayland’s lead tracks, they’re well signposted enough to act like a hydration break, not a derailing.

The only issue was sound bleed from the main stage, with the somewhat more po-faced Mexican rock band The Warning’s set running through the first half of The Last Dinner Party’s. But given Mad Cool’s tightly designed festival ground layout, these things are as much down to the whims of the wind as anything else. (AW)

The Vaccines

Some of the best festival bands are those that don’t require you to be a fan beforehand to enjoy. The Vaccines fit into that category even if the heady days of their 2011 debut album are now far enough away to justify a 15-year anniversary tour.

The songs are catchy, unfussy and never outstay their welcome. And if you are at least of a certain vintage, there’s a good chance you know more of them than you’d guess beforehand. Their original signature sound had perhaps undesirable, unfashionable results in just the previous decade, but on stage they have little of the baggage of those often more preening forebears. And little of their more synth-heavy recent style comes to the fore in this festival set.

The Vaccines: an altogether good time for fans and non-fans alike. It’s just a shame that having to compete with concurrent sets from Foo Fighters and Moby would doubtless have squeezed out many potential casual wanderers-by — not that the third-batting stage was left wanting for viewers. (AW)

Wolf Alice

Britain’s best band? Right now Wolf Alice might be the best band in the world, period. A day one highlight, the Camden crew tore through a scorching early evening main-stage set drawing mostly from latest album The Clearing and 2021’s Blue Weekend, seesawing between tender heart-tugging (The Last Man on Earth) to buzzsaw scream-alongs (Play the Greatest Hits).

That emotional pendulum swing is personified in Ellie Roswell, on stage both soulful and savage, playfully trying out some GCSE Spanish before pummeling the crowd with megaphone howls. By the time cathartic closer Don’t Delete the Kisses rings out, the crowd’s left torn between confessing unrequited loves long lost, or simply smashing the place up. Gorgeous. (GL)

Moby

Richard Melville Hall — Moby — looks simultaneously not all that different to the man who put out the iconic Play in 1999, and also like a version of Santa Claus who has got far too into Ozempic. His schtick is the same delightfully watchable thing as ever.

Moby is the most incongruous element on his own stage. The unremarkable white man in white. The singer who can’t sing. The guitar-wielding non-star sprinting from one end of the stage to the other while never achieving — or even attempting to achieve — an actual rock star gait or presence.

And yet, it all just meshes with the top backing band and vibrant AV light show, forming a good-time party gumbo.

At the root of it all is what has given Moby such decades-spanning longevity: the tunes are rock-solid all timers that are recognisable remix after remix, not to mention once they’ve been rearranged to hell and back. A suitable alternative headliner to Foo Fighters for those who feel more at home with house than rock — a trickier goal than it sounds. And not only because Moby and Grohl have both been enmeshed in a face-palm relationship scandal in recent years. (AW)

Foo Fighters

As far as penitential rites go, Dave Grohl and crew’s two and a half hour sprint down memory lane wipes the slate clean. The Foo Fighters’ hearts-and-minds approach to touring in 2026 sees them rattling through three decades of hits in raucous fashion, kicking off with the heartbeat stab of All My Life to a giant crowd of sweat-glistened fans. It may be a festival headline slot, but Mad Cool day 1 is very much a Foos gig, judging by the sea of double-F t-shirts and tattoos on site.

For the 57,000 capacity crowd, this is as much a lesson in alt-rock history as it is a fan-favourites set: the Foos nod to each member’s past glories, with Pat Smear’s turn in US punk pioneers Germs celebrated with a cover of Manimal, Nate Mendel’s Sunny Day Real Estate getting a nod with a verse and chorus of Seven, and Chris Shifflet’s No Use for a Name cover Invincible inspiring the biggest pit of the night. Two, in fact, swirling despite the heat in a mirror battle on either side of the crowd safety divider. It’s a reminder that the Foos were a supergroup of sorts long before stadiums became their home.

The night’s a reminder, too, of the Foo’s knack for writing a killer pop song. Learn to Fly, My Hero, Breakout and Monkey Wrench are hook-filled entries into the rock and roll canon, while Aurora (dedicated here to late drummer Taylor Hawkins) and its cosmic balladry reveals the heart-on-sleeve core that’s made them a favourite around the world.

From the bubblegum delights of early hit Big Me to the roar of Best of You, there’s something for everyone here — and Grohl’s campaign to turn every human on the planet into a Foo Fighters fan gets permission to march on for another 30 years. (GL)

JULY 9th | DAY TWO

CMAT

“Someone has a flag of me not winning the Mercury Prize. Thank you so much — you can't win ‘em all” says Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, AKA CMAT, who instead wins the ‘Opener of the Festival’ title on day two of Mad Cool. It’s a day-glo crowd of devotees who turn up for the brisk seven song set, seemingly shipped in straight from the UK and Ireland, if the number of Tricolour flags on show are anything to go by.

The Dubliner’s breezy alt-country set mixes love with laughs (Ciara should be a comedian if the pipes ever give way), with Take a Sexy Picture of Me inspiring a mass singalong in the early evening sun. It’s another scorching day in Madrid, and CMAT calls for one final two-step sway from the crowd “if you're excited to join CMAT in our last gig before we die of heat stroke”. They’re only too happy to oblige as I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! kicks in — squint through the heat haze and this Dublin-via-Madrid hoedown could whisk you away to the Grand Ole Opry itself. (GL)

Lorde

Now here’s one that caused a rift in the Shortlist team. Is Lorde one of the most interesting big-name pop acts going, or just too low energy and grey-adjacent to really fly sat amid the technicolour style and energy of Zara Larsson and CMAT?

I’m a firm believer in the former. Her impressive Mad Cool set spans her entire discography, mildly reworking some of their arrangements with a backing band in (non)holy cross arrangement of keyboard and synth units — a Kraftwerk visual but not one that pushed this pop icon into anything but a lightly electronic-laced pop act. Business as usual.

The staging is a little odd, though, with giant back boxes for Lorde to clamber about on. They occasionally hint at lightshow elements as a definitely-not-real display of her heart rate ticks on like a hummingbird. At one point she dons a jacket with basically a small army of laser pointers glued to its fabric. You can’t help but feel some of it would land better without blazing sunshine and near-40-degree weather — but darkness is a luxury not many Summer festival acts get, in either Madrid or the UK.

She ends the set deep in the crowd, a sea parted by a handy security corridor, while letting loose some undeniable late set bangers including Green Light. And even if you aren’t enraptured by her lower-voltage sonic energy, you may at least be shamed into going back to the gym — Lorde currently looks like she’s come fresh from competing at the Olympics. (AW)

Zara Larsson

The sheer popularity of Zara Larsson tested the seams of Mad Cool’s staging. Larsson had a second stage, third-place act set, putting pressure on the mid-capacity space. And with no main stage act on as alternative programming, the enthused crowd swamped half of the festival ground as a massed sea of people.

It was headliner vibes three hours early, but Mad Cool’s tight stage arrangement doesn’t allow for secondary sound towers, leaving those who didn’t get there early to either accept transistor radio sound or start pushing through the masses. The results were worth a bit of crowd-weaving aggression though, even if that risked elbowing countless pre-teen girls in the face.

Larsson’s set dressing was based around a song that doesn’t bother her Spotify most-listened list, but fits the festival scene visual. Part way through the set, a campy pink Barbie-indebted car prop enters the stage, letting Larsson reference the Hot & Sexy lyrics about hanging out with your hot girlfriends — a viral TikTok sensation as well as a perfect match for the crowd sentiment. Most of them were singing along, even if they couldn’t quite hear Larsson herself as well as they hoped.

A stunning, high-energy set matched with unparalleled audience energy. But also proof Larsson needs a main stage placement next time. (AW)

Florence + The Machine

With more than 15 years of festival headliner experience under her vintage market belt, Florence Welch makes the top-slot job seem effortless and natural.

The band can now mine decades of recognisable hits, delivered with an earnestness that’s still light, and a call for emotion and feeling that manages to mostly avoid being too cloying or performative. The dance-led theatrics are offset by a simple focus on what Florence + The Machine are — a band with an undeniably captivating singer and the Earth Mother witchy bangers to back her up.

You’re encouraged to scream, to put your bloody phone away and enjoy the moment for once — a command almost all of the audience obeys. While some of the closing songs are now old enough to be the subject of a nostalgia tour, Florence + The Machine are consistent enough (and always just outside of trendy enough) to avoid seeming a retro throwback among the day’s younger and hotter acts. (AW)

We also saw…

Chloe Slater from Manchester, who plays light and digestible guitar-led pop-rock with chunkier themes than that summary might suggest, including the plight of the Palestinians in 2025 single War Crimes.

You’d have to try a bit harder to work out what New York electronic sibling act Frost Children are singing about, though. Their glitchy electro pop made for starkly different counter-programming to Florence + The Machine — a soundtrack fit for a swig of Monster Energy and a Fortnite headshot.

JULY 10th | DAY THREE

Pixies

Remember a couple of days / paragraphs ago when I said Wolf Alice are the best band on the planet? Yeah, well, Pixies are the best band in the world, too — we’ve just been taking them for granted over their 40 year run.

Frank Black and crew spare us any onstage banter in favour of a back-to-back-to-back 23 song set that plays out like the gospel for indie kids. From the beautiful sway of Wave of Mutilation to the deranged Vamos, the surf-pop perfection of Here Comes Your Man to the sci-fi magic of Velouria, it’s a breathless run through the blueprint texts for the last four decades of guitar rock.

There’s something to be said for seeing Pixies here in Spain — with so many of the songs featuring Spanish lyrics, there’s a kinship and pride coursing through the crowd when the likes of Vamos and Isla de Encanta erupt. There’s even time for a little virtuosity, with Joey Santiago summoning ray-gun sounds from his guitar pick ups by dragging his baseball cap across them.

A ferocious Tame makes every other band on the bill look, well, tame by comparison. And though the sea of iPhones raised for Where Is My Mind? may make for the most incongruous ‘lighters out’ moment of the weekend — arguably the band’s only true ‘hit’ in today’s TikTok obsessed social currency — we’ll let that indiscretion by the Johnny Come Latelys in the crowd slide. If they watched this set, at least they received the equivalent of an Oxbridge-grade crash course in alternative rock mastery. (GL)

Kings of Leon

Sex on Fire really did a number on Kings of Leon — one of the all-time great mega songs, it sits up there with Hey Jude, Seven Nation Army, Mr Brightside in the pantheon of untreatable earworms. But it’s an anthemic high the Tennessee rockers have chased ever since with diminishing returns.

Which is a shame, because when Kings of Leon drop the singalongs and get weird, they’re still awesome, and it shows in a superb mainstage Mad Cool set that sees them notably draw more heavily on their pre-2010 output than anything more recent. Cuts from 2007’s Because of the Times, such as My Party and On Call, have a between-the-legs swagger that few bands of the era managed. Aha Shake Heartbreak’s King of the Rodeo has a metronomic intensity that manhandles hips, and The Bucket is just about the prettiest song any band wrote in the naughties.

Of course I screamed out Sex on Fire along with the 50-odd thousand crowd as the set draws to its close — I’m not a monster. And if anything I left more in love with Kings of Leon than ever before — there’s still another great record in there, somewhere beyond the allure of the stadiums and festival crowds. (GL)

Interpol

While mainstage headliners Twenty One Pilots bring the pyro, second-stage closers Interpol bring the New York cool, still sharp suited and impeccably put together even in the oven-like heat of their witching hour slot.

For a band whose melancholic staccato runs the risk of feeling detached, there’s an emotional through line to the songs that sees Interpol received with an almost religious fervour by some portions of the sizable crowd. NYC shimmers with an elegiac potency that draws actual tears from the eyes of a bulldozer of a man next to me, despite everyone struggling, Dune-like, to retain any and all moisture that they can.

But Interpol are always at their best when they let the bass and beat do the talking. C’mere, Slow Hands, Obstacle 1 and PDA have lost none of the hi-hat braggadocio that still make them perennial indie-disco floor-fillers. (GL)

We also saw…

The bombast and flash of Twenty One Pilots draws a massive main-stage closer crowd, with an off-kilter nod to Cher’s Believe a fun aside from their hip-hop-electro-rock fusion.

A Perfect Circle, the gateway drug for the Tool-curious alt-art-rockers in attendance, play a technically brilliant set for the gleeful, grateful crowd, even if it’s just a touch too precise to feel lived in. Judith still slaps way harder than any song about lost faith and debilitating illness has any right to, though.

JULY 11th | DAY FOUR

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Six songs into Nick Cave’s mainstage Mad Cool co-headliner slot, the goth punk preacher, suspended above the front row crowd by the hands of the faithful, reaches out and grabs the arm of a young fan. He is transfixed, stupefied, as motionless as someone can be when flanked by 50,000 kohl-lined parishioners. He’s struck dumb by the intensity of the stare he shares with Nick Cave, his mute gaze only exorcised when Cave kicks off the shriek-and-response ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah!’ of Tulepo.

The evangelical analogies with Cave are at this point played to death of course, but there’s no better description for it — this lad has had a religious experience at the altar of the Bad Seeds.

It’s a sensation felt in waves through the crowd, and though Cave can’t reach all of them physically individually, he does his damn best to try. The power of the service leaves no-one left to convert as the Bad Seeds tear through a blistering run of The Mercy Seat, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, and Red Right Hand, Warren Ellis’s fiddle at times seeming on the verge of combustion. As the crowd sway to gentle closer Into Your Arms, it’s all they can do but lift their eyes up to the heavens and thank God for Nick Cave. (GL)

David Byrne

“Showing love and kindness is the most punk things you can do right now” says David Byrne in orange jumpsuit and glow-in-the-dark trainers, quoting director John Cameron Mitchell, and it’s love and kindness — with a huge helping of joy — that propels the Talking Heads’ legend’s set to greatness.

This is euphoric, life-affirming stuff. From the moment his fellow tango’d performers join him on stage with an array of mobile instruments that look as though they were crafted during an episode of Blue Peter, it’s a non-stop party atmosphere. Sesame Street singalong Everybody Laughs sets the tone immediately, with surreal videos playing out over three massive screens as the troupe dance and harmonise around Byrne.

It’s hit after hit, as the crowd grooves along to Nothing But Flowers, and the usually-stark Psycho Killer transforms into a mad hand-waving anthem, belted out louder than any other song we heard all weekend.

But it’s not a passive love-in — the screens also flick to montages of stormtrooping US I.C.E immigration squads pulling frightened faces off the streets. (There was also a clip of that amazing viral video where a total boss evades the clutches of about 10 I.C.E agents as he weaves away on a hire pedal bike, which was cheered with absolute delight).

“Home is where I want to be” sings Byrne on ice-melting beauty This Must Be The Place. Let it act as a reminder that we all should count our blessings we’re not being teared away from our own, and to let that love and kindness face off against the darker forces of the modern world. Never for money, always for love. (GL)

Pulp

Jarvis Cocker and crew fought the hardest double-whammy clash of the entire weekend — David Byrne’s day-go celebrations on the second stage, and (at least for any Brits in the crowd) the crucial England vs Norway semi-final World Cup clash. As such, it was only really the final third of Pulp’s festival closing set we caught.

But if you’re talking heart-pounding finishers, picture this: a dozen journos huddled around a 10-inch laptop screen at the edge of the press tent, dashing in and out for Britpop blasts of Do You Remember The First Time? and Mis-Shapes, nervily heading back inside for a hushed extra time under-your-breath singalong to Babies, the greatest song about voyeurism ever written, before an explosion of cheers as the full-time whistle brings both an England win and the first legendary keyboard stabs of Common People. Cue a dancing rush into the crowd as if there were 12 Bellinghams there in Madrid, and a core memory unlocked for all the English football fans in attendance. (GL)

We also saw…

Classic rock riffage from The Black Crowes was a perfect main stage opener for day four — hazy Georgia soul to match the heat, and just enough crunching licks to wake up everyone still recovering from the night before. Maybe it was the sunstroke, but Remedy felt like it had about eight choruses, great for limbering up the crowd’s vocal cords for the Crowe’s go-to Otis Redding cover Hard to Handle.

The second stage and tent saw Matt Berninger and Nina Kraviz do battle — the former heart-on-sleeve confessional sincerity, the latter raw techno and lasers. We spent most of the clash at the second, and so too seemingly did the rest of the dance-starved crowd, who bopped enthusiastically well beyond the confines of the packed out tent.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

It has been almost a decade since System of a Down played in London. But this week they return, with some of the biggest concerts of their career.

System of a Down play two nights at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium this week, on 13th and 15th July.

The venue has capacity for up to 65,000, but the band seemingly had no trouble selling out of the most desirable standing tickets for the first show. And reports from the band’s early tour concerts in Europe suggest this is not one to miss.

Important venue rules

Like so many venues, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium’s line on bags is you cannot bring in something larger than A4 size — 30cm x 21cm.

Sometimes the security staff will be a little looser on these rules, but do not go bringing some giant hiking bag. You’ll be asked to leave it in a nearby bag drop facility.

Other notable rules include that you can’t bring in any food, drink or even empty bottles. Despite the heatwave, the current plan is to make you buy water, and whatever else you might want or need, from inside the venue.

Selfie sticks, GoPros and other camera gear that might be construed as “professional” is not allowed either.

Last-minute tickets

At the time of writing, a limited but substantial number of tickets are available direct through Ticketmaster. And it’s not just resale tickets there either.

For the 13th July show floor tickets are limited to resale, but a smattering of tickets across the seated sections are available — both original release and resale.

It is also worth checking out the third-party resale sites too, including Twickets, Ticketswap and Tixel. There’s been no official partner embargo with this one, and you may be able to pick up better seats at one of those portals.

We’re yet to see any super-low-price tickets for either date. But we suggest setting up an alert at those resale sites as late-stage bargains are pretty common even for hot gigs like this one.

If you want something a bit more bougie, VIP hospitality tickets and suite bookings are still available for tonight's show via Seat Unique.

Support acts

We get two classic support bands for these UK gigs, and one of them could sell out huge venues in their own right.

There’s Acid Bath first on stage, followed by the mighty Queens of the Stone Age.

Acid Bath are considered one of the progenitors of Doom Metal, and actually predate either of the two other bands, having formed in the early 90s. They reformed in 2024, though, after a long hiatus.

Queens of the Stone Age need no introduction, and among many will no doubt be considered System of a Down’s equals — although the latter have sold a stack more records in the US.

Stage times

Doors open at 5pm, while Acid Bath will play at 6pm.

Queens of the Stone Age go on stage at 7pm, while System of a Down are on at 8:30pm. Curfew is at 10:30pm, giving scope for an up-to two-hour set.

Expected set list

System of a Down have not revealed their set list for these gigs, but the recent European shows give us a sound idea of what to expect.

There are — no surprise given the band’s often quickfire songs — there's a lot of titles on the list for this one. Here is what was played at System of a Down’s recent Dusseldorf concert:

1. Soldier Side - Intro
2. B.Y.O.B.
3. Suite-Pee
4. Chic 'N' Stu
5. Prison Song
6. Violent Pornography
7. Aerials
8. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
9. Innervision
10. Darts
11. Genocidal Humanoidz
12. Needles
13. Deer Dance
14. Radio/Video
15. Dreaming
16. Hypnotize
17. ATWA
18. Bounce
19. Suggestions
20. Psycho
21. Chop Suey!
22. Lonely Day
23. Lost in Hollywood
24. Tentative
25. Spiders
26. Forest
27. Cigaro
28. Toxicity
29. Sugar

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts
  

On November 6th 1975 in a half-empty London art college, four snarling teens took to the stage and changed music forever. Building on Reggae’s rebellious spirit, borrowing MC5’s energy and channelling The Velvet Underground’s spiky abrasion, these caustic kids called themselves The Sex Pistols.

Their snarling, uniquely scrappy sound immediately turned heads - and it was swiftly labelled ‘punk’. Inspiring The Buzzcocks, The Clash and The Damned to dash out and pick up guitars, The Pistols’ slimy sonic concoction cut distortion-soaked anthems with intoxicatingly unadulterated London swagger.

Fifty years later, the UK punk scene’s influence is still inescapable. Touching everything from fashion to activism, spawning multiple musical subgenres, and with its DIY ethos embedded into the DNA of hip hop and even indie filmmaking, the ‘70s punk explosion didn't just birth a genre – it kickstarted a creative revolution.

So rather than look backwards ourselves, we handed the mic to five musicians who've lived with punk's influence for decades. From their favourite UK punk tracks to the modern London scene and the movement's enduring legacy, here's what they had to say. Happy 50th, punk - here’s to another 50 years of power chords, politics and provocation.

Steve Sladkowski (PUP)

• Standout UK punk track: "I'm So Bored With The USA" – The Clash

PUP have spent the last decade cementing themselves as one of modern punk's most vital bands, carrying the genre's DIY spirit from Toronto dive bars to festival main stages around the world.

