Sometimes setbacks become the catalyst for something greater. For FRIEDA STAR, losing the rights to their former band name could have been a devastating blow, wiping out years of hard-earned momentum and a loyal following overnight. Instead, the Black Country quartet channelled that frustration into a fresh identity and renewed purpose. Built on longstanding friendships, shared experiences and a collective love of music that refuses to sit neatly in one genre, FRIEDA STAR combine jagged indie energy, sharp storytelling and working-class heart. We caught up with the band to talk about starting over, musical influences, pub quiz failures, questionable French cheese, and why staying connected to ordinary people remains central to everything they do.

Tell me about your name FRIEDA STAR, is it a person? What does it reference? and were there other names in the mix before you settled on it?

Garran: “We were under another band name before we got into a lawsuit and lost the rights to branding, 3k followers, loyal engagement across all socials and lost commercial rights to the name. It was similar to what we’re called now. It was a choice from three names and this name made the most sense to us, sounding similar to ‘free the Star’ with that being relevant to the legal situation.

Take us back to the very beginning: how did each of you first cross paths, and what was the moment you realised this wasn’t just a jam session but the start of FRIEDA STAR?

Scarlett: Everybody in the band is connected in some way and there was never a time where anyone was a complete stranger. Garran and Xav met through a mutual friend, James, and started a band called Headshrinkers. Scarlett knew Xav from school and later joined Headshrinkers as their drummer. When Headshrinkers came to an end, FRIEDA STAR came to fruition and Garran invited college mate Jord to play lead guitar…and here we are now!

Was there one artist or album that united you all — the shared reference point that made you think “yeah, this is the sound we want to chase”?

Xavier: It was less a single artist or album but an accumulation of different sounds that we took inspiration from. I think at the heart of it, FRIEDA STAR is a band you can have a dance to but also a band you can listen to when you’re feeling down and a bit glum!

Your music feels rooted in working‑class storytelling but also noisy, jagged indie energy. Which artists shaped your sound individually, and which influences overlap across the band?

Jordan: We’ve all got quite different influences which I think is what makes FRIEDA STAR sound like FRIEDA STAR. Scarlett is heavily into Pixies, Xav takes a lot of inspiration from Interpol. I’m influenced by bands like Cage the Elephant and Garran brings a lot of his love for rap into the band, which I think you can hear in the fast-paced lyrics of our new song Micky the Drink. There are definitely influences that overlap, but we like having those different sounds coming together, rather than all listening to exactly the same thing!

Before FRIEDA STAR existed, what were your earliest musical experiences — first instruments, first gigs, first moments you felt music was yours?

Jordan: Before FRIEDA STAR, Scarlett, Xav and Garran were in Headshrinkers and I was playing in another band. Our paths crossed a few times, and we’d been on the same bill at a couple of gigs so we knew of each other before the band came together. FRIEDA STAR was really the point where those different experiences and backgrounds came together and started to feel like something of our own.

For readers discovering you for the first time, who’s in the band, and what does each person bring to the creative chemistry?

Scarlett - Drums. Scarlett brings the energy and keeps everything moving, from tight rhythms to moments where things get a little more chaotic.

Xavier - Bass. Alongside Scarlett, Xav is part of the glue that holds the whole band together. His basslines lock everything into place and give the songs their feel.

Jordan - Lead Guitar. Jordan brings the riffs, hooks and jagged guitar sounds that give FRIEDA STAR its edge.

Garran - Vocals. Garran brings the attitude with his story-telling, switching between sharp rapid-fire lyrics and softer melodic moments.

It’s your turn on Come Dine With Me: what are you serving for starter, main, and dessert — and which band member is most likely to burn something?

Xavier: First course, a hearty French onion soup