For guitarist Steve Sladkowski, though, it all starts with Britain. From discovering his dad's Clash records as a kid to standing on the legendary Roundhouse stage himself, he explains why London's punk legacy still casts a long shadow over music today.

What was your first memory of hearing UK punk?

Steve Sladkowski: My Dad! I found his record collection when I was a kid, and The Clash and The Sex Pistols were tucked alongside other UK new wave stuff like Elvis Costello, XTC and Squeeze.

What does the phrase 'London punk' mean to you?

Sladkowski: LLondon punk is anti-capitalist and cosmopolitan. It understands the indelible influence of the Windrush Generation on the aesthetics of punk. It’s The Roundhouse and Vivienne Westwood and the Brixton Riots. It rules.

Who are the most important UK punk band?

Sladkowski: The Clash.

How has the London punk scene influenced you?

Sladkowski: PUP headlined the Roundhouse. Where the London Calling album cover photo was taken. Are you fucking kidding me?!

What do you think of the London punk scene today?

Sladkowski: It’s dynamic and noisy and progressive and endlessly fascinating. Bob Vylan, ‘nuff said.

It's now been 50 years since the UK punk explosion. What do you think is its greatest legacy?

Sladkowski: Class and racial solidarity scares power.

Steph Carter (Former Gallows guitarist)

• Standout UK punk track: "Pretty Vacant" – Sex Pistols

Steph Carter has lived punk from almost every angle imaginable. He helped define one of Britain's fiercest hardcore bands with Gallows before taking that same DIY philosophy into one of music's biggest brands as the Director of Culture Marketing for Marshall. For Carter, punk's greatest achievement wasn't simply changing music; it rewrote the rules for culture, creativity and self-expression.

What was your first memory of hearing UK punk?

Steph Carter: Hearing a friend’s band cover Pretty Vacant at school. I knew the song already, but seeing it played live like that really connected for me - it had an energy that felt different. That moment sent me down a rabbit hole, discovering the original bands and everything that came with them.

Who is your favourite band from the original era of British punk?

Carter: I’ve always loved The Clash - they’re a very close second - but for me, it has to be the Sex Pistols. ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ is such a seminal record. There’s something about Steve Jones’ guitar playing that really stands out - it’s deceptively simple, but incredibly intentional. Every note feels like it’s there for a reason. Having had the chance to play through Steve’s rig myself, it really struck me that no one quite sounds like him. The moment he picks up a guitar, it’s instantly recognisable.

What does the phrase 'London punk' mean to you?

Carter: Cultural impact. It goes beyond the music: it’s art, fashion, and activism all rolled into one. It’s rooted in the bands that kick-started the genre, but just as importantly, it’s about the path they created for everyone who’s followed.

How has the London punk scene influenced you?

Carter: The DIY ethos is something that’s always been ingrained in me. In every band I’ve played in, I’ve been involved in recording and producing the music in some shape or form. When we were making ‘Grey Britain’, Frank and I actually recorded all the vocals in our mums’ house - we drilled a hole through the wall between our rooms, used one as a live room and the other as a control room. Then there’s the performance side - there’s a real freedom in the energy of playing punk rock. It’s raw, immediate, and completely honest.

What do you think of the London punk scene today?

Carter: The familiar stereotypes, like punks hanging out on a bridge in Camden, are still there, but the scene has moved forward. What really stands out today is the strength of new music and how it continues to push boundaries. Punk isn’t just a genre, it’s an attitude. There’s a new generation coming through that’s challenging the status quo. With everything happening in the world, there’s no shortage of fuel, and punk remains a powerful platform for bands to stand up, speak out, and say something that matters.

What's your favourite moment in punk history?

Carter: For me, it’s about how punk constantly defies expectations - how bands take something raw and make it resonate with bigger and bigger audiences. Punk keeps reinventing itself, pushing beyond what anyone thinks it can be. There isn’t a defining moment in punk history, because the best one hasn’t happened yet.

Charlie Longman (Clobber)

• Standout UK punk track: “That’s like picking a favourite strand of fucking hair! Off the top of my head: ‘Clampdown’ - The Clash …NO! ‘Love Song’ The Damned… Oh, fuck off.”

Nobody in this feature embodies punk's refusal to self-edit quite like Charlie Longman. The Clobber frontman delivers equal parts humour, honesty and chaos, bouncing from the Sex Pistols' cultural impact to modern political punk without ever sounding rehearsed. If anyone proves punk hasn't lost its bite after 50 years, it's him.

What was your first memory of hearing UK punk?

Charlie Longman: My mum and dad used to watch a weekly documentary series called “I heart the 1970s’. Every week was about a different year from the ‘70s. The first exposure I ever had to punk was 6 years old watching the episode that covered the Sex Pistols. I was terrified but excited by them. I had no interest in music really before that but that half hour of telly blew my fucking brain open. Ugly, can’t play, dress like a cunt. Well done. Punk is for you!

Who are the most important UK punk band?

Longman: Of all time? The Sex Pistols. Opinions on them aside, the legacy of that band is the reason the world knows about punk and the reason you’re writing this article. Without the Bill Grundy interview, the story of Sid’s death and the whole saga I truly don’t think it would have evolved beyond the grassroots. People paying to go see them now with Frank Carter on vocals is a testament to that as well.

Right now? The Menstrual Cramps. That band take no prisoners, never compromise, talk about stuff they actually fucking live and do grass roots political movements without showboating or for clout.

What does the phrase 'London punk' mean to you?

Longman: A white guy with dreadlocks in a Subhumans T shirt asking me for guestlist because he spent all his money on K and Buckfast.

It's now been 50 years since the UK punk explosion. What do you think is its greatest legacy?

Longman: That there is a punk scene in any corner of the globe. Kids from different walks of life are taking it in cool new directions every day. It’s the voice of the revolution, the party, the struggle, the pub, the terraces, the attitude behind your favourite movie or comic book series. It’s the reason you had friends in secondary school and the reason you left your hometown. It never sleeps and it keeps on getting better.

Ian Shelton (Militarie Gun)

• Standout UK punk track: "Mannequin" – Wire

Few modern hardcore bands have bridged the gap between melody and mayhem quite like Militarie Gun. But for frontman Ian Shelton, that balancing act didn't start in California—it started with Britain's first wave of punk.

From The Adicts to Wire, Shelton explains why UK punk's humour, hooks and refusal to play by the rules still influence everything his band does today.

Who is your favourite band from the original era of British punk?

Ian Shelton: The Addicts. I saw them when I was in eighth grade and they're one of my favourite bands of all time. The singer [Keith Warren] wears face paint inspired by A Clockwork Orange and I was obsessed with that film as a teenager. When you're a fucked up kid in a small town getting in fights with other kids, you watch a movie like Clockwork Orange and it really resonates with you that they're going down a bad path. The parallels of that film to punk, and the embrace of it in punk by The Addicts I thought was really cool. I think they're kind of brushed under the rug as far as the first wave of punk goes.

How has the UK punk scene influenced you?

Shelton: Something that The Addicts do that we do as well is have a dark subject matter over a really poppy song. A song like ‘Easy Way Out’ is so catchy, but it's about killing yourself. It's that pairing of dark subject matter and poppy melody that I think the sex Pistols also do well …It’s the British humour that goes with it. It's very tongue in cheek -very aggressive if you're not on the inside of it - and that’s something that I really respond to.

What do you think is UK punk's greatest legacy?

Shelton: The wit and biting nature of it. The sense that you're not involved, the ambiguous ‘you’ - pointing at the world and saying that you are not one of us. I think that's great!

What do you think of the London punk scene today?

Shelton: We love bands like Chubby and the gang and UK punk as a whole because it just gives you a certain feeling. I remember hearing The Flex and Violent Reaction, and falling in love with those bands really quickly, because it’s unmitigated aggression paired with the littlest bit of melody. That’s very UK punk to me. Another big part of UK punk that bleeds over into my life is the tradition of Oi. I think that the current moment of Oi influenced punk and hardcore is completely due to the UK punk scene.

What does the phrase 'London punk' mean to you?

Shelton: It means melody, it means rock and roll, it means protest - and at its core - upsetting people.

Daniel P Carter (BBC Radio 1 Rock Show host)

• Standout UK punk track: "London Is The Reason" – Gallows

For nearly two decades, Daniel P Carter has been one of Britain's loudest advocates for alternative music.

Whether introducing listeners to tomorrow's breakthrough bands on the Radio 1 Rock Show or performing himself, he's watched punk evolve without ever losing sight of what made it special in the first place. Fifty years on, he believes its influence stretches further than ever.

Who is your favourite band from the original era of British punk?

Daniel P Carter: I’d probably say The Damned. I love that they have such a broad palette musically, especially with the darker, gothier stuff. I think you can really hear their influence on a bunch of early US Hardcore bands as well, which rules. I would also maybe add as a caveat that I am partial to the new incarnation of the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter fronting it.

What's your favourite moment in punk history?

Carter: Ian MacKaye [Minor Threat] hearing ‘Expensive Sound’ by [British punk band] Empire for the first time.

What does the phrase 'London punk' mean to you?

Carter: I guess it’s weird how certain cities have massive music scenes attached to them. Be it Seattle with Grunge, Berlin with Krautrock, Kingston with Ska and Reggae, Manchester with baggy, but Punk just feels tied to London. Even though there’s probably a bunch of older New Yorkers who would have something to say about that…

It's now been 50 years since the UK punk explosion. What do you think is its greatest legacy?

Carter: That to this day it’s still influencing musicians, artists, activists, designers and creatives the world over.

PUP, Reclus.e and Militarie Gun all play 2000 Trees Festival July 9-11^th. Clobber plays London’s The Grace on August 1st.

• Mad Cool festival, Day 1: Wolf Alice, Jehnny Beth and Foo Fighters shine as 2026’s best festival line-up kicks off

Just when it looked like FIFA had finished assembling its all-star cast, it has pulled another global superstar out of the bag.

Justin Bieber has officially joined the line-up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup final half-time show, adding yet another huge name to what is already shaping up to be one of the biggest live performances ever staged at a sporting event.

The Canadian singer will take to the stage alongside Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, the PS22 Chorus featuring Coldplay and even the Sesame Street Muppets during the 11-minute spectacle at MetLife Stadium in New York New Jersey on the 19th of July.

The performance will make history as the first-ever Super Bowl-style half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final, with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin helping curate the event in support of the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund. The initiative aims to raise $100 million to improve access to education for children around the world, with the show expected to be watched by hundreds of millions of viewers globally.

"The FIFA World Cup brings the world together in a way nothing else can," Bieber said following the announcement.

His inclusion feels particularly significant given his gradual return to live performance. After cancelling the remainder of his Justice World Tour in 2022 due to health issues, Bieber has largely stayed away from major concerts, making each appearance feel like an event in itself.

Earlier this year, he made his biggest return yet with a nostalgic Coachella set, revisiting early hits including Baby, Never Say Never, One Time and Beauty and a Beat, reminding fans why he became one of the defining pop stars of his generation.

For FIFA, Bieber's arrival only strengthens an already extraordinary bill. Madonna brings decades of pop history, Shakira is arguably football's most iconic musical performer thanks to Waka Waka, BTS remains one of the biggest acts on the planet, and Burna Boy returns following his performances at the tournament's opening ceremony. Together, it's a line-up designed to appeal to every corner of the globe.

The only lingering question is how FIFA plans to squeeze so many headline performers into an 11-minute show without anyone feeling short-changed.

As for the football, the tournament is reaching its dramatic conclusion, with the remaining nations battling for a place in the final while Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane continue their race for the Golden Boot.

Regardless of who eventually lifts the trophy, the final is now guaranteed to deliver one of the most star-studded half-time shows football has ever seen. With Bieber now on board, FIFA's first attempt at bringing a Super Bowl-style spectacle to the World Cup has become even harder to ignore.

• Bringing back the Barfly: Frank Turner and the Camden venue’s new owners on the importance of London’s grassroots music scene

Ahead of Pitbull's headline show at BST Hyde Park, London, this Friday, Aldi is embracing one of the internet's favourite music memes by temporarily rebranding itself as "Baldi". The supermarket will set up a one-day-only pop-up outside Hyde Park, handing out everything fans need to transform into Mr. Worldwide as thousands descend on central London.

If you've somehow missed it, Pitbull gigs have become famous for fans dressing exactly like the rapper himself. Bald caps, aviator sunglasses and smart shirts have become almost mandatory attire, turning every show into a sea of mini Pitbulls. It's a trend that's only grown over the past few years, and now the man himself wants to take it one step further.

Pitbull has called on fans to help him break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing bald caps during his BST Hyde Park performance. Naturally, Aldi has spotted an opportunity and decided to lend a helping hand.

The Baldi stand will be giving away free bald caps, aviator sunglasses and temporary tattoos, alongside complimentary ready-to-drink Infusionist and Stefanoff cocktail cans to help festivalgoers get into character before heading through the gates.

Complete with a giant "Baldi" logo and a suitably pun-heavy "Firebald!" banner, the pop-up is expected to become one of the busiest stops outside Hyde Park as fans scramble to complete their Mr. Worldwide makeover. Given the popularity of Pitbull's shows and the sheer number of people already planning to dress up, don't expect the freebies to hang around for long.

It's the kind of brilliantly daft activation that's become synonymous with festival season. Rather than simply advertising its drinks range, Aldi is leaning into one of this summer's biggest viral moments, and in doing so might just help Pitbull make music history.

Whether you're determined to help break the world record or simply fancy a free bald cap for the journey home, Baldi looks set to be one of the most entertaining pit stops before the show.

The Baldi pop-up will be outside BST Hyde Park on Friday, with all giveaways available free while stocks last.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

If you've been hoping to see Jay-Z back on a UK stage, this could be your only chance for a while.

The rap legend has announced a huge London date as part of his "Jay-Z 30" anniversary shows, celebrating three decades since he emerged as one of hip-hop's defining artists. The show will take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on the 4th of September and marks his only UK performance of 2026.

Rather than embarking on a full world tour, Jay-Z is keeping things exclusive with just a handful of special stadium dates across New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles. That makes the Tottenham show one of the most sought-after live music events of the autumn, particularly for UK fans who haven't had many opportunities to catch him live in recent years.

The anniversary celebrations come during a milestone year for the rapper. This week, Jay-Z is playing two sold-out nights at New York's Yankee Stadium, celebrating both the 30th anniversary of his groundbreaking debut album Reasonable Doubt and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint, two records widely regarded among the greatest hip-hop albums ever made.

Earlier this year, he also made a surprise return to the stage at Philadelphia's Roots Picnic, performing alongside legendary hip-hop band The Roots, giving fans another reminder that his live shows remain some of the biggest events in music.

Few artists can boast a catalogue quite like Jay-Z's. Across 30 years, he's released countless classics including 99 Problems, Empire State of Mind, Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem), Run This Town, Big Pimpin', Dirt Off Your Shoulder and Public Service Announcement. While the setlist hasn't been revealed, fans can expect a career-spanning celebration packed with era-defining hits and deep cuts from one of rap's most influential performers.

The London date is also significant because it arrives during a year packed with major reunion tours and comeback concerts. Despite the crowded calendar, Jay-Z's show stands out simply because of how rare it is.

Unlike many artists celebrating milestone anniversaries with months of touring, he's chosen just a handful of carefully selected performances, making each one feel like a genuine event.

If you're planning to be there, you'll want to be ready when tickets go on sale.

Presale opens at 10am on the 9th of July, with general sale following at 10am on the 10th of July via Ticketmaster.

Ticket prices haven't yet been confirmed, but with just one UK date and a stadium expected to be packed with fans travelling from across the country, demand is almost guaranteed to be enormous.

Thirty years after changing hip-hop forever with Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z is proving that he can still fill some of the world's biggest venues. For UK fans, this September show is likely to be the only opportunity to see him perform live this year. Tickets will go on sale on the 10th of July.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

There are pop princesses, and then there is the Party Princess, and that title belongs firmly to Charli XCX. The London musician has blessed dancefloors and tube headphones alike with a plethora of hits, and not forgetting Brat summer, which lasted longer than most pool floats. Now, to celebrate the release of her latest album, Music Fashion Film, London is getting an exclusive listening party.

All the listening parties, including sister parties across the world, will be taking place in independent cinemas this month. There will be two screenings taking place in London, both at The Castle Cinema in Hackney. Both screenings will be taking place on 10th July, the first at 7pm, and the second at 9pm. The event is completely free to attend, but you will need to grab tickets (or as they call it, RSVP), which can be found on Charli XCX’s website here.

As well as the Castle Cinema in London, there will be another UK showing in Stockport at the Savoy Cinema.

‘Music, Fashion, Film’ is set to land on July 24 and has previously been previewed with the tracks ‘Wink Wink‘, ‘Rock Music’, and ‘SS26’. It marks Charli’s seventh studio album and is the official follow-up to her 2024 Brat album. According to a post from Charli on Instagram, it will have 11 songs, lasting 30 minutes.

The album’s cover is just as iconic as you’d expect from a Charli project. We’ve already had a sneaky preview of what the album cover looks like, with a black-and-white cover showing three absolute industry heavyweights: John Cale, Marc Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese posing together in a kitchen. Plus, it has been shot by Aidan Zamiri.

As well as the UK listening parties, there will be other ones taking place in: Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Tokyo, Mexico, Sao Paulo, as well as Boston, New York, Toronto, Denver, Phoenix, LA, Chicago, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Atlanta and Miami.

As the album officially releases on July 24th, these will be world previews of the new tracks, meaning you could be among the first people to hear the new Charli tunes.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Ladrock legends Don Broco have replaced Alkaline Trio as one of the three headliners at 2000 Trees Festival in Cheltenham. Fresh from their head-turning appearance supporting Biffy Clyro at Finsbury Park last weekend, Don Broco have saved the day as a last-minute addition, following an unfortunate health complication from Alkaline Trio vocalist Matt Skiba.

Taking place 8-11^th July at Upcote Farm, Don Broco join Funeral For A Friend and Neck Deep as main stage headliners, with a supporting bill that features Glassjaw, Pup, Militarie Gun, Superheaven, The Skints, The Bronx, A, The Wildhearts, Sunny Day Real Estate and many more across the weekend.

For the uninitiated, 2000 Trees is a wonderfully serene independent festival – and one of the UK’s best-kept musical secrets. With a capacity of just 15,000 people, 2000 Trees is a paradise for lovers of all things rock, emo, punk and indie. From its idyllic acoustic stage hidden in the depths of the woods to its legendary late-night silent disco, family-friendly atmosphere and world-beating guitar bands, it’s the antithesis of a soulless, corporate-run megafest.

Now in its 19th year, Trees is still the only place to watch rock’s best and brightest while nestled amongst the Cotswolds’ picturesque rolling hills.

With Trees turning 20 next year, it’s not the only beloved British creation celebrating a big birthday. As UK punk turns 50 this year, we recently spoke to bands on this year’s bill like PUP and Militarie Gun about how UK punk changed their lives – in a feature you’ll be able to read here on Shortlist very soon.

With no massive corporations running 2000 Trees, it’s a festival that’s born of that same DIY punk spirit – a fact that led ex-Gallows guitarist Steph Carter to set up a stage at the festival, as the current Director of Culture Marketing at Marshall Amps.

“Punk’s greatest legacy is that DIY ethos: the idea that anyone can create, anyone can start a band, as long as you’ve got something to say and the drive to get it out there,” says Carter, “You don’t need huge budgets or industry backing. You can self-produce, self-release, and put on your own shows. That spirit of independence and urgency still resonates. If you’ve got a message, punk says: don’t wait - get it out there!”

With the sun shining and punk turning 50, you can bet that we’ll be celebrating by getting our punk spirit out in the Cotswolds (while running for the shade) at Upcote Farm this weekend. Don’t forget to pack the suncream, and we’ll catch you in the pit!

• The 8 best festival line-ups of summer 2026 for anyone with a Glastonbury-shaped hole in their calendars

It’s a fallow year for the Glastonbury Festival, which has left hundreds of thousands of communally minded music lovers staring around forlornly for a new musical gathering to fill the void.

For the first time in eight years, the world’s most prestigious music festival is taking a planned break to give everyone involved in hosting the gargantuan event (and indeed the farmland it takes place on) a chance to recover.

• The best Glastonbury line-ups, ever

There’s no denying the hole it leaves in Britain’s summer calendar. Contrary to what some Glasto-bores will tell you, however, alternatives do exist.

True, nothing quite hits the same spot as Glasto. Given its unique combination of history (the first festival took place in 1970), scale (capacity: 210,000) and non-corporate outlook (look ma, no ads!), how could it?

But there are plenty of other festivals going on around the UK and indeed the world that can prevent the committed Glasto-head from having to go cold turkey.

Here are just a few of them. Note that you’re leaving it a little late to plan your summer festival kicks, so getting tickets to some of these festivals will require jumping through some hoops.

Where needed, we’ve provided links to official resellers to hopefully help ease your path where possible, but obviously other avenues do exist. Happy hunting.

Boomtown Fair

Where: Hampshire
When: August 12th-16th

As any attendee will tell you, Glastonbury isn’t an ordinary music festival. The music isn’t even the main point for many people, with a whole village-worth of weird and wild diversions to get lost in. Hampshire’s Boomtown Fair captures some of that warped carnival spirit, offering distinctly themed districts filled with theatrical flourishes and assorted musical genres. Kneecap, Madness, Scissor Sisters, Vengaboys, Floating Points, and Skrillex are all on the roster this year. Unfortunately, Boomtown Fair’s regular tickets have sold out, but there’s a citizen-to-citizen resale programme to help you on your journey. It’s likely to be a wild one.

Mad Cool Festival

Where: Madrid, Spain
When: July 8th-11th

Why not branch out and add a little Iberian flavour to your summer festival experience? Now celebrating its tenth year, Mad Cool takes place at the Iberdrola Music venue in Villaverde, on the southern tip of the Spanish capital. You’ll need to hurry up and make those travel plans, with less than a week to go, but it should prove well worth that late flush of spontaneity. This year’s line-up features some formidable headliners, including Foo Fighters, Florence + The Machine, Lorde (who’s seemingly everywhere), Pixies, The War on Drugs, Pulp, Kings of Leon, and David Byrne. We've called this one this year's best festival line-up.

Green Man

Where: Brecon Beacons
When: August 20th-23rd

Set on the historic Glanusk Estate in the stunning Brecon Beacons from August 20th to 23rd, Green Man festival certainly has Glastonbury beat for sheer scenic wonder. It’s also a match for the great festival’s independent spirit, refusing corporate backing and embracing sustainability. The line-up, while not quite as eclectic, is pretty Glasto-worthy too. Four Tet, Wolf Alice, Wilco, Mogwai, The Beta Band, Celeste, Cate Le Bon, Tricky, Fcukers, and Sparks are all playing, among others. Perhaps unsurprisingly, initial tickets are all sold out on this one, but you can sign up with official reseller Tixel right here.

Fuji Rocks

Where: Niigata Prefecture, Japan
When: July 24th-26th

Want to shake off those no-Glasto blues and make this fallow year one to remember? Book a flight to Tokyo and arrange travel onwards to Naeba Ski Resort, and experience one of the greatest rock festivals in the world. Fuji Rocks offers the full package and then some, including a stunning natural location (access requires a cable car), top notch facilities (including natural hot springs), and outstanding food (it’s Japan) – all set off by an unusually laid back vibe and a world class musical line-up. This year that includes The XX, Khruangbin, Massive Attack, Mitski, Toro Y Moi, and Basement Jaxx.

Wilderness

Where: Oxfordshire
When: July 30th to August 2nd

While Glastonbury has retained some of its alternative vibe, it’s definitely become a lot more comfortable and – for want of a better term – ‘middle class’ over the past decade or two. That’s cool. Everyone is welcome, and we all appreciate the uptick in catering quality, at least. But if you really want to double down on the aspirational lifestyle side of Glasto this fallow year, consider Wilderness. It’s set on the edge of the Cotswolds, and offers such elevated delights as gourmet feasting tables, spa treatments, and wild swimming. There’s also music from Scissor Sisters, The Last Dinner Party, and Saint Etienne, to name but three.

Way Out West

Where: Gothenburg
When: August 13th-15th

Sweden’s uber-cool second city plays host to one of the hippest festivals on the circuit. Participating artists include Gorillaz, The Cure, Geese, Jalen Ngonda, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, DJ Koze, Lykke Li, Blood Orange, Ezra Collective, and of course Lorde. Like we said, cool AF. It’s not exclusively about the music, either, with a strong film element also present. The festival will be screening a number of Swedish and international films, including four world premieres. Do note that they’re down to selling one-day tickets at the time of writing, barring any resales, so don’t hang around.

All Points East

Where: East London
When: August 21st-23rd, 28th-30th

For a certain type of lily-livered metropolitan music fan (timidly raises his baby-soft hand), the whole camping part of the Glastonbury experience is enough to stay well away – fallow year or otherwise. This one’s for all my fellow softies: All Points East takes place slap bang in the middle of London, in leafy–but–also–reassuringly–urban Victoria Park. So, when you’ve finished watching Jorja Smith, Lorde (good luck with those tickets), Tyler the Creator, or Deftones, you can scoot off to a nearby hotel/friend’s place and get a proper night’s sleep. Bliss.

Lollapalooza

Where: Chicago
When: July 30th to August 2nd

Coachella and Bonnaroo have been and gone, which leaves just one member of the holy trinity of US music festival remaining. Even then, tickets for this year’s Lollapalooza are getting scarcer by the day, so sign up fast if you’re interested. This year’s vast four day event in Grant Park, Chicago, has a killer line-up. Lorde, Charlie xcx, The Smashing Pumpkins, Olivia Dean, and The XX are all headlining, supported by a frankly ridiculous number of support acts covering pretty much all popular genres. This one offers serious range – not to mention close proximity to one of the country’s great party cities.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

If you gave up hope of seeing My Chemical Romance in London at Wembley after seeing ticket prices, there's still a surprisingly affordable way to get through the gates.

While resale prices for the band's hugely anticipated reunion shows continue to climb, official premium tickets are still available from just £39 per person on Seat Unique, with private VIP box seats working out cheaper than some standard tickets being sold elsewhere.

The cheapest deal we've spotted is for premium tickets in Block 204, priced at £39 per person.

These tickets are in the venue's premium seating area on Level Two, giving fans a reserved padded seat rather than general admission, along with access to the premium concourse where food and drink can be purchased.

If you'd rather be even closer to the stage, there are also front row seats in Block 204 available from £49 per person, while seats in the first five rows are currently listed for £55 each. Both options include the same premium Level Two experience, with the bonus of being positioned at the front of the block.

There's another premium seating option available in Block 224, where tickets are currently selling for £59 per person.

For anyone celebrating a special occasion or heading to the show as a group, the standout deal has to be the private boxes.

Wembley is currently offering places in an eight-person private box from £99 per person. While that might initially sound like a luxury purchase, it's cheaper than some standard seated tickets currently listed elsewhere.

The experience includes exclusive use of the private box, comfortable seats directly outside overlooking the stage, a private kitchen and bathroom, a personal host and chef, plus a fast-track exit once the concert finishes. Food and drink aren't included, but can be purchased throughout the evening.

My Chemical Romance's return to the UK has proved one of the biggest live music events of the year, with demand for tickets remaining high months after the original sale.

That's what makes these tickets stand out. In several cases, they're cheaper than fans might expect to pay.

If you've been waiting for resale prices to come down before committing, it's worth checking what's still available through Seat Unique.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

The line-ups of some one-day festivals feel like they have been scribbled on the back of a cigarette packet, but this wasn’t the case for Kneecap at Crystal Palace Park.

The gig, curated by the band themselves, was a considered, creative affair that brought a swathe of mainly Irish musicians and politically-likeminded folk together to South London for one big, bawdy knees-up.

For Kneecap, this gig marked their biggest headline show to date and the London Irish crowd turned up brilliantly in support. Everywhere you looked, there were Irish flag bearers, county shirt wearers and despite the 30-degree plus heat, DJ Próvaí-esque balaclavas worn throughout.

It all kicked off with a snarl, with opening band Madra Salach offering up an intense bout of Irish folk and ending with the rousing The Man Who Seeks Pleasure.

Gurriers arrived an hour later to test out the circle pits, with DesGoblin charging up the crowd. The band supported Kneecap at their other huge London gig, Wembley Arena back in September ‘25, and were just as riotous this time around.

Biig Piig, on next, proved a fantastic respite from the guitar crunch, with the sun playing the perfect backdrop for the shimmering I Don’t Want To Hurt You. When Kerosene ends, it’s a shame that comedian Mike Rice comes on to try and stoke up a revolt in the crowd, as it pops the blissed out bubble.

Local lads Fat Dog (the only non Irish group in the line-up) are a standout — lead singer Joe Love comes out in an England top to punctuate the fact, thankfully getting cheered (and jeered) as a result — but their setlist is lapped up by the party at the Palace.

The anthemic Peace Song, Joy Division-nodding Wither, and Running, are a fantastic three-song climax, while newest single Go Fuck Urself is a deliriously danceable ear worm.

To get things back on an Irish track, Dundalk’s The Mary Wallopers brought their spin on traditional Irish music to the masses. Whether you have followed them since 2019, or found them through their songs As I Roved Out and The Rich Man and the Poor Man soundtracking Netflix’s House Of Guinness, this is a band that needs to be seen live.

Kicking off with Bold O'Donahue was a joy, turning the crowd into a ceilidh, with the dancing not stopping until final track Frost Is All Over.

And just like that, the sun goes down, welcomed spots of rain appear and a double rainbow is seen in the sky. Underneath all the thundering there's magic and at 20:25 on the dot, DJ Próvaí appears on stage, soundtracked by the instrumental Éire go Deo.

The rest of the band arrive and perfect the next two tracks from latest album FENIAN; Smugglers & Scholars and Carnival, the latter charting the very public court case of band member Mo Chara’s terrorism charge.

Never shy to put the boot in, the set is peppered with “Fuck Keir Starmer” chants, which land a little more triumphantly given recent goings-on, as well as a “Free Free Palestine”. But it never descends into chaos.

If anything, both Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap are more than happy to stop tracks midway through to help out people in the crowd pits who look to be in any trouble.

This leaves the setlist to do the talking and it’s blistering. The run of Better Way to Live, Sick in the Head and C.E.A.R.T.A is joyous and it’s a really powerful moment when Londoner Kae Tempest joins the band on stage for the melancholic Irish Goodbye.

Things get even more poignant when Get Your Brits Out is dedicated to Trevor Dietz, longtime manager of Fontaines DC and early supporter and friend of the band who died in June.

The end of the set puts away the politics and descends into a party, with Big Bad Mo, Parful, Hood and The Recap highlighting a band that are at the peak of their powers, closing a day-long gig that will live long in the memory of the 25,000 strong crowd.

An Irish goodbye, indeed.

Kneecap are part of a series of gigs at Crystal Palace Park, with other headliners including: Two Door Cinema Club and The Offspring. Upcoming shows are as follows: Snow Patrol (3 July) and Alanis Morissette (4 July). Head to Festival Republic for more details.

• 10 London festivals worth leaving the house for this summer

Bar and music venue Old Street Records will get its own record store next month.

It may already sound like a record shop, but London's Old Street Records is calling on vinyl seller Cigarette Records to supply the wares for its in-house record shop. You can see what’s in store from 18th July, when the store opens.

It will offer around 5000 discs on day one, with plans to double the catalogue in time, with a collection that covers “disco, funk, soul, reggae, house, garage, jungle, rock and beyond.”

“Everything I do comes back to one idea: music with feeling. Record shops are about discovery, conversation and community as much as they are about the records themselves. This collaboration with Old Street Records just makes sense,” says Owain Jones, Cigarette Records founder.

Cigarette Records has existed in one form or another since 2013, and has previously had physical locations in Beckenham Place Park and Catford Mews — and recently opened up at 37 Deptford High Street, back in February 2026.

Old Street Records ordinarily opens its doors from 5pm most days, but the record store will see that brought forward drastically. It will open from 12-6pm Wednesday to Sunday, “throughout the summer,” before the venue takes on its usual identity as a place to see live music and late night DJ sets.

The bar is also playing host to World Cup match screenings.

On the day of the record store’s opening, 18th July, there’s an an unusual early doors DAYSESH event scheduled too. It starts at 4pm, with sets from DJ Batman, Dan Grey, DJ P and Kengo San taking the music on through to 2am.

Other upcoming events include Davinia Duo playing a set on 30th June and an Off The Record singer-songwriter night on 13th July.

• Bringing back the Barfly: Frank Turner and the Camden venue’s new owners on the importance of London’s grassroots music scene

System of a Down play in London for the first time since 2015 this July, with a two-night run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Whether or not you’ve snagged a ticket, you can pick up some merch in London surrounding those dates.

From 10th to 16th July, a System of a Down shop will open at at 56-57 Eastcastle Street in central London, nestled between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road tube stations.

This is one of the band’s “official fan stores,” which presumably let the band avoid the venue cut involved in merchandise sales made at the band’s own gigs.

Stuff on sale will include “exclusive merch only available at our official fan stores,” according to System of a Down’s social media channels. And you can expect clothing from Hummel as well as records, and more.

This run lands around the 25th anniversary of the band’s classic Toxicity album, and you’ll find fan shop-specific vinyl editions of the album on sale. Presuming they haven’t sold out already, anyway.

We don’t have the full list of wares at the pop-up, but have seen a preview of a few of the articles of clothing, including these tasty numbers:

You can simply walk up to the store but slots are also bookable through a Seetickets portal — don’t worry, there’s no fee involved here.

The band will also have fan stores across Europe over the coming weeks, including stints at Stockholm, Paris, Berlin and Dusseldorf.

London’s store opens from 10am to 8pm each day bar Sunday 12th July, with opening hours of 11am to 5pm.

The band’s actual gigs are on 13th and 15th July. While the band rapidly sold out of tickets initially, there’s solid resale availability for the 15th gig in particular across sites like Ticketmaster resale, Tixel and Twickets.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

If you've ever wanted to raid Peggy Gou's wardrobe, merchandise stash or personal collection, this Friday might be your best chance this side of a restraining order.

The globally renowned DJ, producer and fashion icon is opening the doors to "Gou,tique", a one-day-only pop-up event in east London where fans can walk away with items taken directly from her personal archive, completely free of charge.

Taking place on Friday 26th June at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes on Kingsland Road, the event will see Peggy gifting 200 mystery items from her own collection alongside 100 pieces of archival Peggy Gou merchandise to lucky visitors.

The giveaway arrives as Gou celebrates the release of her latest single, Wo,man, a collaboration with Nigerian superstar Ayra Starr released via XL Recordings. Described as "a euphoric summer dancefloor anthem" — would you expect anything less from Gou? — the track explores themes of "independence and shared joy". You can listen to a sneak peek at the YouTube embed below:

Fans attending Gou,tique can also expect music throughout the day courtesy of DJs from Peggy's Gudu Records roster, with drinks and a party atmosphere befitting one of dance music's biggest names.

There is a catch, however. Entry operates on a first-come, first-served basis, with organisers warning that both access and gifting opportunities will be limited. Anyone hoping to secure one of the 300 giveaway items is advised to arrive early.

Since breaking through as one of electronic music's most influential figures, Peggy Gou has built a devoted global fanbase spanning music, fashion and culture. Gou,tique will be a rare opportunity for that community to take home a genuine piece of Peggy Gou history.

Gou,tique takes place from 4pm until 9pm on Friday 26 June at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes, 32-36 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DA.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

One of London’s most exciting festivals is tipped to be making a comeback.

Camden Rocks, the multi-venue rock-and-metal-focussed event, is being considered for a revival, according to founder Chris McCormack.

McCormack, the former guitarist of alt-rockers 3 Colours Red who now co-owns the freshly re-opened Camden Barfly venue, is hoping to bring back the long-running festival, with the resurrected Barfly at its heart.

“Camden's still Camden,” McCormack told Shortlist at the grand re-opening of the Barfly.

• Bringing back the Barfly: Frank Turner and the Camden venue’s new owners on the importance of London’s grassroots music scene

“There's not many places you can pull off a festival like Camden Rocks. You can do it in Brighton, but you've got to get taxis everywhere.

“But Camden is very concentrated, you've got your great venues like The Underworld, The Black Heart, the big ones like Electric Ballroom and The Roundhouse. You’ve got all different size venues, it's great — when you're walking down the street any day of the week, you hear bands playing.

“It's important that the venues group together. We're not against each other, we're all part of the same thing, and that's what creates the scene in Camden.”

Big name bands

The festival last took place in 2019 with headliners Frank Turner and Ash. Over the years it also saw performances from bands including The Cribs, Sea Power, Bullet For My Valentine, PiL and The Damned, as well as hundreds of other acts across more than 20 Camden venues.

The Camden Rocks name currently lives on at venues across Camden, with spots like The Underworld hosting Camden Rocks club nights and gig showcases. But the plan would be to revive Camden Rocks as a multi-venue event — the festival previously operated with an open-doors wristband-entry system, with gig-goers able to wander from one venue to another (capacity allowing), to check out all the acts performing across its many stages.

A revival is very much in the early planning stages it seems, but with the Barfly’s re-opening adding fresh energy to Camden’s live scene, the return of Camden Rocks could help further boost the area’s reputation as one of London’s premier gigging hotspots.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

They’re trying to send Camden’s live music scene to rehab, and we say “go, go, go”.

The launchpad for artists including Amy Winehouse, Coldplay and dozens of others, the Camden Barfly celebrated its grand re-opening last night, giving London’s grassroots music scene another vital performance space.

The venue at 49 Chalk Farm Road has had many names over the years, from The Camden Assembly to The Monarch, but its noughties-era incarnation as the Barfly was its most loved, with the 200-capacity space attracting the then-stars-of-tomorrow, including Adele, The Strokes, Ed Sheeran and many more to its stage.

And now it's back — and at a crucial moment for London’s grassroots scene, as more and more small performance spaces disappear. Yes, there’s still space for the superstars at London’s arenas and stadiums — but where do the first-gig teenagers get their opportunities to perform in front of a crowd?

That’s where the Barfly comes in.

“It's not that the music industry as a whole is in a bad place, it's just in a bit of a state of flux at a certain level,” says Barfly co-owner Richard Buck.

“It's just about revalidating the ecosystem and how you do that, so I think we should all be hugely optimistic about where music in creative arts is. It's just about how we engage it and make it commercially viable for those that are really at the developing level.”

“I think there's a lot more awareness about the challenges of grassroots venues and venues of this capacity, because fundamentally they don't stack up financially,” adds Dan Ickowitz-Seidler, fellow co-owner at the Barfly, and Buck’s partner in the Propaganda Independent Venues (PIV) group, of which Barfly is now a part.

“We're providing something really important for the music industry, providing the first opportunities for artists to play and really engage with a fan base and build a fan base.

“Over the years we've had Adele, Amy Winehouse, Frank Turner played his first sold-out show here, The Strokes, Libertines, Killers, The National — so many incredible artists have played on this stage, but as a venue it's really hard to stack up when you've only got so much capacity.”

Making Camden rock again

The team behind Barfly’s re-opening is well-positioned to help it succeed. Buck and Ickowitz-Seidler’s PIV has already successfully taken ownership of Tramshed and The Globe in Cardiff, as well as the XOYO clubs in London and Birmingham, clawing back their independence from Australian live entertainment giant TEG. Fellow co-owner Chris McCormack (formerly the guitarist in alt-rockers 3 Colours Red), founded the Camden Rocks festival, which united Camden’s many live music spaces under one banner. And each has a personal connection to the venue, whether having gigged there, DJ’d there, or promoted nights at the Barfly.

Support for grassroots venues is picking up speed as awareness grows too, with charities like the Music Venue Trust helping struggling sites keep their doors open, and bigger shows and performers pushing funds towards the cause.

“We've got the £1 Pound Ticket Levy that's going on to more and more shows [an additional £1 fee artists and venues can optionally add to their ticket prices to help fund the restoration of grassroots venues, .ed]. Royal Albert Hall, and a lot of other large venues are starting to do it more and more, and I think people realise that they need to be supporting venues of this size to allow them to continue to exist,” says Ickowitz-Seidler.

“So we’re optimistic, hopefully, of the future support that's going to be here for venues of this size. Nervous about the challenges of the industry as a whole, but I think we're confident we can at least get to break even and hopefully make it work.”

And there are plans for more to come — McCormack is looking to revive the multi-venue Camden Rocks festival, with the Barfly at its heart. Stretching a mile through Camden’s music heartland, it saw punters dip in and out of more than twenty venues on a single ticket to see hundreds of acts across a weekend.

“Camden's still Camden,” says McCormack. “There's not many places you can pull off a festival like Camden Rocks. You can do it in Brighton, but you've got to get taxis everywhere.

“But Camden is very concentrated, you've got your great venues like The Underworld, The Black Heart, the big ones like Electric Ballroom and The Roundhouse. You’ve got all different-sized venues, it's great — when you're walking down the street any day of the week, you hear bands playing.

“It's important that the venues group together. We're not against each other, we're all part of the same thing, and that's what creates the scene in Camden.”

Barfly’s biggest fan takes to its stage

The new era of the Barfly was kicked off by not one, but two sold-out shows in a single night from punk singer-songwriter Frank Turner. The long-time North Londoner played his first ever shows at the Barfly in its original incarnation — both as part of his band Million Dead, and then later as a solo artist. Revealing his very own (unofficial) blue plaque at the venue, it’s a space that’s close to the musician’s heart.

“I feel that I have a debt of gratitude to repay, because my career would not exist without rooms like this,” says Turner.

“I would not have the career I have, the living I have, the art that I have, all that kind of thing, if I hadn't had the opportunity to find myself, find my audience, figure out who I am, figure out what I want to say, in rooms like the Barfly.”

Turner’s route to stardom has been a steady ascension, with 3,166 shows under his belt following the Barfly double-header. Venues like the Barfly have allowed him the space and time to build a loyal following — something not always afforded the artists of today where social virality is sometimes seen as the key currency.

“That sort of viral TikTok success type thing is just so flimsy,” he says.

“Everybody's heard horror stories about getting a billion streams on TikTok, booking a big venue, and then selling 12 tickets. It's important to view that kind of virality as almost a totally different thing to actually building an audience — they're two separate phenomena. We don't have to be judgmental about one or the other in saying that, but having a million kids who know 30 seconds of one of your songs is not the same as building an audience for your career.”

There’s an education to be had for a generation of young gig-goers lost to “COVID-weirdness” too, says Turner, youngsters that were deprived of the joys of those formative nights out at sweaty clubs and gigs, with an industry instead keen to push them towards shows at enormodome venues for stars charging several hundred pounds per ticket.

“Yeah, you can spend 400 quid and see Olivia Rodrigo, which is fine, and she's great. But you could also spend just 15 quid and go and see a bunch of bands you’ve never heard of and maybe discover something amazing. Also, more to the point, you make connections with people in the room, and then you'll meet the band afterwards, and they'll sweat on you during the gig, and you feel part of something in a way that you just don't in a corporate arena setting.

“There's something so direct about the connection in the room like this. The audience is there, you can touch them — you can touch about half of them if you lean! There's this sort of feedback loop, because a good show is a dialogue, not a monologue, it's about an exchange of energy, and that is so very apparent in a room like this.”

Want to know what’s on next at the Barfly? Check out all the upcoming shows here.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Fancy owning a piece of music history? Christie’s is holding a London auction later this year that will see many of Johnny Marr’s guitars sold.

It’s catchily titled Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection and one of the top items in the auction is the 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo Marr used on classic The Smiths singles including This Charming Man and What Difference Does It Make?.

Marr has owned the guitar since 1983, and it’s estimated to sell for £60,000-80,000.

It’s not the guitar expected to go for the most money, though. That accolade goes to Marr’s 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, which was apparently bought for Marr by record company exec Seymour Stein as a sweetener for signing to the Sire Records label in 1984.

Christie’s has put a £100,000 - £150,000 estimate on the guitar.

Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection is made up of 95 lots including around 80 guitars. It’s an absolute whopper of an auction.

And, ever a good egg, Marr will donate a chunk of the money to charity.

“Johnny Marr will donate 100% of the hammer price of 10 lots to benefit The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society,” says Christie’s — although we don’t know how high-value those lots are.

Other guitars up for grabs include a 1984 Gibson Les Paul Standard used on Meat is Murder, expected to go for up to £120,000, and a custom Telecaster shape guitar made by luthier Roger Griffin, as seen on a Top of the Pops performance by The Smiths. Its upper estimate is £30,000.

Several guitars used as part of the recording process for Marr’s upcoming The Age of Everything are up for auction too. It was announced last week and is due out on 2nd October.

Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection is going on tour — that’s right, the guitar collection, not the man himself — to New York, where it will be displayed from 25th June to 1st July at Christie’s in the city.

It will come to London, for a public viewing at Christie’s from 9th to 16th September, ahead of the auction itself on 17th September at 2pm.

“Writing Marr’s Guitars in 2023 gave me the perfect excuse to bring all of these instruments together, to tell their stories, revisit the songs, shows and unforgettable moments they’ve brought me, and that I’ve shared with remarkable people in studios and on stages around the world,” says Marr.

“It’s bittersweet to be parting with these guitars but I want them to go to new homes and new people who will love them as much as I have. I hope they bring as much joy, inspiration and fun – and new songs – as they have given me.”

We expect to see the the full catalogue of items published on the Christie’s website within the coming weeks.

Marr’s own live tour begins at the end of this week, kicking off with a gig at Middenvijver Park in Belgium on Sunday. It’s capped off with a concert at Ovo Arena in Wembley on 24th October, the largest of his solo career to date.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

London has plenty of fantastic nights out, but nothing hits that cultured-but-cool mark quite like a jazz-fusion evening. Even cooler if it’s one of those elusive, pop-up style events which deals exclusively in residencies. Soul Mama was one of these nights, bringing jazz, soul, gospel, reggae and more from emerging artists and touring stars to bring the best of live music to London’s streets. Now it’s heading to its first ever permanent site.

Founded by musician and broadcaster YolanDa Brown OBE DL, Soul Mama originally started in the ground floor of the Gantry hotel in Stratford, as a brief musical residency. Now, the unrivalled music night is heading to its first permanent site over in Islington.

Continuing its tradition of being iconic, Soul Mama has already teased the lineup for its inaugural season; this year, Soul Mama Islington will feature performances from the likes of Omar, Susan Carol, Mica Paris, Etana, Citrus Sun and Avery*Sunshine alongside Najee, Brit Funk Association, Ray Gelato & the Giants and Syd Lawrence Orchestra. Alongside the live music, comedy and spoken word, Soul Mama Islington will host its famous Motown, Gospel Choir and Afrobeats live brunches.

The space itself spans a chunky 3600 square footage, with floor to ceiling windows which offer up views over Chapel Market. The venue has a 150-person capacity, starting as a spacious restaurant during the day, and transforming into its signature, intimate live music venue by night. The food is heavily inspired by the music, fusing tastes of Africa, the Caribbean, and South America; it will be serving up small plates like Braised Lamb, a Jerk Wing Pit which offers a delectable roulette wheel of flavours from fiery Scotch Bonnet and Mango to smoky Rum BBQ. Bigger plates like Coconut Curry Chicken and Argentinian Smoke Gaucho Jerk Chicken are on offer.

YolanDa Brown OBE DL is possibly one of the most accomplished people around, not only bringing Soul Mama to life, but is also a saxophinist, broadcaster, two time MOBO winner, and chairs the BRIT Awards and Mercury Prize. Talking about the new venue, she said it “will be a real joy to bring more music, culture and connection to such a vibrant and spirited destination. Islington is about to get even more soul”.

Soul Mamma Islington is located at 21 Parkfield Street, N1 0PS, with a second location in Stratford also in the works, expected to open in August 2026. You can book tickets for the performances here.

• Cult creamy faves Hackney Gelato have teamed up with this London bar for boozy milkshake style cocktails

London is a hotbed for fantastic venues for live music – everything from the sweaty back room at the Dublin Castle in Camden to the pomp and circumstance of my favourite, the Royal Albert Hall, and the immense scale of the O2 in Greenwich.

However, for as long as I've been going to gigs in London (and that's quite a bit over the last 15 years), I've often felt it was missing a venue. London has lots of theatres with a sub-3000 capacity – think the Palladium, Lyceum and such – and then some slightly larger halls, such as the Hammersmith Apollo and Royal Albert Hall that push 4000 to 6000 people in one room.

• 10 best London music venues for seeing unsigned bands

Above that, and you're getting into arena territory with the O2 and Wembley Arena. It's the gap between the Palladium and the Albert Hall that's difficult to fill.

That's where the new British Airways Arc comes in. The first venue of its kind to be built in London for the best part of a decade, with a sweet-spot 3,800 capacity situated at the Olympia in west London, that's sitting on a site with more musical heritage than people realise. The likes of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Cure all played in Olympia's West Hall (where the Arc is situated atop), and in more recent years, it's played host to Richard Ashcroft and Alicia Keys, amongst the sea of trade shows that usually occupy the venue.

It's part of a hefty £1.3 billion renovation to the Olympia site, where I'm told that a concert venue of some form was central to the plans, reviving Olympia's musical heritage in a thoroughly modern manner. This is all part of an idea to make the exhibition hall into more of a destination – Birmingham has tried it with the NEC complex, adding the Resorts World outlet shopping centre and the associated BP Pulse arena a decade or so ago, but it feels a bit soulless considering it's mostly shut before doors open for a show at the arena.

On the other hand, the Olympia already has several venues open for business, and with a good variety, too. Everything from coffee and fried chicken to Japanese cuisine and beyond, with Wolves of Tokyo, a rooftop Japanese restaurant and bar from the Incipio Group, as the marquee opening. The space already feels alive with a clean and modern feel, and is worth checking out on its own. I recommend arriving an hour or so before doors to make the most of it.

What's on

The opening season AEG is going for reflects the ambition to revive Olympia's musical fortunes. There's an excellent spread of artists for the venue's opening season – Self Esteem has opened up this week, with the likes of McFly, Zac Brown Band and The Black Keys to follow. Van Morrison is down for a five-night residency in a more intimate setting, while there's also a jazz festival partnership featuring Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves towards the back end of 2026. AEG's target is 200 events a year, meaning this could be the hustling and bustling venue to see your favourite artist in a new and different setting.

AEG has said the venue is built for multi-night runs and that the idea of artists having residencies is arguably the whole point of the venue. It's designed to attract arena sellers to a smaller space, potentially encouraging a different kind of show with a better atmosphere. Van Morrison is a prime example, as is the rarely seen Zac Brown Band – a country artist not seen at a standalone UK show in the best part of a decade, the last of which was at Wembley Arena, outside of sporadic country festival appearances at the O2. If they're selling out the Arc in the next week or so, that's an indication of things to come.

The best seats in the house

Once inside, you wouldn't know it's a nearly 4,000-capacity venue. It doesn't feel particularly big. The entire bowl is wide and deep, rather than narrow and high, feeling closer to the Roundhouse in Camden than a traditional theatre. The balcony is quite modest in scale, stretching back for only a handful of rows, and there isn't necessarily a bad seat in the house – I sat in a good few to check! There's a gentle rake, too, and good legroom between rows. If you're at the extreme side at the top, though, in seats 85 to 91 or so, just beware that they sit close enough to the stage that a large speaker may affect your view a bit. Of course, as time goes on, we're going to see photos from folks inside with specific seat and row numbers, but just a small tip for you.

If you're happy to spend a bit more and want to sit in the balcony, then the Arc has specific 'Front Row' seating – a lowered section at the front of the balcony with clean sightlines and no one in front of you.

For an even plusher option, there's the British Airways Wing, which is genuinely one of my favourite parts of the venue. It features a private bar serving made-to-order cocktails with its own lounge area that sits at the literal side of the stage – like the backstage viewing area you see well-to-do people using at Glastonbury.

Once the show's about to begin, you get your own little pen of even plusher seats that look more like ones you've found in a nice cinema than a concert venue. It's available via the Premium Seating option through AXS when buying tickets for certain shows — allocations are likely to be very limited, so you'll need to move quickly when a show goes on sale.

Downstairs, the floor is standing, but can be changed to seated arrangements for certain shows. It's a big, wide and open space, complete with ample opportunity to buy things, with a large bar and merchandise stand right as you go in the main auditorium door. Moving down the side is a self-serve bar if you don't want to deal with large queues with contactless payment terminals to make it as easy as possible to get that pre-show pint down your neck.

Comfort and accessibility

One thing I wasn't expecting was how much standing room there is outside of the main bowl, and that the bar areas and such are slightly raised up by a couple of steps against the main room. There are lots of spaces to lean with your drink, a few steps away from the back of the main standing bowl, and you get a surprisingly good sightline, especially with the stage being 1.7 metres high – that's higher than a lot of other venues. If you still want a good view without the hassle of being in a mosh pit, the rear standing area could be the play.

The venue has 37 accessible spaces on the ground floor at the side of the room, too, by the self-service bar, and you get good views in your own designated section, rather than having to deal with the problem of potentially being stuck behind a pillar in other venues.

Admittedly, it's a small thing, but the fact that the entire venue is air-conditioned makes a difference, especially with it opening at the height of summer. At this time of year, older halls can be very hot and stuffy in the summer months, especially as places in this country are mostly designed to keep heat in, rather than get rid of it. It's a small thing that will make a noticeable difference on a hot night.

If you're not already a member, it's worth signing up to the BA Club – British Airways' free membership scheme. As well as earning points on flight bookings, holidays and other things, you can also collect Avios if you spend at selected bars and restaurants across the new Olympia complex. From 22nd June, you can earn 10 Avios per £1 spent, which seems like a no-brainer if you're saving up points for a reward flight and want to maximise your earnings. Likewise, you also get access to your own specific presale for when artists go on sale at the Arc, giving you another route to book tickets to a show.

Getting there

One last tip is on public transport. To navigate to the Arc, you're genuinely best using public transport. On-street parking directly outside is restricted to permit holders until 10pm, ruling out most gig-goers. You've otherwise got a couple of options, with the Kensington Olympia station being served on the Mildmay Overground line, a branch of the District line on certain days and weekends, and Southern Rail's National Rail services. Otherwise, it's a short walk from Barons Court station on the Piccadilly line, which is useful if you're coming from central London or connecting from Heathrow, for instance.

Overall, I think the British Airways Arc is a genuinely worthwhile addition to London's entertainment landscape with a modern and considered feel that's unlike a lot of the other venues we've seen in London over the years. It's a little early to tell whether folks will seek it out for the wide, open room itself, for the pre-gig dining options, or simply because their favourite artist happens to book it. However, on the evidence of what's here already, the foundations are solid, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with it in the future.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Got a Worthy Farm-shaped hole in your social calendar? Everywhere at Once is a three-day showcase of incredible music happening nationwide between 26th and 28th June, that might just plug the big Glastonbury gap.

Taking place on what would have been the Glastonbury weekend were 2026 not a fallow year for the Somerset based festival goliath, Everywhere at Once has been organised by the Music Venue Trust, the not-for-profit organisation that champions, supports and promotes grassroots venues.

The event will see a diverse array of established names, cult favourites and up and coming acts play at intimate spaces.

Grassroots venues are the foundation on which our live music scene is built. They’re where the artists of tomorrow cut their teeth and where new scenes and movements are born. This gig series gives you the chance to catch some amazing gigs in fantastic small spaces – supporting the venues, the bands and the future of the UK live music scene.

Below we pick five not to be missed shows happening in London and a further five amazing artists playing in other cities and towns around the country.

London shows

1. STOP THINKING

When: Friday 26th June
Where: 93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane, E1 6QL

Formed in 2024, London’s STOP THINKING have become one of the UK’s fastest rising indie acts. Known for their energetic live performances, punchy vocals and gutsy riffs, the four piece have turned many heads before even putting out a full-length album. Their impressive rise makes them one of the most electrifying up and coming acts playing at Everywhere at Once. Their set at 93 Feet East may prove to be one of the last chances to see them in a venue of this size.

2. Old Dirty Brasstards present Brasstonbury

When: Friday 26th June
Where: The Garage, 20-22 Highbury Corner, N5 1RD

London based 10-piece tweed wearing brass band Old Dirty Brasstards are known for bringing the party with their dance-inducing takes on well-known pop, rock and hip-hop tunes. Anyone pining for a weekend of musical delight in a Somerset field can’t go wrong with this gig. Cheekily dubbed “Brasstonbury” – the band’s performance is set to draw upon the music of artists who have put in legendary sets at the festival – from The Prodigy to Alanis Morissette and David Bowie to Radiohead and Elton John. This one is sure to be a whole heap of fun. Not to be missed.

3. Master Peace

When: Saturday 27th June
Where: Sebright Arms, 31-35 Cote Street, E2 9AG

Peace Okezie aka Master Peace started turning heads with his vibrant combinations of indie-rock, indie-dance and hip-hop influences around 2018. Hype and anticipation grew as he dropped tunes over a few years and then released his much-anticipated debut full length album How to Make a Master Peace in 2024. Anticipation is building once again as he works towards the October release of his sophomore effort if i don’t love you who will? Catch him at Sebright Arms to hear favourites and new material alike.

4. Omar

When: Saturday 27th June
Where: 229, Great Portland St W1W 5PN

Sometimes referred to as the Godfather of UK Neo-Soul, Omar Lye-Fook, better known simply as Omar has been delighting audiences for decades with his distinctive sound. Masterfully combining various shades of soul and R&B with touches of jazz, funk and more, he has collaborated with the likes of Erykah Badu and Stevie Wonder. Don’t miss this captivating cult UK artist at 229.

5. London Ambient Orchestra

When: Sunday 28th June
Where: St Giles' Church, Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8RB

Offering up a truly immersive experience at St Giles Church, London Ambient Orchestra (LAO) is an experimental collective who weave highly improvised soundscapes that, as the name suggests, exist at the quieter end of things. Numbering anywhere between a dozen and as many as 30 players, depending on the performance LAO features members of Penguin Café and players who have collaborated with cult figures such as Lubomyr Melnyk and Douglas Dare. They also have the approval of ambient music legend William Basinski, who has described their sound as “gorgeous”.

Shows around the UK

6. Jodie Harsh

When: Friday 26th June
Where: Gut Level, 32-34 Chapel Walk, Sheffield, S1 2PD

LGBTQ+ icon, DJ and drag queen Jodie Harsh is known for high energy sets where they play a pumping blend of house, disco, pop and more. Equipped with their signature beehive and good time style, Harsh (who has remixed for everyone from Kylie Minogue to Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama) is sure to bring their trademark sense of fun to Sheffield’s Gut Level on the opening night of the festival.

7. Tinie Tempah (multiple dates)

When: Friday 26th June
Where: 1 St Michael's Road, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1QU.

When: Saturday 27th June
Where: Voodoo Daddy’s, 68a London Street, Norwich, NR2 1JT

When: Sunday 28th June
Where: The Brook, Portswood Road, Portswood, Southampton, SO17 3SD

For a few years in the 2010s Tinie Tempah was an inescapable force within the UK scene. The MC fused hip-hop, dance music and pop sensibilities to create huge hits such as ‘Pass Out’ and ‘Written in the Stars’. Years later, he still commands a strong following and is set to be a big draw with his three shows during the festival. The good people of Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich and Southampton will have a chance to catch him in action on the event’s three days respectively.

8. The Divine Comedy

When: Saturday 27th June
Where: The LCR, Union House, University of East Anglia Norwich, NR4 7TJ

Known for his rye wit, his way with melody and a sense of the grandiose, Derry native Neil Hannon has been releasing records under the name The Divine Comedy to his adoring fanbase for decades at this point. Existing somewhere between chamber-pop and indie, the project is set to be a huge draw during Everywhere at Once. This university venue is admittedly one of the larger spaces playing host to gigs during the series, but it is still an opportunity to see this legendary act in a more intimate setting than usual.

9. Rizzle Kicks

When: Sunday 28th June
Where: Patterns, 10 Marine Parade, Brighton, BN2 1TL

Forming in Brighton in 2008, Rizzle Kicks delivered a series of tunes such as ‘Mama Do The Hump’ and ‘Down With The Trumpets’ that became inescapable pop rap anthems. Splitting after releasing two albums, the duo then reformed in 2024 and have since dropped another record and been delighting audiences with their lively performances. Where better to see them than at a home-town show?

10. Fatboy Slim

Brighton (Date and exact venue TBA)

One of the most tantalising prospects for Everywhere at Once is a set from big beat originator, veteran party starter and Glastonbury staple Mr Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim. The exact date and venue are being kept closely under wraps. What we do know is that it will be at a grassroots venue in his home city of Brighton. Demand will undoubtedly be huge, but for the lucky few who manage to get into whichever of the south coast city’s excellent intimate venues it turns out to be, they're sure to have a hugely memorable night.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

For a few weeks every summer, Victoria Park stops feeling like Victoria Park. The dog walkers, runners and picnic blankets make way for stages, sound systems and security fencing as tens of thousands descend on East London for the All Points East festival season.

It's become part of the rhythm of the city, but now the company behind the festival wants formal permission to keep doing it for years to come — and close sections of the park for the festival for longer stretches each year, too.

AEG Presents, which has run All Points East in Victoria Park since 2018 and launched LIDO festival last year, has applied for planning permission that would allow it to use parts of the park for up to 75 days a year over the next six years.

Before visions of a permanently fenced-off park start circulating, the reality is a little more complicated.

According to the planning documents, pointed out by The Standard, AEG expects to occupy sections of Victoria Park for around 66 days annually. The 75-day figure includes additional wiggle room for things like bad weather delaying build or breakdown schedules. Crucially, the company insists this isn't an attempt to expand the festivals themselves.

Organisers say the application is largely a result of a legal headache that has rippled across the UK's festival industry over the last year.

Following a High Court challenge involving festivals in Brockwell Park, it was ruled that the 28-day rule covering temporary events also includes the days spent building and dismantling festival sites. Previously, many councils and organisers had worked on the assumption that only the days open to the public counted.

In other words, festivals that have operated in much the same way for years are suddenly having to seek planning permission.

AEG argues that's exactly what's happening here. Its application states there will be no increase in capacity, no major expansion and no significant change to how either festival operates. This year's plans remain broadly familiar, with All Points East returning across two August weekends, LIDO taking place over the Bank Holiday period and a community-focused programme filling the gap in between.

While organisers might see this as a paperwork exercise, some locals clearly don't.

A Facebook group called Protect Victoria Park has already begun encouraging residents to formally object to the plans before the 8th of July deadline. The group's argument is simple: Victoria Park is one of London's most attractive and heavily used green spaces, and spending large chunks of summer behind event infrastructure is too high a price to pay.

The reaction has been predictably split.

Some commenters have backed the campaign, arguing that public parks should remain public for as much of the year as possible. Others have taken a more pragmatic view, pointing out that festivals bring jobs, tourism, major artists and culture to the area. One commenter perhaps summed up the middle ground best, writing: "Both can coexist with the right management."

Few people would argue that Victoria Park hasn't become one of London's premier festival destinations. Equally, few people would argue against the fact that it's one of the capital's best parks. The challenge is finding the balance between the two.

For now, Tower Hamlets Council has the final say. With tickets already on sale and festival season edging ever closer, both organisers and campaigners will be watching closely.

While everyone loves a festival and a good time, they also quite like having somewhere to walk the dog.

• 10 places to watch the 2026 World Cup in London (even if you’re not an England fan...)

Pitchfork is taking over a bunch of London’s top music venues later this year for the Pitchfork Music Festival London, and the first (massive) wave of acts has been announced.

A few names that jump out at us immediately include The Avalanches, Jacob Alon, Actress, Tortoise and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. You can check out the full list of announced acts below, but let’s deal with some of the key Pitchfork Music Festival London details first.

The festival runs from 2nd November to 8th November this year, and tickets go on sale later this week on 12th June at 10am.

Pitchfork has partnered up with DICE for ticketing, and tickets are sold per event — with pricing varying by act and venue.

For example, you’ll pay £43.04 for a ticket to The Avalanches at the Roundhouse or £27.25 for ear at The Cause on 5th November. All ticket costs have been published over at DICE already, so have a look.

If you’re here for a real festival flavour, the Dalston Takeover on Saturday 7th November is want you want. This day of music begins at 6pm, and sees Pitchfork take over EartH, Shacklewell Arms, The Victoria, Cafe OTO and St Matthias Church. Doors open at 4:30pm.

Tickets for the Dalston Takeover cost £42.11, and it’s headlined by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.

Remarkably, it has been 20 years since the first Pitchfork Music Festival. The London edition began in 2021 — this year’s is its sixth edition.

Here’s the full list of announced concerts, as published by the fine folk at Pitchfork:

Monday, 2nd November at MOTH

• Horse Jumper of Love
• Jawdropped
• Hammok

Tuesday, 3rd November at MOTH 

• Greg Mendez
• Asher White
• villagerrr

Tuesday, 3rd November at KOKO

• The Radio Dept
• Ana Roxanne
• A Good Year

Wednesday, 4th November at Hackney Empire

• Jacob Alon
• Paulie Swan

Wednesday, 4th November at Hackney Church

• Tortoise
• Bill Orcutt
• Dagmar Zuniga

Wednesday, 4th November at KOKO

• Aja Monet
• Keiyaa
• Momoko Gill

Wednesday, 4th November at OSLO

• MGNA Crrrta
• Daine

Wednesday, 4th November at EartH Hall

• Los Thuthanaka (In The Round)
• Joshua Chuquimia Crampton

Thursday 5th November at the Cause

Ear

Thursday 5th November at Village Underground

• Lido Pimienta
• Amore
• Ms Ray

Thursday 5th November at EartH Theatre

• Actress
• KMRU
• Joy Guidry

Thursday 5th November at MOTH

• Colin Miller
• Told Slant
• H. Pruz
• Elijah Wolf

Friday 6th November at ICA

• Olof Dreijer
• Fauzia
• Cutouts

Friday 6th November at MOTH 

• Kiwi Jr.
• Alien Boy
• Bleary Eyed

Friday 6th November at Roundhouse

• The Avalanches & Friends

Saturday 7th November

• 60 juno
• Bloodsports
• Cootie Catcher
• Flawed Mangoes
• Flooding
• Hiding Places
• Ideasforconversations
• Jordan Patterson
• Lots of Hands
• Mandy, Indiana
• Maria BC
• Midwife
• MX Lonely
• Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
• Robber Robber
• Sell Everything
• Sundots
• Superfan
• Swapmeet
• TURNSPIT
• Victoryland
• Working Men’s Club

Saturday 7th November at Roundhouse

• Noname
• Georgia Anne Muldrow
• Cleo Reed
• Kaicrewsade

Sunday 8th November at Royal Festival Hall

• Hania Rani

• Wimmy Road Boyz author Sufiyaan Salam picks his 6 favourite road trip stories

Camden’s most iconic grassroots venue is making a comeback. After a decade away, Barfly will officially reopen on the 22nd of June, reclaiming its iconic name and returning to the heart of Chalk Farm Road.

For anyone who spent nights in Camden during the 90s and noughties, Barfly was an accomplished proving ground for up and coming acts. With a mere 200-capacity room, it's where future arena acts sharpened their teeth long before the stadium tours and Brit Awards arrived. Coldplay, Adele, Muse, Ed Sheeran, The Cure, The Killers, The Libertines, Kasabian, Biffy Clyro, Jamie T and My Chemical Romance all passed through its doors between 1996 and 2016.

It was also the type of venue where ridiculous stories became part of the mythology. Ed Sheeran once played four shows in one night there in 2011. Frank Turner apparently holds the record for most performances on the Barfly stage. If you were tipped as “the next big thing” in British music, chances are someone dragged you to Barfly at some point to see if you really were up to scratch.

To launch the new era, it's fitting then that Frank Turner will headline a special reopening show, bringing things full circle for an artist whose history with the venue runs deep.

Turner first played Barfly in 2001 with his band Million Dead, before later returning as a solo artist for a string of packed-out performances, including his first ever sold-out solo show there in 2006.

A vital lifeline for live music

The venue’s return comes at a time when grassroots music spaces across the UK are under serious pressure from rising costs, redevelopment and shrinking margins. New owners Propaganda Independent Venues, Dan Ickowitz-Seidler, Richard Buck and Camden music figure Chris McCormack, say the relaunch is as much about preserving cultural history as it is reopening a club.

Inside, the revived Barfly will mix old-school nostalgia with a few upgrades. There’ll be a Wall of Fame packed with archive images from the venue’s history, a vinyl listening bar inspired by Tokyo’s famous audiophile spots, and even a 1959 AMI jukebox identical to one once owned by Amy Winehouse. The main room’s sound system and lighting rig have also been upgraded, while the downstairs bar is being redesigned to shift from daytime pub to late-night club space.

The real appeal is simpler than that: Barfly is one of those venues people talk about with almost irrational affection. Anyone who spent some time in Camden during this time would talk about the place with a mystique, and if you never had the chance to go, you felt like you were missing out.

Tickets for the Frank Turner reopening show go on sale from 9am on the 15th of June, with access via sign-up through Barfly Camden. Given the venue only holds around 200 people and nostalgia is a powerful drug, they’re unlikely to last long.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

As streaming continues to dominate how most people listen to music, British audio brand Ruark is making a compelling argument for keeping your CDs and vinyl records close at hand.

Launching as part of the company's 40th anniversary celebrations, the new R710 is the most powerful addition yet to Ruark's acclaimed 100 Series range. Designed as an all-in-one music hub, it combines seemingly every modern listening option imaginable with a design language that feels lifted straight from the golden age of hi-fi.

At first glance, the R710 looks every bit the premium piece of furniture. Available in either Fused Walnut or Satin Charcoal finishes, it leans heavily into the seventies-inspired styling Ruark has become known for, pairing tactile physical controls with a large 6.8-inch colour display.

Underneath that retro-inspired exterior sits a very accomplished bit of kit. Streaming support includes Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Qobuz Connect, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast and internet radio, while Bluetooth arrives courtesy of aptX HD. The system also supports high-resolution audio files and can access music stored on local network drives or USB devices.

Where the R710 really stands out, though, is its refusal to abandon physical media. At a time when many manufacturers have quietly ditched disc drives altogether, Ruark has doubled down with an integrated CD player and built-in phono stage for turntables. It's a move that feels increasingly sensible as both formats continue to enjoy a resurgence among younger listeners and collectors alike.

There's also a practical side to the R710's ambitions. HDMI eARC connectivity means it can double as a powerful TV sound system, while multiroom support through AirPlay 2 and Google Cast allows it to slot seamlessly into a wider home audio setup.

Power comes from a newly developed Class-D amplification system capable of delivering up to 200 watts per channel. That's a considerable amount of muscle for a product of this size and should provide enough headroom to make everything from delicate jazz recordings to blockbuster movie soundtracks sound suitably expansive.

The all-in-one audio market has become increasingly crowded in recent years, but Ruark has carved out a reputation for building products that strike a rare balance between lifestyle appeal and genuine hi-fi credentials. The R710 looks set to continue that tradition.

The Ruark R710 is available now in Fused Walnut and Satin Charcoal finishes, for £2,199.

• Paul McCartney is heading to an intimate London music venue for a special In Conversation Evening to celebrate his new album

Indie folk icon and one third of supergroup Boygenius Phoebe Bridgers has announced a massive tour that begins later this year.

Bridgers’s The Lost Tour begins on the 15th September, 2026, and sees her wind her way across the US before landing in London for a gig at The O2 on 1st December.

Fancy attending? This is the key week. Ticket presale begins on June 10th at 10am, and to get on-board you need to sign up for a presale pass over at the tour website.

General sale begins two days later on Friday, 12th June, at 10am.

At The O2, and across the UK and European dates, Bridgers will be supported by Isaac Wood, best known as the former singer for Black Country, New Road. He left the group in 2022, and we haven’t heard all that much for him since.

The Lost Tour truly is a travelling show of returning musical titans, because Bridgers’s solo career has largely been on hold for the last few years too. Her most recent solo album was released in 2020, Punisher. And even her gigs with Boygenius dried up in early 2024.

She last played in the UK back in August 2023 — most notably at Gunnersbury Park on 20th August as part of a massive, sold-out Boygenius show.

Bridgers is well and truly back already, though, having played a “secret” Madison Square Garden last week. It made headlines for it’s zero-tech approach. All phones, smartwatches, cameras and smart glasses had to be stowed away in security bags - in order to avoid her new material leaking out.

“Banning phones only made it better,” said Rolling Stone in a write-up of the concert. She played eight new songs as well as some old favourites.

Here’s the full list of upcoming UK dates in Bridgers’s The Lost Tour concert series:

• 23rd November — Dublin 3Arena
• 26th November — Manchester Co-op Live 
• 27th November — Glasgow OVO Hydro
• 28th November — Birmingham bp pulse LIVE
• 1st December — London The O2

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

The flurry of World Cup related posts, stories, and activations are coming thick and fast, making football more accessible than ever. Well, making the sport more accessible palatable for people who don’t actually really *like * football. The latest news from the sporting world is one which will delight anyone who tends to head to Wembley for a concert instead of a match: The World Cup has got an official soundtrack album.

You hear the word “football” and you immediately think “Stormzy”, right? No?Maybe you will now as the pop star is just one of the many big names attached to the project. With less than a week until the first game (Mexico vs South Africa), FIFA has confirmed a fuller roster of artists have been involved with the project.

They couldn’t not really use Shakira, after her iconic track Waka Waka (It’s Time For Africa) which was created for the World Cup in 2010, and has since graced zumba classes and school discos across the country. Her track with Burna Boy is called Dai Dai and is already streaming.

The album features a whole team of international artists, with plenty teaming up to deliver their tracks. Stormzy is teaming up with Fridayy and Angel for the track Blessings, whilst singer and breakout star of the most recent series of The White Lotus LISA has teamed up with Anitta and Rema for their song Goals. Cementing its status as an all-star album, the tracklist is rounded off by The Rolling Stones with a remix of In The Stars.

The official World Cup 2026 Album tracklist:

• Goals by LISA, Anitta and Rema
• Game Time by Future and Tyla
• Illuminate by Jessie Reyez and Elyanna
• Echo by Daddy Yankee and Shenseea
• Por Ella by Los Ángeles Azules and Belinda
• Three Nations by 21 Savage, Nata Cano and French Montana
• No Place Like Home by Major Lazer, Nelly Furtado and Davido
• In The Stars (Remix) by The Rolling Stones
• Show Me by Arya Starr and Latto
• Mi Mexico Lindo by Alejandro Fernandez
• Blessings by Stormzy, Fridayy, and Angel
• Energy by Ava Max and BIA
• Lighter by Jelly Roll Carín León
• Siir Siir by Nora Fatehi, Vegedream and Sanjoy
• Partidazo by Danny Ocean
• Champion by IShowSpeed
• Love Always Wins by Shaggy, Cimafunk, and Zema
• Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy

The 18-track album is available from Friday 5th June, helping kick off the official countdown for the first match of the series. Some of the tracks are also set to be performed live across some of the opening ceremonies in Mexico City, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

• Ezra Collective swap Wembley for Shoreditch with an intimate one-night-only gig

For a band that spent last year filling Wembley Arena, Ezra Collective are about to go in the complete opposite direction by heading to a more intimate venue.

The Mercury Prize-winning jazz outfit has announced a special one-night-only show at 83 Rivington Street in Shoreditch on the 18th of June, giving fans the chance to see one of Britain's best live acts in what could be their most intimate London performance to date.

The event is being hosted in partnership with Courvoisier and arrives fresh off the announcement of the band's highly anticipated fourth album, Here Because of Hope. While no setlist details have been revealed, organisers are teasing the possibility of hearing material from the new record long before its release.

For anyone who has seen Ezra Collective's rise over the past few years, the scale of the venue is what makes this particularly exciting.

This is a band that has graduated from sweaty club gigs to festival headline slots, BRIT Awards and arena shows, becoming one of the defining success stories of modern British jazz along the way. Seeing them back in a small room feels a bit like catching a Premier League striker playing five-a-side.

The show is also designed around the theme of Father’s Day, with fans encouraged to bring a father figure, friend or loved one along for the night. Alongside the music, guests will be able to sample specially created Courvoisier cocktails, including the Ezra Twist, a bespoke serve developed by the band and the cognac brand.

What makes Ezra Collective so compelling live is their ability to make jazz feel like a celebration rather than a lesson. Their gigs are joyful, communal affairs where afrobeat, hip-hop, reggae, funk and jazz all collide into something that feels uniquely London. Few bands currently touring can generate the same level of energy from a crowd.

Tickets are free but expected to disappear almost instantly. Fans can sign up for an email reminder now, ahead of tickets being released at midday on the 11th of June.

Given the band's current trajectory, opportunities to see Ezra Collective in a venue this size are becoming increasingly rare. If you've ever wanted to experience one of the UK's most exciting live acts up close rather than from the upper tier of an arena, this might be your chance.

• “Crises of the imagination”: In Other Worlds at the Barbican is a sci-fi-fuelled blueprint for surviving the end of the world

2026 is proving to be somewhat of a Beatles renaissance with Sam Mendes’ four-part biopic teasing more news, exhibitions happening across the city, and Sir Paul McCartney releasing a brand new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. What a time to be a Beatles fan, eh? The roster of Beatles-esque events is set to get even bigger and starrier as McCartney has announced a special evening at one of London’s most famed live music venues where he will be discussing his acclaimed new album and the journey behind its creation.

On Wednesday, 10th June, Paul McCartney will be heading to the Roundhouse London for a unique live event – the first of its kind in recent years, giving a rare insight into the making, recording, and stories behind the new album. Paul will reflect on the making of the album from its earliest beginnings, sharing stories and insights from his first meeting with producer Andrew Watt in 2021 through to the recording process, songwriting, duetting with Ringo for the first time, artwork development and the album’s release last week. The audience will gain a rare, first-hand perspective on how The Boys of Dungeon Lane came to life and hear the new music played amongst Paul’s stories.

McCartney teased the album back in March, with the release of his single Days We Left Behind, releasing his 13-track album The Boys of Dungeon Lane on May 29th. The album has been described as McCartney’s “most introspective album to date, taking the listener back to where it all began.”

The official description continues, “These extraordinary new songs find Paul writing with rare openness about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania. Like his career, ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ is musically eclectic and sees Paul across an array of instruments and styles, showcasing his broad musicality. There’s Wings-style rock, Beatles-style harmonies, McCartney-style grooves, understated intimacy, melody-driven storytelling, character songs – the common thread being Paul.”

Tickets go on sale at 10 am on Wednesday, 3rd June, with tickets starting at £64.28. All the seating will be unreserved, with some seating upstairs on a raised level too. You can get tickets here.

• “Crises of the imagination”: In Other Worlds at the Barbican is a sci-fi-fuelled blueprint for surviving the end of the world

Charli XCX has announced her next, and seventh, studio album. It’s big news given her last, 2024’s Brat, broke through some sort of ceiling to become a prominent feature of the cultural landscape.

Big expectations for this one then. And there’s not too long to wait either. Here’s everything we know so far.

What’s Charli XCX’s new album called?

The next Charli XCX album is called Music, Fashion, Film. It’s a reference to lyrics found in the second, already-released, since from the album, SS26.

“Yeah, we're walking on a runway that goes straight to hell. Nothing's gonna save us, not music, fashion or film,” read the lyrics. It’s cheery stuff.

When is Music, Fashion Film out?

Charli XCX’s next album is released on July 24th, and it’s available to pre-order now.

Buy it direct from the Charli XCX website and you can get it with a “signed art card,” although a bunch of the formats are already sold out. It comes on CD, vinyl and cassette.

Music, Fashion, Film album cover art

The album’s title is portrayed quite literally on the cover, with an image from Aidan Zamiri depicting John Cale, Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese in what appears to be a plain-looking kitchen.

Charli XCX has of course already collaborated with musical icon John Cale, who featured on a song from her Wuthering Heights soundtrack album, House. It’s not yet clear if these three figures have more of a direct hand in the album.

Music, Fashion, Film track listing

Charli XCX is yet to release a full track listing for her Music, Fashion, Film album, beyond the two singles already out — Rock Music and SS26.

We do know there are 11 tracks, though, and that its runtime is a trim 30 minutes-ish. Brat has 15 tracks and runs for more than 41 minutes.

Is Charli XCX’s next album going to be rock?

One of the headline grabbers from the release of the first single from this new album cycle was Charli XCX is ditching dance music in order to make “rock music.”

While in interviews she has said she doesn’t want to repeat the same sound she used on Brat, she has played down suggestions she’s making a straight genre shift.

In an Instagram post caption, Charli XCX wrote, “a video of me making a song called “rock music” that is not actually rock music which is funny because i never said i was making a rock album.”

The single Rock Music does feature crunchy guitars and acoustic drums, but it is not as if she has not experimented with similar sounds before — most notably on 2015’s Sucker album.

When is Charli XCX next playing live in London?

Charli XCX has not yet announced a tour to support the new album. But she is playing at a bunch of festivals across the world this year. None are in London, but two are at least in the UK.

She will headline the Reading and Leeds festivals this year, which both take place between August 27th and 30th. Charli XCX tops the bill on Saturday at Leeds, and on Friday at Reading.

• What do Charli XCX and Meat Loaf have in common? 9 of the best acting performances from musicians

A new exhibition at the V&A focuses on the music venues the UK has lost since the 1980s.

If you can count your gig-going years in decades rather than years, you will have likely noticed some of your favourite old spots have disappeared.

Lost Music Venues at the V&A South Kensington is all about those long-lost spaces. We’re talking about clubs, classic concert spaces and community halls.

50 of these places are featured, through upwards of 150 objects.

Lost Music Venues has been put together in collaboration with the Music Venue Trust, and members of the public. Back in May 2025, the V&A asked for submissions of “artefacts and music ephemera” to help honour the “cultural legacy” of those lost venues.

There are tickets, photos, posters and — no surprise given this is the V&A — items of clothing that evoke long gone moments in music culture.

Some of the venues featured include Madame Jojo’s, the Legends nightclub and Plastic People.

Lost Music Venues is split into four sections that take us through from the 1980s scene of the Hacienda and London Astoria through to the additional difficulties Covid-19 placed on these venues.

“Music venues – be they gig spaces or nightclubs – are not only the lifeblood of the music industry but an integral part of the creative sector,” says Harriet Reed, the V&A’s Curator of Contemporary Performance.

The exhibition takes up a relatively small part of the V&A, but there’s no charge for visiting this one. You’ll find Lost Music Venues in Room 104, in the Theatre & Performance section of the museum.

It opened on May 30th, and will run until May 22nd, 2027.

Alongside awareness-raising projects like this exhibit, the Music Venue Trust is also behind The Grassroots Levy, a voluntary £1 ticket price bump added to ticket sales of gigs over 5000 capacity intended to help smaller venues stay afloat.

Other exhibitions you can catch at the V&A’s various sites at the moment include Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art and The Music is Black: A British Story.

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One of the most ambitious exhibitions landing in London this summer is set to explore a century of art, politics and cultural exchange through the lens of Pan-Africanism.

Opening on the 11th of June, at the Tate Modern, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica brings together more than 300 works spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, film, journals, posters and archival material. The exhibition examines the influence of Pan-Africanism on artistic production from the 1920s to the present day, tracing connections across Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, North America and Europe.

While Pan-Africanism is often discussed as a political movement centred on anti-colonial resistance, liberation and solidarity among people of African descent, this exhibition shifts the focus towards culture and creativity. It explores how artists didn't simply respond to Pan-African ideas but actively helped shape and expand them, imagining new possibilities for identity, community and collective futures.

Described as the first major exhibition to fully examine the relationship between Pan-Africanism and visual culture, the show presents Panafrica not as a geographical location but as a shared intellectual and creative space. Across the exhibition, visitors will encounter stories of resistance, migration, collaboration and imagination that have resonated across continents for more than a century.

The scale of the exhibition is reflected in its artist list, which includes some of the most important figures in contemporary and modern art. Featured artists include El Anatsui, Lubaina Himid, Chris Ofili, Claudette Johnson, William Kentridge, Simone Leigh, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Marlene Dumas among dozens of others.

The exhibition also serves as the centrepiece for a wider summer programme inspired by its themes. More than 50 events will take place alongside the show, including talks, screenings, live music performances and community-led projects, bringing together artists, writers and thinkers from across the African continent and its global diasporas.

For anyone interested in art, history or culture, this looks set to be one of London's standout exhibitions of the summer.

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica runs from the 11th of June to the 6th of September at Tate Modern. Standard tickets cost £19.

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Most people know Jack White as one of the most influential musicians of the past 25 years, but long before he was filling arenas with The White Stripes, he was learning upholstery in his native Detroit. Now, after decades of quietly developing a visual art practice alongside his music career, White is finally putting that work on public display.

A major new exhibition, These Thoughts May Disappear, has opened at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in south London, marking the first public exhibition of White’s artwork. Running until the 13th of September, the free show brings together sculptures, furniture pieces, installations and interactive works that reveal a side of the musician that many fans may never have seen before.

Born in Detroit in 1975 and now based in Nashville, White describes much of his work as “hardware store art”, drawing on carpentry, upholstery and found materials. His artistic influences range from Detroit’s Cass Corridor art movement to mid-century modern furniture design, as well as the Dada and De Stijl movements. That mix of influences can be seen throughout the exhibition, which features works built from everyday materials, tools and reclaimed objects transformed into striking sculptural pieces.

One of the centrepieces is a recreation of The Red Tree, a sculpture first conceived in 2015 that transforms a decaying tree into a bold artwork. Elsewhere, visitors will find furniture designs, assemblages and installations that reflect White’s long-running fascination with craftsmanship and making things by hand.

While White’s visual work has largely remained behind closed doors, design has always been a major part of his wider creative world. Through his record label, Third Man Records, he has developed everything from interiors and photography to product design and branding, building a distinctive aesthetic that has become almost as recognisable as his music.

The exhibition also highlights White’s long-standing connections to artists from Detroit, including collaborations with Cass Corridor figures Gordon Newton and Robert Sestok. For the London show, he has also worked alongside Damien Hirst and artists connected to the wider Third Man Records universe.

For fans of White, it offers a rare chance to see another side of one of modern music’s most inventive figures. For everyone else, it’s an opportunity to discover an artist making his public debut after spending more than 20 years refining his craft away from the spotlight.

Jack White: These Thoughts May Disappear runs at Newport Street Gallery until the 13th of September. Entry is free.

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New Romantic pop-rock veterans Duran Duran have announced a UK and European tour that begins later this year.

But the big surprise: there’s no actual London date. For that, you’ll have to pick up a ticket for the group’s BST Hyde Park show on July 5th, at which they will be supported by Scissor Sisters.

The Duran Duran UK and European tour doesn’t kick off until almost three months later, in October. Here’s the full list of dates for the tour:

• October 2nd Oslo Unity Arena
• October 3rd Stockholm Avicii Arena
• October 5th Hamburg Barclays Arena
• October 8th Cologne Lanxess Arena
• October 15th Glasgow OVO Hydro Arena
• October 18th Belfast SSE Arena
• October 20th Birmingham Utilita Arena
• October 23rd Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
• October 24th Leeds First Direct Arena
• October 26th Brussels ING Arena
• October 28th Paris Accor Arena

All the UK dates see Duran Duran supported by Pigeon, a Margate group whose sound is shaped by the unmistakable Falle Nioke, a singer from Guinea in West Africa.

Tickets for the UK arena gigs will go on sale 10am on June 5th. Fan pre-sale starts on June 3rd, but Duran Duran asks you to pay for the privilege.

Access to the silver-level VIP community costs $39.99 a year.

So why no London date when we have The O2, OVO Arena Wembley and the Copper Box Arena right there? This newly announced run of concerts is more of an add-on to a tour Duran Duran is about to begin, filling in areas not covered by the June and July run of concerts.

Duran Duran do have priors for missing London out, though.

BST will be the first time Duran Duran have played the capital since their May 2023 show at The O2, despite a short run of UK arena gigs in 2025.

The group recently released a collaboration single with Nile Rogers, Free to Love, which singer Simon le Bon described as “disco for the 2020s.” Give it a listen:

Tickets for the band’s BST concert are available now for £103.65.

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Just weeks before helping Harry Styles conquer Wembley Stadium for 12 nights, Shania Twain is doing something arguably even more intimidating: playing a tiny pub venue in East London.

The country-pop icon has announced a one-off show at The Shacklewell Arms on the 6th of June, giving fans the chance to see one of the biggest stars on the planet in a venue small enough that somebody will almost certainly spill a pint on their trainers during the encore.

This is a woman who headlined BST Hyde Park last summer, smashed Glastonbury’s legends slot and has spent the last few decades operating almost exclusively at “massive field full of screaming people” level. And now she’s rocking up to a 250-capacity venue in Dalston where people usually discover bands three years before everyone else starts pretending they liked them first.

The show comes ahead of Twain joining Harry Styles for his enormous Wembley run later this summer, as well as her own huge headline date at Thomond Park in Ireland. It’ll also act as a warm-up for her upcoming seventh album, Little Miss Twain, which lands on July 24 and follows 2023’s Queen Of Me.

Fans hoping to get in will need a combination of luck, speed and probably divine intervention. Tickets are being allocated through a ballot system, with successful applicants getting the chance to buy tickets via Dice for £25. Considering some people would probably pay triple that just to hear “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” shouted in a room above a pub, demand is likely to be absolutely ridiculous.

Anyone who misses out in the ballot will get a second chance through Twain’s social channels later the same day, though realistically this has all the ingredients of one of those London gigs people talk about for years afterwards in increasingly exaggerated terms.

There’s something very fun about massive artists suddenly deciding they want to terrorise tiny venues again. Now it’s Shania Twain’s turn to descend on East London and create the sort of ticket scramble that’ll have group chats moving like Oasis reunion announcements.

The best part is how genuinely small The Shacklewell Arms feels for somebody of Twain’s stature. This isn’t one of those “intimate” shows that still somehow takes place in a 5,000-capacity theatre. This is properly intimate. The sort of gig where you can actually see facial expressions instead of relying on giant screens and blind optimism.

With a new album on the way, there’s every chance fans will get a mix of fresh material alongside the kind of all-timer hits that basically transformed 90s and 2000s pop culture. Which means somebody is almost certainly going to lose their mind the second the opening notes of That Don’t Impress Me Much kick in.

Shania Twain plays The Shacklewell Arms on June 6.

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Open any news app and you’ll probably see a barrage of sad stories about London nightlife being, well, screwed. However, luckily, there are plenty of bars, restaurants, and late night music spots opening up to help counteract the tidal wave of closures, and the latest event from LWE (London Warehouse Events) in partnership with PROJEKT, who have contributed to London venues including Printworks and Tobacco Dock, is possibly the most exciting – and ambitious – yet.

Called Ironworks, the new venue is a major addition to the capital, following the slew of similar sizable venues like Packham Palais and Exhibition in White City which have opened up across London. Ironworks will be taking over a famed east London industrial warehouse with an impressive 7,000 person capacity, complete with a panoramic terrace, stretching across the River Thames with plenty of views.

As you might be able to gather from the name, the venue itself will be taking over the former home of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. It originally formed part of the Royal Docks on the Greenwich Peninsula with a whopping 78,000 square feet inside. The historic, industrial warehouse will soon be almost unrecognisable as it gets transformed into a groovy new music spot. Talk about a glowup.

As well as the frankly shocking amount on space inside, the outdoor area will be just as impressive, as the riverside spot will maxxing out on its views, with a massive 80,000 square feet of outdoor space. We don’t yet know if the plans include having music sets outdoors, or whether the space will purely be for all the fresh-air-grabbing, smoking-area-style chats that always end up being the best part of the evening. Vaping will never have been so scenic as you overlook the sun setting across the River Thames.

In terms of lineup, performers and headliners are still very much under wraps. However in a release, the team promised ‘sets from ‘some of electronic music’s most in-demand artists’, with the names to be announced in June. So, not entirely in keeping with the site's history as it won't be exclusively metal.

According to organisers (LWE and PROJEKT) the venue's sound, lighting and visual production has been designed around the building's existing architecture and industrial character. The venue itself will be opening up in October 2026 so it will be a perfect lift to your going out roster as the summer (but hopefully not the warm weather) winds down.

Alongside the music programme, the wider Thames Wharf site will host public events including markets, outdoor cinema, wellness sessions and street food. Organisers say the project will also include ticket access initiatives for local residents and opportunities for independent traders.

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A new Jimi Hendrix exhibition is opening in London, at one of the quirkier of the capital's museums.

Hendrix in London opens on 19th June and consists of “over 500” pieces of ephemera from Hendrix’s life, from bills to letters and contracts, offering a more grounded look into the musician’s life in London in the late 1960s.

The exhibition is based on the collection of Patricia “Trixie” Sullivan, who was assistant to Hendrix’s manager Mike Jeffery. We effectively get a view on the musical icon, in part, through her eyes. And a lot of these documents are being displayed for the very first time.

Sullivan worked with Jeffery from 1966 to 1973, during Hendrix’s rise to fame and beyond his untimely death in 1970.

Hendrix in London will be on show at 25 Brook Street, also known as Handel Hendrix House. It’s where two of the most famous musical figures of all time, Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel, lived — if not in the very same rooms.

Hendrix lived in a flat at the top of 23 Brook Street, from July 1968 to March 1969, while Handel lived at 25 Brook Street for 36 years, up until his death.

The guitarist lived there with Kathy Etchingham, who he was in a relationship with at the time.

There won’t be an additional charge for the Hendrix in London exhibition. It’s all part of the standard Handel Hendrix House entry fee, which grants you access to the four floors of 25 Brook Street and the Hendrix flat.

“The main room of the flat where he lived, entertained friends, rehearsed and wrote new music, and gave numerous press and media interviews has been restored,” the museum’s description notes.

“Permanent exhibitions introduce Hendrix’s place in the musical and social world of 1960s London, his influences and his legacy.”

On the other side of the musical fence, the museum is currently home to a Handel Through Mozart’s Eyes exhibition. The centrepiece of this one is a transcription of a Handel work made by Mozart — it’s a little different from the restaurant receipts of the Hendrix exhibit. That exhibition is on until 13th September, so you can catch both with the same ticket this Summer.

Adult tickets for Handel Hendrix House cost £14.50. The museum is open Wednesdays to Sundays, from 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4pm. You can also gain entry to the museum with a National Art Pass or Historic Houses membership.

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Brockwell Live’s series of festivals kicked off this weekend, with Field Day on Saturday 23rd May and Cross the Tracks the day after.

While the £7.85 pints of Madri and food stalls stay the same, this festival series proves just how much the event itself — not the venue — determines what sort of a time you’ll have. And the vibe is set to shift once more this weekend, when the two-day Mighty Hoopla takes over Brockwell Park.

Field Day brought us non-stop dance and electronic music across seven stages. The zero minute gap between most acts both kept up the energy and reinforced that a lot of these acts don’t really have a whole lot to do once the mix starts.

Cross the Tracks is a totally different affair. It was significantly busier than Field Day and — particularly in the smaller tent stages — you might be left waiting ahead of a set as the engineers fiddle about with the sound levels.

But where else do you get to hear War play their 1975 hit Why Can’t We Be Friends?, and then witness a show-stealing set from Little Simz just a few hours later?

While Little Simz put on the most attention-commanding set of the entire weekend, we have a few suggestions for you to check out from elsewhere in the Field Day and Cross the Tracks line-ups.

Moses Yoofee Trio

Cross the Tracks is called a soul, funk and jazz festival. But it can seem like you have to hunt down the latter, but we stumbled upon some jazz with the Moses Yoofee Trio, who draw on a fistful of genres and filter it through the skills of three exceptional players. Moses Yoofee is the group’s keyboard player/pianist. But in a live context it’s next to impossible not to have your eyes and ears drawn by drummer Noah Fürbringer, whose chops and musicality are out of this world.

Floating Points

Were Floating Points (aka Samuel Shepherd) the right fit for a Field Day headliner? Topping off a day of partying with this more contemplative and cerebral music may have left a good chunk of the crowd seeking out Andy C’s jungle set elsewhere. But this was easily one of the most interesting acts at Field Day and that rarest of things — a live electronic dance music set. Hypnotic and mesmerising stuff, even as it did highlight the limitations of playing this style of music live.

Obongjayar

On his albums, Obongjayar sings in subtle and sensitive style, and it doesn’t quite prepare you for the kind of force of nature this British-Nigerian singer is live. He leaps around the stage with endless swagger and glistening six pack — granted, it was a record-breaking heat wave weekend — bringing a party energy that is not immediately evident on his studio recordings.

Patrick Mason

An antidote to mid-afternoon festival flagging. Patrick Mason is a DJ from Berlin who plays techno and house, maintaining high energy throughout the set. And that’s matched with his own high-energy performance. You can have just as good a time watching his dance moves behind the faders as you can letting loose in the crowd.

Arno Sacco

One of the neatest parts of Cross the Tracks is the series of The Blues Project: Senses Block Party slots. These give room for up and coming singers and rappers to play to a larger audience than they’re accustomed to, with the backing of a top-tier “house” band. One stand-out of these sessions at Cross the Tracks 2026 was Arno Sacco. He has pipes for days, reminding you of the thrill of seeing real vocal talent playing live, free of miming and autotune.

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President have announced a European tour that kicks off later this year, and includes one big gig in London.

In a case of The Masked Singer meets Slipknot, President features a lead singer who performs in a rubber mask that looks incredibly sweaty and uncomfortable.

The big fuss around the band is this singer is strongly rumoured to be Charlie Simpson, of Busted fame. Close your eyes and listen to their just-released single Doom Loop and you don’t have to be president of the Fightstar fan club to recognise the singer’s voice sounds exactly like that of Simpson.

Yep, this is another attempt by Charlie Simpson to convince us he’s a serious musical figure, actually.

“President have been building something that invites deeper investment — designed to be discovered, not sold,” reads the band blurb. Give it a listen:

President’s tour begins at the start of November in Stockholm, and finishes on 24th November with a night at the roughly 5,000 capacity O2 Academy Brixton.

The tour follows their debut album release, Blood Of Your Empire, on 4th September.

We have little sense of quite how in-demand these tickets will be, but pre-ordering the album gets you first dibs on tickets. Make the order before 26th May at 2pm and you’ll receive a code for the pre-sale period, which starts at 10am on 27th May.

General sale begins on 29th May, also at 10am.

Here are the full list of UK dates coming this November:

• 18th November - Cardiff Depot
• 19th November - Glasgow O2 Academy
• 21st November - O2 Victoria Warehouse
• 23rd November - Birmingham O2 Academy
• 24th November - London O2 Academy Brixton

President made their debut at Download festival, in June 2025. They have already clocked up more than 50 gigs since, playing across the world — including performances over the weekend at the Slam Dunk festivals in Hatfield and Leeds.

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The Script are heading back to London next year with a huge headline show at The O2 as part of their newly announced 2026 UK and Ireland arena tour. The band will play the Greenwich venue on the 21st of November, with the show acting as one of the final dates of the entire run and effectively capping off another massive touring chapter for the Irish trio.

The London date arrives after the release of their new album The User’s Guide To Being Human, which lands on August 14 and marks the beginning of a brand new era for the band following 2024’s Satellites.

Alongside the album announcement, the band also dropped a new single, Man In The Arena, a huge, emotionally-charged anthem that feels purpose-built for arena crowds. Which is The Script’s entire speciality at this point.

Frontman Danny O'Donoghue has described the new record as an exploration of the full spectrum of human emotion, continuing the deeply personal direction the band moved towards after the death of founding guitarist Mark Sheehan in 2023.

That grief shaped Satellites, a record that became a tribute both to Sheehan and the band’s long history together. The following world tour leaned heavily into that emotion, too, with shows often becoming massive communal sing-alongs somewhere between celebration and therapy sessions.

Now, though, The User’s Guide To Being Human feels more forward-looking, with The Script leaning back into the giant uplifting hooks and stadium-ready ambition that turned them into one of the biggest bands of the last 15 years.

The numbers behind them are still kind of ridiculous. The band have racked up six UK number one albums, more than 14 billion streams and over 5 million album sales worldwide, while tracks like Breakeven, Hall Of Fame and The Man Who Can't Be Moved have basically become permanent fixtures of heartbreak playlists, pub jukeboxes and people dramatically staring out of train windows.

Before the arena tour even begins, The Script also has a huge summer lined up supporting Take That and Luke Combs at stadium dates across the UK and Ireland, including a massive show at Slane Castle.

By the time they finally arrive at The O2 next November, there’s a very good chance London will be getting a band fully locked into full arena-headliner mode.

There are few venues more suited to a Script show than The O2. It’s exactly the sort of place where thousands of people can collectively scream the chorus to Breakeven like they’re going through the worst breakup of their lives, even if they’re actually just on a Tuesday night out in Greenwich.

Fans who pre-order the album through the band’s official store will get access to tour pre-sale tickets from the 27th of May, while general sale begins two days later on the 29th.

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This Sunday sees the return of Brockwell Live’s Cross the Tracks festival, South London’s big celebration of soul, funk and jazz.

Once again it takes place at Brockwell Park, and the full set of stage times are now out. The music kicks off at 12:30pm and runs until 10:30pm, with headliner Little Simz and the SENSES Block Party the last two events in the schedule.

You can still get a ticket for this year’s festival. General admission tickets currently cost £85.96, while pre-2pm tickets are £82.95 and pre-1pm entry is £69.96 — while orders are also subject to a £2 transaction fee.

Tips for the festival? It’s going to be a scorcher, so hydration and sun exposure deserve actual attention this year. In 2025 we had temperatures peaking at around a balmy 19 degrees centigrade, but this year we’re expected to hit up to 30 degrees, with blazing sun throughout most of the day.

You’re allowed to bring in one sealed 500ml bottle of water into the festival, and can also take a reusable water bottle — an empty one of course. And don’t forget your sun cream.

If you manage to survive Cross the Tracks without heatstroke, there’s also an official afterparty. It takes place at Phonox in Brixton, running from 10pm to 4am. Pre-11:30pm entry tickets are currently available for £12.

Let’s now get to the important stuff, the stage times. This year there are seven stages, which we’ll roughly cover in size order, starting with Cross the Tracks’s Mainline main stage:

Mainline

• 12.30pm: ORONTI
• 1.30pm: Charlotte Dowsson
• 2.40pm: Brooke Combe
• 4pm: WAR
• 5.40pm: Fabio & Grooverider and The Outlook Orchestra
• 7.30pm: Joy Crookes
• 9.20pm: Little Simz

Terminal

• 2.05pm: SHOLTO
• 3.20pm: Lady Wray
• 5.10pm: DON WEST
• 6.40pm: Obongjayar
• 8.30pm: KOKOROKO

D-Railed 

• 1.45pm: Ama Louise
• 2.50pm: Demae
• 3.55pm: Lizzie Berchie
• 5pm: The Soul Cypher ft. Gareth Donkin, Meduula & Arno Sacco
• 5.45pm: SENSES Block Party ft. DJ Stay Wavey & DJ Glade Marie
• 7pm: Mereba
• 8.30pm: KNUCKS
• 9.20pm: SENSES Block Party ft. DJ Stay Wavey & DJ Glade Marie

Locomotion

• 2pm: ZENA
• 3.20pm: The Womack Sisters
• 4.40pm: Bricknasty
• 6pm: Moses Yoofee Trio
• 7.30pm: corto.alto
• 8.30pm: Channel One

The Caboose

• 1.35pm: The Josh Barry Experience
• 2.45pm: Sonnyjim & Goya Gumbani
  with Franky Bones Ensemble
• 4.10pm: Bel Cobain
• 5.10pm: Reek0
• 6.10pm: BexBlu with Paul Stephan
• 7.10pm: namesbliss
• 8pm: 2fox 

Bossmans

• 3pm: Wookie
• 4pm: Tailor Jae
• 5pm: El-B
• 6.30pm: Mixtress & Manga Saint Hilare
• 8pm: Zero & Manga Saint Hilare

Energy Zone

• 12pm: Nina Yamada
• 1.30pm: Marla Kether
• 3pm: Tash LC
• 4.30pm: DJ Swisha
• 6pm: Wilfy D

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London’s summer festival season has truly begun. And for the South London crew, one of the highlights is the Brockwell Live run of festivals, which begins this weekend with Field Day.

The full line-up and those all-important set times are now here, for those who want to work out how many head-banging clashes they are going to have to deal with.

There are a whopping seven stages at Field Day this year — plus an eighth Reprezent area with DJ workshops — with music on the main stage on until 10:30pm. Not picked up a ticket yet? You still can, with tickets starting at £67.75 if you’re willing to turn up dead early. They are pre-1pm tickets, while general admission ones cost £84.70.

Doors to Brockwell Park open at 12pm, while last entry is at 8pm for this one.

The big warning for this year: it’s going to be hot. We’re looking at temperatures of up to 28 degrees in the mid-afternoon, with potentially not a cloud in the sky for decent stretches.

Make sure to bring your SPF. And stay hydrated. Field Day’s organisers will let you bring in a sealed water bottle of up to 500ml capacity, and you can take in “empty re-usable water bottles” too.

Details out of the way, let’s get to those stage times:

South Stage

• Nicola Bear: 12pm-1.30pm
• KILIMANJARO: 1.30pm-3pm
• Swimming Paul: 3pm-4.15pm
• nimino: 4.15pm-5.30pm
• Interplanetary Criminal: 5.30pm-7.40pm
• Honey Dijon: 7.40pm-9.05pm
• Floating Points: 9.05pm-10.30pm

The Bowl

• CICELY: 1pm-1.55pm
• DART: 1.55pm-2.50pm
• Juicy Romance: 2.50pm-3.50pm
• LB aka LABAT: 4pm-5pm
• sim0ne: 5pm-6pm
• Partiboi69: 6pm-7pm
• Patrick Mason: 7pm-8.15pm
• KI/KI: 8.15pm-9.45pm

The Grove

• Larimae: 12pm-1pm
• Just Jane: 1pm-2.30pm
• Lou Nour: 2.30pm-4pm
• Silva Bumpa: 4pm-5.30pm
• FOLD: 5.30pm-7pm
• Joy Orbison: 7pm-8.30pm
• Andy C: 8.30pm-10pm

The Green

• Raw Silk: 12pm-1pm
• Kirollus: 1pm-2.30pm
• Gabriels (DJ set): 2.30pm-3.30pm
• Horse Meat Disco: 3.30pm-5pm
• Eliza Rose: 5pm-6.15pm
• Ewan McVicar b2b Special Request: 6.15pm-8.30pm
• MJ Cole: 8.30pm-9.30pm

The Pavilion

• BIG REG: 1pm-2.30pm
• Anish Kumar: 2.30pm-3.45pm
• SHEE: 3.45pm-5pm
• Love Remain: 5pm-6.30pm
• Kiimi: 6.30pm-8pm
• Saint Ludo: 8pm-9.30pm

Bossmans

• y.y: 3pm-4pm
• Bad Behli: 4pm-5pm
• Onerman bwb Plastician: 5pm-7pm
• DJ Zinc: 7pm-8.15pm
• Flowdan: 8.15pm-9pm

Red Bull Energy Zone

• Decibella: 12.30pm-2pm
• Mollie Collins: 2pm-3.30pm
• SABRINA: 3.30pm-4.30pm
• Mysie (DJ): 4.30pm-5.30pm
• Brockie: 5.30pm-6.40pm
• Stamina MC: 6.40pm-6.45pm
• OKO: 6.45pm-8pm

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Hey ho, let’s go. We can pull up live performances like Freddie Mercury at Live Aid quite literally any time we need some pep. But when you need to sink into the music, it’s gotta be a good concert film. We’re talking docs that focus on one specific gig, tour or time period, so not biopics or full-on music documentaries about an entire career, movies in which the concert is a very small percentage of the runtime (Peter Jackon’s Get Back docu-series on The Beatles) or where real-life events take over from the performance itself (the Maysles brothers’ Gimme Shelter on the Rolling Stones). Thus, the criteria for an all-timer concert film is simple: great concert, great film.

And there’s no one way to get it right. Some film-makers keep things slick, pre-planned and focused, others experiment with new forms and out-there camerawork inspired by the playing: case in point, the new concert film of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard And Soft tour is directed, in 3D, by James freakin’ Cameron. The following rundown spans eight decades and while sure, rock is perhaps over-represented, genres including pop, soul, jazz, hip hop and electronic music. Honourable mentions: Woodstock (1970), Prince’s Sign ‘o’ The Times (1987), Madonna’s Truth or Dare (1991), The Cure Trilogy (2002) and LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012). What did we miss? Fight us in the comments.

Stop making sense (1984)

Stop Making Sense was both lightning in a bottle and the very deliberate result of people working together at the height of their genius - David Byrne, Talking Heads and director Jonathan Demme. That’s why it’s probably still the definitive concert film, with The Last Waltz (below) a masterpiece of a different kind in a lot of people’s minds. Here, aside from the closing moments when we’re treated to some funky moves to Crosseyed and Painless from the audience at the Hollywood Pantages Theater, Demme is all about what’s going down on stage. Of course, what’s going down on stage is difficult to put into words.

David Byrne acts like a man possessed for most of the runtime, creating one-of-one images - the slicked back hair, the boombox, the oversized jacket - and infecting his bandmates and backing singers with his oddball sensibilities and high-wire frequency. They’ve all turned it up to eleven. But if you’ve encountered this film in the past or at house parties, you’ll find memories start to warp with every rewatch. Did Byrne really only dance with a lampshade for one section of This Must Be The Place? How did Demme essentially make multiple music videos out of just three live performances? Has any frontman ever jogged, yelped, stared, wiggled, slapstick-stumbled and swung quite like Talking Heads’? Or smacked himself round the head with such panache? It boils down to this: you have to watch Stop Making Sense to get the full Talking Heads experience. Life-giving stuff.

The Last Waltz (1978)

The (other) concert film all others must be compared to - even Eric Clapton was stunned by this line-up. The Last Waltz is directed by Marty Scorsese and it forms the beginning of a long and brilliant cinema-music partnership between the film-maker and musician-producer Robbie Robertson. (Pair this with Rolling Thunder Revue). Here, it’s Thanksgiving 1976 and The Band are putting on one peerless final show at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco after 16 years on the road. The Band were one of those ‘your favourite musician’s favourite musicians’ kinda outfits, hence the bill: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Clapton, Neil Young, Muddy Waters! Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Wood, Ringo Starr..

Marty had a 300-page script of all 37 songs, all the collaborators and a 45-person camera crew. This is meticulous concert film-making that never misses any magic: the intro of The Staples Singers alone! Gorgeous harmonies, gorgeous playing, gorgeous camerawork on The Weight. And lots of that old-school thing we like, where two singers sing into the same mic. Sublime. The vignettes are a cut above the usual too, with stories of stealing food, the merging of country music and R’n’B and playing to empty halls.

Another reason to dig into the concert film archives: getting up close with players - like The Band’s lead guitarist Robbie Robertson - who are no longer with us; Robertson died in 2023. In The Last Waltz, Marty and the team often frame him just behind the singer so you could watch the whole concert film as purely Robbie Robertson’s night, as he switches between focused concentration on backing these legends well and smiling, calling out and enjoying himself as he soaks up moment after moment.

Summer of Soul: Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised (1969/2021)

Made by our favourite music teach Questlove, aka The Roots’ Ahmir Thompson, and the winner of a Best Documentary Oscar, Summer of Soul is one of the all-time greats in the niche genre of.. this unbelievable footage has been sitting around for decades and finally someone found it. The tape in question is made up of hours and hours of amazing concert film of the Harlem Cultural Festival which ran over six weeks in the summer of 1969. Yep, the same summer as Woodstock, which got its classic near-four hour doc in 1970. (Also in this particular sub-genre of lost reels: Aretha Franklin performing in a Baptist church in 1972, which got tied up in various issues but was eventually released in the 2018 concert doc Amazing Grace).

Back to Summer of Soul and when we tell you this film may leave you sorta spellbound and speechless we mean it. Stevie Wonder’s here. B.B King, Mahalia Jackson. The 5th Dimension are suitably psychedelic. Gladys Knight & The Pips are electric, drummer Max Roach is on fire. The fashions and the moves are, as they say, outta sight. But the two standouts for us are Nina Simone, whose performance you cannot take your eyes and ears off and who surges towards the urgent political questions that Questlove is interested in, and Sly and The Family Stone, who offer another kind of vision and solidarity in the form of some of the most indelible funk and soul tracks to ever grace the canon. We are not worthy.

Beastie Boys: Awesome; I F*cking Shot That (2006)

So ahead of its time. The Beastie Boys handed out camcorders to 50 audience members at their huge Madison Square Garden show and the result is a concert film that looks like modern day social media feeds, where everyone films gigs all the time, except we’re way back in 2006. It doesn’t feel irritating like it does now, either, instead the joyfully edited result feels genuinely egalitarian. Those crowd reaction shots that started popping up in music docs in the late 50s and 60s? They’re now taken by the crowd themselves: fans singing, shouting and rapping every word, reacting and performing for the camera.

The high energy chaos of the Beasties as a particular hip hop group is matched by all the different angles spliced together: Doug E. Fresh beatboxing, people buying drinks, the lounge band interval sequence, a security guard dancing. It makes for some very funny edits too, like the person who filmed themselves going to the mens’ toilets, while you can hear the tunes getting quieter in the stadium corridors versus what’s on stage. At one point, Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D even run around MSG and pop up amongst the fans in the cheap seats for Intergalactic. Man, to have been there that night.

Kate Bush: Live At Hammersmith Odeon (1979)

Kate Bush is a kite. Wait, now she has aviator goggles on. Holy shit, she’s got a gun. This 1979 film, shot at the Hammersmith Odeon in London as part of her ‘The Tour of Life’ tour, is as glam-am-dram as it gets: the lighting, the slow-mo, the costume changes, the minimalist props and sets, the zooms. And the thing about Kate Bush is she really believes it. Just take the part where she’s (convincingly) driving an invisible car and compare it to Taylor Swift’s attempts at play-acting. The witchy Brit is always intense without ever being alienating.

She was only about 20 years old at the time and yet the persona was fully formed, whether she’s Expressionist dancing to Hammer Horror or there’s that distinctive voice singing to England, her lionheart. It’s narrative without constraints or expectations. Many imitators, few come close. A 53 minute cut of this concert was initially put out on TV and VHS and now you can also find a 90-odd minute version with more tracks from the night. Those last few moments of Kate clutching flowers and waving are so, so sweet.

Nirvana: MTV Unplugged - Live in New York (1993)

If you grew up in the 90s, even if you were a little too young for grunge like some of us, THIS IS YOUR YOUTH. Kurt Cobain in a cardigan on a swivelly desk chair on MTV. Acoustic Nirvana and cover songs. A young, skinny Dave Grohl in his ponytail and turtleneck drummer days. With an in-the-round stage dressed with white lilies and candles. Truly all so iconic and made more so by the tragic timeline: this was taped in November 1993, MTV first aired the show in December 1993, Cobain died in early April 1994 and DGC Records released the live album six months later in November 1994. Oof.

Featuring cult band the Meat Puppets and cellist Lori Goldston, you can hear the band taking requests and casually chatting about which songs they can do acoustically - Sliver? - as if no-one’s watching. They’re lighting up cigarettes, drinking tea and at one point Cobain semi-affectionately says “fuck you all” to the crowd. They play Come As You Are and cover Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World but it’s mostly lesser known tracks and covers shouting out their faves like The Vaselines and Lead Belly. Immortal.

Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii (1972)

OK this one’s a touch self-serious and director Adrian Maben spends maybe a little too much time circling Nick Mason’s drum kit but we also just had to include it. In what other film is Roger Waters dramatically banging a gong in silhouette… in an amphitheatre at Pompeii? Exactly. This Pink Floyd concert film is, in fact, a selection of concerts and studio sessions - there’s no audience for the Pompeii performance so it’s all very much for us, future viewers. And it is goddamn cool, to be fair. Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun played at night, with the wind flowing through the lads’ hair - just yes.

The chats are interesting too, given current conversations on AI and creativity, with the Floyd making a point of saying that they control the equipment, not the other way around. As this is pre-Dark Side, we see David Gilmour quipping and laying down his lead guitar for Brain Damage in the studio. Plus there’s all manner of woozy, experimental editing and repeated shots to match what’s going on with the synths. It’s a definite mood.

Renaissance: A Film By Beyonce (2023)

Alright, alright, most people would pick Beyonce’s Coachella concert doc Homecoming from 2019 in the Queen Bey slot and we get it. That’s the one that proved to the world that none of the other pop girlies will ever match her on work ethic. But there’s another important aspect of concert films that we’ve overlooked so far: what if you were in fact there to see it all live but you got extremely drunk on triples at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, affectionately threw lemonade over some friends and have a hazy memory of the last say, 45 minutes of the show. For example. Then you might find yourself at the cinema six months later, more than happily watching a concert you’ve seen IRL.

Plus we’re just gonna say it: the music’s better. You could play Renaissance start to finish at a party and get zero complaints. The pop culture artistry, from fearless concept to flawless execution, of the Renaissance tour is also unmatched, even in Beyonce’s own touring history. And this concert film lets you see all the alternate costumes, improvised lines and one-off performance moments from all the dates you didn’t get to - or couldn’t see in detail from your seats up in the gods. One to dance around your living room to. “Look around, everybody on mute..:

Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time (2006)

Many of the concert films on this list are here because of the chemistry and playing between members of a band or an incredible array of musicians brought together on one day. No shade to anyone else but NIN is here because of the creative vision and sheer intensity of one man: Trent Reznor. The production is slick, director Rob Sheridan’s trad front-on angles are crisp and the band are really fucking going for it. Reznor is absolutely soaking on stage, calling his fans pigs with glee, his guitarist starts crowd-surfing, there’s a mosh pit getting going. By the end, an amp is thrown off the stage.

Throughout it all, Reznor remains the consummate curator. He brings the tempo down for one intimate, heart-baring song - Hurt, four years after Johnny Cash covered it - with lighters in the audience before hurtling right back into Nine Inch Nails’ signature hard, industrial rock again. Beside You In Time is also something of a historical document, alongside the Beastie Boys film, as The Hand That Feeds is an anti-W song with all the montage projections that go with it. A fun one to revisit if you’ve mostly consumed Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ music via their excellent film soundtracks for the past decade or so. (Sidenote: we found this one together with the Depeche Mode classic on Qello, which we just now learned is a subscription service for concert films that you can access via Prime Video).

Fleetwood Mac: The Rosebud film (1977)

There are so many Fleetwood Mac performances available to pour over that picking our fave would be like picking just the one Grateful Dead bootleg. The official concert film (and live album) comes much later with The Dance, in Nashville in the mid-90s, but we have a soft spot for a 30-minute concert doc from 1977. The ‘Rosebud film’ was made by Michael Collins to promote the European leg of the Rumours tour so we’re right in the thick of this band’s heyday.

A mixture of a low-key, outdoor live show at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with some indoor tour rehearsals and behind the scenes chatter, it’s a real slice of life for the Mac of the late 70s. With tunes including Rhiannon, Go Your Own Way and You Make Loving Fun, we get Stevie Nicks shimmering around the stage looking witchy, Lindsey Buckingham strumming in a tight coral cardigan and the late Christine McVie explaining that she only ever wrote songs when they were about to start working on a new record.

Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959)

Oh my days, is there anything as joyous as Louis Armstrong smiling and cracking jokes? Only Louis Armstrong singing, we guess, and Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet. Photographer Bert Stern’s film of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress for good reason - it forms a kind of blueprint for concert films. We can take or leave the America’s Cup sailing scenes but otherwise this is one of those ridiculous line-ups that some of the people caught eating and chatting and yawning clearly did not fully comprehend.

Aram Avakian’s editing is superb here, as we roam around footage of people dancing on roofs, smooching in windowsills, kids playing and a car stuffed with a quintet playing When The Saints.. as they roll around town. As for the music, phew boy: it’s Dinah Washington singing All of Me and having a xylophone battle on-stage as the cameramen capture dancers in the audience in close-up. Thelonious bloody Monk and a young Roy Haynes early on. A big-hatted Anita O’Day winning hearts and minds with her virtuoso scatting. Mahalia Jackson doing The Lord’s Prayer. Chuck Berry! Instant mood-lifter.

Depeche Mode: 101 (1989)

A perfect tour bus film with a twist: in 101 we follow Depeche Mode, ten months into touring, as they gear up to an epic live show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in ‘88, playing to over 60,000 fans. And we follow a bunch of hand-picked scene kids and glam punks, travelling across the country to scream and shout and dance at the front of the crowds. The at-the-time mega star band check out new instruments and plays pinball in between shows, not to mention getting nervous and moaning about being tired. Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher do silly radio promo and Dave Gahan talks about picking up steroids for his poor vocal chords backstage.

The 101st concert itself delivers, with dark wave tracks like Stripped from Black Celebration sounding glorious and one of the catchiest songs ever made, Just Can’t Get Enough, getting the audience jumpin’. Even as the audio engineer struggles with the sound in the venue. It’s the cuts to the girl punching in the lighting cues in real-time at an earlier gig, the teens bleaching their hair and the tour accountant trying to find out who spent 1000 dollars on silver t-shirts that really make this concert film, though. Oh, and it ends with them boarding a Depeche Mode PJ. Pair this one with 2025’s Depeche Mode (M) on Netflix.

Placebo: Live in Paris - Soulmates Never Die (2003)

“A friend in need’s a friend indeed, a friend with weed is better”... If you were a Placebo fan in the early aughts, you couldn’t want for much more than this: The Bitter End, Pure Morning, Every Me Every You and Special K on the set list, the chipped black nail polish on Stefan Olsdal’s hands as he shreds, Brian Molko’s impeccable French patter.. and the iconic moment where they look at each over the synth pad and Molko takes a drag of his cigarette.

There’s also the small matter of Placebo bringing out the Pixies’ Frank Black for the last song of the night: Where Is My Mind?

For those of us who weren’t quite on that wave back in 2003, remember this was a live concert DVD release. You had to actually get your hands on the thing, making it more rarified and thus legendary. That’s no doubt part of why this is many people’s fave concert film of all time. It’s pretty classic staging - hella lot of strobing lights - and straight-on photographing for the 2000s but there is huge energy coming from a huge crowd. The emo/glam/punk/alt rock band were ve-ery popular and that passion still vibrates off the screen.

American Utopia (2020)

We know, we know, another David Byrne concert film on the list. But just when you think you’ve seen concert films from every angle, along comes another idiosyncratically conceived live show from this wonderful man’s head. This was a Broadway show, captured for posterity by auteur Spike Lee, and incorporating more political elements than you might first think. American Utopia was a tonic to many music fans during the pandemic and it’s recently been announced that it’s returning to UK cinemas in 4K for one night only this August.

Byrne is part marching-band-leader, part preacher, all showman as he and an eleven-strong troupe of musicians and dancers roam free around the stage thanks to fully wireless instruments. They’re barefoot, wearing matching blue-grey suits and working through a setlist which includes tunes from the 2018 American Utopia album and the Talking Heads back catalogue. If it sounds strange, that’s because it is, delightfully so. We’re not sure any of this will catch on more broadly in live performances but that’s really not the point.

• 10 London festivals worth leaving the house for this summer

There are festivals, and then there are food festivals. A place where you find yourself eating food you've never heard of, listening to artists from yesteryear you forgot existed. That's what Foodies Festival is, settling at Syon Park for the late May bank holiday weekend, running from the 23rd to the 25th of May, and once again, it’s throwing absolutely everything at the wall.

On the day, there's celebrity chefs, cooking demos, wine tastings and a smattering of acts you remember from your old iPod shuffle.

Over three days, the West London festival will host cooking demos from Michelin-starred chefs, MasterChef winners and Great British Menu favourites, alongside barbecue masterclasses, cocktail sessions and cake-decorating workshops.

The music line-up leans heavily into feel-good nostalgia. Friday night sees Scouting For Girls headline before Boyzlife, AKA Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden, combining Boyzone and Westlife powers, take over on Saturday. Then Gareth Gates closes the weekend on Monday with what’s being billed as “Boyband in the Park”.

Food-wise, there’s a stacked roster of chefs appearing across the weekend. Atul Kochhar, The Cinnamon Club’s Rakesh Ravindran Nair and Hart Nagaraj, Great British Menu 2025 chef Jason Howard and Michelin-starred Kenny Atkinson are all set to appear in the La Española Chefs Theatre.

Meanwhile, the Fire Stage is going full dad-with-a-smoker mode, hosting sessions on everything from Wagyu steak and fire-cooked squid to kebabs, ribs and “Dirty Coal Cooking”. There’s also a Hot Chilli Challenge each evening for people who enjoy voluntarily ruining their own digestive system in public.

Elsewhere, the Drinks Theatre offers wine tastings and cocktail masterclasses hosted by ITV This Morning wine expert Joe Wadsack and drinks broadcaster Tom Surgey, while the Cake & Bake Theatre covers everything from tiramisu science to burnt butter cookies and baklava.

Kids get their own cookery school throughout the weekend, there are artisan markets and street food traders scattered across the site, and yes, dogs are welcome too, because this is Britain and every outdoor event eventually becomes a dog event.

Weekend tickets start from the equivalent of around £15 per day, with adult day tickets from £27 and family tickets priced at £59.

Foodies Festival takes place at Syon Park from the 23rd of May to the 25th of May 2026.

• Rent is getting a West End revival with this Stranger Things actor in the leading role

Marshall has never struggled with aesthetic cool. Its iconic amplifiers have been stage staples for the biggest rock bands of all time, since the days when all Bluetooth meant was that someone had drunk one too many gnasher-dyeing Slush Puppies. Away from the mosh pit, its headphones have spent the last decade translating that rock-and-roll heritage into commuter-friendly tech. And with its latest release, the Marshall Milton A.N.C. headphones, it's ready to power your playlists for a non-stop weekend or longer.

Priced at £179.99, these new wireless on-ear headphones arrive with adaptive noise cancelling, spatial audio and a frankly outrageous battery life figure. More importantly, they appear designed for people who actually live in their headphones — commuters, travellers, office workers and anyone who can’t function without their own personal soundtrack on at all times.

For those about to rock, here’s five reasons the Marshall Milton A.N.C might be the headphones for you.

Marshall Milton A.N.C.: In short…

• Adaptive ANC reacts automatically to surroundings
• Up to 80 hours battery life, 50+ with noise cancelling
• Foldable design built for constant travel
• Spatial audio adds depth to everyday listening
• Repairable design with replaceable battery
• Available now, priced £179.99

1. Battery life that borders on barmy

Most wireless headphones promise enough battery to survive a few work sessions. Marshall laughs at that paltry goal. There’s battery life so good here you might forget you ever needed to charge them in the first place.

The Milton A.N.C. delivers up to 80 hours of wireless playtime without active noise cancelling switched on, or more than 50 hours with ANC enabled. That is several long-haul flights, countless Tube journeys and probably an entire festival weekend without desperately hunting for a USB-C cable.

For people tired of battery anxiety, this is arguably the headline feature. Marshall is essentially removing charging from the daily routine. Two hours gets the headphones fully recharged, and then you’re back into musical bliss for another solid couple of days.

2. Adaptive ANC that works with on-ear headphones

Over-ear headphones have dominated the premium ANC market for years largely because on-ear alternatives often leaked sound and struggled with isolation. And though the ANC of the Milton isn’t quite as all-encompassing as over-ear alternatives, those that prefer the on-ear form factor will thankfully still be able to block out the majority of surrounding annoyances with these new cans.

The Milton A.N.C. uses adaptive active noise cancelling that continuously analyses surroundings and adjusts in real time. Six microphones work together to reduce environmental noise while also improving call quality. Crucially, Marshall has enlarged the ear cushions and added softer memory foam to improve passive isolation before the electronics even get involved.

That ‘adaptive’ feature means that, instead of aggressively silencing the world, the headphones react to it. In a quiet library? It’ll dial back the intensity of noise-cancellation, but on a train, in an open-plan office or during a flight, they adapt automatically to the din and work harder to block out distractions. And when situational awareness matters, Transparency mode lets outside sound back in instantly with a single press of a button.

3. Portable — but still pretty

At just over 200 grams, the Milton A.N.C is light and portable, with a foldable design intended to survive constant packing, commuting and travel. But Marshall hasn’t stripped back any of those stage-ready good looks.

The textured leather finish, brass logo detailing and powder-coated metal arms all lean into the company’s vintage rock aesthetic. Importantly, they still feel grown-up. These are headphones designed to look as comfortable beside a MacBook in Soho as they would backstage at a venue.

The durability angle matters too. Marshall says the headphones are repairable and include a replaceable battery — you’ll have to get Marshall’s own engineers to do the job, though.

And they’re comfortable on your head, too. On-ear headphones can feel quite clampy, pushing on the squishy bits of your ears uncomfortably over longer stretches of time. But the Milton A.N.C is light and breezy, with well-padded cans and a forgiving clamping force that means they don’t cause fatigue over longer periods of time.

4. Sound improvements

Marshall headphones tend to lean warmer and more energetic rather than neutral in their tuning, and the Milton A.N.C follows suit.

A redesigned driver system promises improved bass and treble alongside Hi-Res audio support. Bluetooth 6.0 compatibility and support for SBC, AAC, LC3 and LDAC codecs show Marshall is taking wireless audio quality seriously, even at a mid-range price.

Though they’re not going to tempt audiophiles away from their studio-tuned favourites, the Marshall Milton A.N.C is an exciting listen. They’re bass and mid forward in a way that suits crunchier rock music and big beat pop best, and can go ear-splittingly loud when pushed to max volume.

An intriguing feature is Soundstage spatial audio, Marshall’s in-house spatialisation system that adds depth and width to stereo tracks. It’s not a true-to-source sound, but can be fun for giving a more live-performance-feel to your tracks.

There’s also Adaptive Loudness, which subtly adjusts tonal balance depending on listening volume and background noise. In practice, that means late-night listening should still sound rich rather than thin and anaemic — though it can flatten highs in some circumstances.

5. Convenient design

One of the smartest details is the customisable M-button. Instead of burying features inside endless app menus, Marshall lets users assign shortcuts for ANC, Transparency mode, EQ presets, Spotify access, spatial audio or voice assistant controls.

We’ll take a physical control over a touch-pad swipe any day.

It’s a winning combo of solid sound, smart features, convenience and style. If you like your headphones as rocking as your tunes, the Milton A.N.C are ready to hit the road with you.

• 10 London festivals worth leaving the house for this summer

David Bowie is an icon, hands down. And one thing about icons is that they will keep generating new content long after their final bow. Photography exhibitions, memorabilia auctions, calendars, coffee table books of fashion highlights – the lists and events go on. The latest Bowie bonanza is all about the untold stories of the photographers who helped create the personas of the legend.

Titled 'Bowie Nights: Behind the Lens', the one-off event will see six renowned photographers gather in London's King’s Cross to share their unheard stories and images from their time working with Bowie, spilling the gossip about what it was to build the mystique around one of the world’s greatest pop stars.

Kicking off at Lightroom in King’s Cross on 26th May, from 7pm, journalist Miranda Sawyer will host five of Bowie’s collaborators, including, Geoff MacCormack, Kevin Cummins, Richard Young, Denis O’Regan, and Chris Duffy. Each photographer will be invited on stage to present their selected portraits that best capture their vision of the artist, whilst talking through personal anecdotes giving audiences a never-before-seen (or heard) insight into the creative world of Bowie.

Obviously, it would just be a bit of an insult to host a picture-inspired event in one of London’s best immersive venues without some supersized projections, so it’s not exactly surprising that the chosen photographers will be sharing their work on Lightroom's state-of-the-art four-storey projection walls to bring you closer to the mega star than ever.

The evening is part of Lightroom’s Bowie Nights season, a curated run of cross-disciplinary events unfolding across summer 2026. The series is celebrating the life and work of Bowie, featuring major artists influenced by his work from Jonathan Barnbrook to Adam Buxton. The events are running throughout May until September.

Tickets for Bowie Nights: Behind the Lens are currently on sale, retailing at £29.50, and they’re expected to sell out fast. If you fancy dipping into the wonderful and whacky world of Bowie, it’s worth checking out the rest of the series, including the flagship exhibition, David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, which is running throughout the summer.

• The 10 must-see sets at Harry Styles’ Meltdown festival

From Royal Blood to Rizzle Kicks, Bat for Lashes to The Kooks, Brighton is no stranger to producing new bands of its own. But once a year, the seaside town famous for its two piers, pebble beach and easygoing vibe is home to The Great Escape – a festival dedicated to new music.

Over the course of four days, venues across Brighton host over 450 up-and-coming bands from all over the globe – a bit like South by Southwest in Texas but with more danger of a seagull stealing your lunch.

• No Glastonbury? No problem: This is 2026’s best festival line-up

Kneecap, Charli XCX, Sam Fender, Foals, Adele, The 1975, Little Simz, Sleep Token, Bon Iver, and The Last Dinner Party are just a few of the names who have performed at the festival over the years before hitting the big time, so there’s no doubting its credentials as a hotbed for new talent.

This year marked The Great Escape’s 20th anniversary and unfortunately you’ve just missed it, but our man on the ground has braved the weekend’s bad weather, long queues, and some of the venues’ quite inexcusable beer shortages to pick out five acts that had Brighton buzzing and look destined for bigger things.

1. Westside Cowboy

Westside Cowboy are yet to release a full-length album but the Manchester four-piece have been on a steep upward trajectory since winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition in April 2025. That bagged them a slot at Worthy Farm the following June, while they’ve recently come off a tour supporting band-of-the-moment Geese across the UK and Europe.

It came as no huge surprise, then, that their show at this year’s Great Escape was packed to the rafters, even though they have less than a dozen publicly available songs to their name. The band have coined the term ‘Britainicana’ to describe their sound, and while the sample size is still small they feel remarkably fully formed for such a young band, with a definite transatlantic vibe to what they do. You can hear Pavement, Carseat Headrest and The Walkmen in there, but with an unmistakably British edge.

The quartet finished their Great Escape set all gathered around one microphone to sing the delicate In the Morning and a reverential hush descended on the seaside venue. Make no mistake, though, the noise around Westside Cowboy is only going to get louder.

2. Angine de Poitrine

Angine do Poitrine are not the first band to hide their true identities behind masks and pseudonyms, but the mystery surrounding the duo – known only as Khn and Klek – isn’t the only reason their two shows at this year’s Great Escape were so packed out.

Covered in black-and-white polka dots and dressed like a surrealist Slipknot, the two-piece claim to be space-time voyagers from another planet – and their asymmetrical sound is suitably otherworldly.

Khn’s loop pedal and double-necked guitar/bass allow him to play both instruments at the same time, but it’s the intricate microtonal tunes, which use the notes squeezed in between the conventional ones most bands play, that make Angine De Poitrine’s sound so unusual (if not quite as original as some might claim).

The result is a joyously complex blend of prog, math rock, and techno that makes Klek’s floppy conk bounce hypnotically in time with his jerky grooves.

3. Lime Garden

Not all bands that play at The Great Escape have to travel as far as Angine de Poitrine look like they have (even if they’re actually only from Canada). Lime Garden formed when Chloe Howard (vocals/guitar), Leila Deeley (guitar) and Annabel Whittle (drums) met Tippi Morgan (bass) in Brighton, but have spent the past few years touring tirelessly in support of their self-described ‘wonk-pop’, including support slots with Idles and Yard Act alongside appearances at Glastonbury, Latitude and Green Man.

Their genre-hopping sound is reflective of the liberal, fun-loving city that brought them together, with their recently released second album Maybe Not Tonight encapsulating the ups and down of life as a twenty-something in 2026: nights outs, break-ups and an existential crisis or two.

The energy of the dancefloor certainly plays a big part in Lime Garden’s approach to making music, with echoes of LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip and Bloc Party easy to pick out among the band’s pick ‘n’ mix of influences.

4. The Haunted Youth

Belgium is better known for fancy chocolate, TinTin and dangerously strong beers than its music, but The Haunted Youth are doing their best to change that.

The band is the creation of Joachim Liebens, a self-confessed “lonely emo kid” whose sharp cheekbones are almost permanently obscured by a floppy blonde fringe, so it’ll probably come as no surprise that he spent a lot of his teenage years listening to Joy Division. There’s more of a dream-pop vibe to the band’s debut album, Dawn of the Freak, although only if the dreams in question are those of a sad vampire.

Follow-up Boys Cry Too, which was released earlier this month, has a harder edge to it, but the chiming guitars and shimmering synths are still the driving force. If you like Slowdive, The War on Drugs, and think Tame Impala would be better going goth, The Haunted Youth should be on your radar.

Salarymen

It wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that somewhere in the Australian outback there’s a factory churning out great indie-pop bands, because hot on the heels of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Royel Otis are Salarymen (aka Renee de la Motte and Thom Eagleton).

The pair started making music together in 2019, and after releasing a succession of EPs their debut album Take It Or Leave It arrived on Halloween last year – but there’s nothing scary about the Sydney-based duo’s timeless tunes.

They cite the Beatles as their biggest influence, although that applies on some level to about 99% of bands that have formed since the Fab Four’s heyday, so we'll narrow it down a bit on their behalf. If Alvvays, Beach House, or the more recent Arctic Monkeys stuff floats your boat, there’s a good chance Salarymen will too.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Watch out The O2, there’s another contender coming for your crown as London’s top arena venue, and it’s called London Colosseum.

When, where, how? London Colosseum will be part of the Olympic Park area in Stratford, nearby the 80,000 capacity London Stadium.

The Colosseum won’t be of that scale, but its proposed capacity will make it the largest arena in the UK to date. It’s planned as an up-to-25,000 person venue, significantly larger than the 20,000 The O2 or the 12,500 Ovo Arena Wembley.

“The London Colosseum’s bowl design allows the arena floor to effortlessly adapt to accommodate 18,000 and up to 25,000 spectators across diverse sporting and entertainment events,” says Ondrej Chybik, an architect from Kristof + Chybik, which is behind the design of the arena.

In the usual fashion, the highest capacity will apply to events where the central floor space can be given over to standing attendees, like gigs. But it sounds like this won’t necessarily be the initial focus of the project.

A baller move?

There’s talk of London Colosseum becoming the home to the NBA’s London offshoot, and that it could host future UFC events, which The O2 has been home to recently. It’s planned to be a major host for esports tournaments, too.

Also channeling the same “The O2 but bigger” energy, London Colosseum is expected to be paired with the construction of two smaller roughly 3000-capacity venues in the nearby area. The O2, of course, has Indigo at the O2, with space for roughly 2800 people.

Other plans for this wider area include a basketball training academy and boxing gym, plus a hotel.

It all sounds bold, and a sure-fire way to spice up the Olympic Park area further, but it’s all subject to change. These plans are in their early stages and are yet to be fully greenlit by the relevant authorities, but we’ll bring you more news of London Colosseum’s construction as and when it arrives.

It almost goes without saying the London Colosseum has nothing directly to do with the London Coliseum. That’s the largest theatre in the West End, with 2,359 seats — just 10 per cent of the space this upcoming mega-venue promises.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Singer and former One Direction member Harry Styles steps up to the plate to choose the bill for Meltdown – the world’s longest-running artist-curated music festival. In 2026, London's the Southbank Centre celebrates its 75^th anniversary as Styles picks an incredibly eclectic line-up of acts for this year’s event.

Meltdown, which in the past has been overseen by everyone from Nick Cave to Little Simz, takes place between the 11th and 21st of June. Utilising the South Bank Centre’s main spaces – shows will take place across the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room.

Harry Styles is set to deliver one of the most intriguing line-ups in the history of Meltdown – with artists from the worlds of pop, indie-rock, jazz, electronica and more taking to the stage. We pick 10 shows that are not to be missed.

Styles is playing a special one-off gig with an orchestra on the 16th of July at the Royal Festival Hall. We have, however, left this show off our preview as tickets were available exclusively through a draw, which has now closed.

1. Warpaint

• When: Thursday 11 June
• Where: Royal Festival Hall

With over 20 years as a band under their belts at this point, all-female LA four-piece Warpaint have become a beloved act in the world of indie-rock. Known for their atmospheric and hypnotic approach, the band channels dream pop, art rock and psychedelic influences to create a sound that is all their own.

Warpaint played at Meltdown in 2023, garnering rave reviews and is sure to delight again this time around. As if that wasn’t enough, support comes from Hot Chip frontman, producer and multi-instrumentalist Alexis Taylor.

2. Shabaka & Friends

• When: Friday 12 June
• Where: Queen Elizabeth Hall

Having established himself as one of the most forward-looking figures in UK jazz with bands such as Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, Shabaka has struck out on his own in recent years. A highly versatile multi-instrumentalist and producer – he notably shifted his focus away from the tenor saxophone, the instrument he had been most associated with, to focus on a range of flutes from around the world.

With this year’s album Of The Earth, he played all the instruments and carried out production duties himself. Drawing on multiple synths, drum machines, flutes and indeed saxophone, it’s a record that creates a unique sound world. For this gig, Shabaka will reinterpret his work with a special band, which is sure to feature some familiar faces for those who follow the UK jazz scene.

3. Stephen Fretwell

• When: Friday 12 + Saturday 13 June
• Where: The Purcell Room

Stephen Fretwell is a much-loved cult figure whose music sits between folk and indie-rock. His songs have been interpreted by everyone from Arctic Monkeys and Self Esteem to Michael Ball.

His song ‘Run’ is also known to many as the theme from Gavin and Stacey. Performing an expansive set, he is sure to draw upon music from throughout his career. He’s doing two shows, meaning that if there’s a clash with one of the other artists you’d like to see on the bill, you’ll still have the chance to spend a fine evening in the company of Monsieur Fretwell.

4. Kamasi Washington

• When: Sunday 14 June
• Where: Royal Festival Hall: Jazz Legends

Across an impressive run of albums and EPs, including his much lauded The Epic, US saxophonist Kamasi Washington has become an inescapable creative force within the world of contemporary jazz. Washington will deliver two distinct and different shows on the same day at the Royal Festival Hall.

His afternoon set billed as “Jazz Legends reimagined” will see him interpret and pay tribute to the works of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The evening show will draw upon his latest album Fearless Movement. Whether heading to one or both of his shows, punters are in for a treat courtesy of one of the most dynamic and essential jazz figures playing today.

5. Mulatu Astatke

• When: Wednesday 17 June
• Where: Royal Festival Hall

Often referred to as ‘the father of Ethio-jazz’, Mulatu Astatke is a fearless innovator who helped define the ‘swinging Addis’ era of the 1960s and 1970s. A virtuosic vibraphone player, percussionist, composer and bandleader – Astatke is a veteran artist, whose vast catalogue feels as relevant as ever.

He has released an extraordinary amount of music, but for many 1972’s Mulatu of Ethiopia will always be a favourite. Whether you’re an old fan or new to his work, this show will be a chance to enjoy the music of a true master.

6. Bar Italia

• When: Thursday 18 June
• Where: Queen Elizabeth Hall

Taking their name from the legendary late-night Soho café that also birthed a song by Pulp, Bar Italia formed in 2019 and have been growing a dedicated and passionate following ever since. Honing their sound over a prolific run of albums – the band released their fifth full-length effort Some Like It Hot in 2025.

With rocky cuts, folk infused numbers and ballads to boot, it’s a refined and well-judged set that has helped cement Bar Italia as one of the most essential UK indie bands working today. If that’s your bag, don’t miss them at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

7. Jon Hopkins with Maddie Ashman and Leo Abrahams

• When: Saturday 20 June
• Where: Queen Elizabeth Hall

Among a stellar line-up that covers many genres and features many greats – this show stands out. Jon Hopkins is a wizard of electronic production, creating everything from ambient-leaning records to pulsating, dance-floor-ready cuts that remain heady and cerebral.

Here he collaborates with multi-instrumentalist and composer Maddie Ashman, and musician, composer and long-term Brian Eno collaborator Leo Abrahams. This extraordinary trio will perform an improvised set, which punters can expect to feature everything from meditative piano and cello to guitar, electronics and shots of noise.

8. Yussef Dayes

• When: Saturday 20 June
• Where: Royal Festival Hall

Over a period of years, South London raised drummer, composer and bandleader Yussef Dayes has established himself as a key figure in UK jazz. Originally gaining traction for his collaborative effort with keyboardist and producer Kamaal Williams under the name Yussef Kamaal, he has gone on to work with Tom Misch, feature with multiple other artists and establish his own solo career.

His 2023 album Black Classical Music was a genre-crossing statement of intent that drew on everything from classic and contemporary jazz to soul, hip-hop, reggae and more. His live reputation has grown over time, meaning that this is sure to be one of the standout sets at this year’s Meltdown.

9. James Murphy (DJ)

• When: Saturday 20 June
• Where: Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer

Best known as the founder and brains behind the genre-bending indie-dance favourites LCD Soundsystem, James Murphy is also a prolific producer and DJ.

On Saturday, at the end of Meltdown’s run, he will bring the party with a three-hour DJ set. Expect an intoxicating blend of genres and dancefloor-ready grooves.

10. Soulwax

• When: Sunday 21 June
• Where: Royal Festival Hall

Soulwax, the band established by Belgian brothers Stephen and David Dewaele, became synonymous with big anthems, foot-tapping grooves and a casual disregard for genre.

Blending indie rock with various flavours of dance music and electronica, the brothers have also performed DJ sets and produced material under the moniker 2manydjs. A long-established at this point, Soulwax have earned their reputation as one of Europe’s most inventive bands. They will make a fine closing act for Meltdown in 2026.

Meltdown runs from the 11th to the 21st of June across the Southbank Centre’s iconic venues, with Harry Styles curating one of the festival’s most adventurous line-ups to date. For full listings and ticket information, head to the Southbank Centre website.

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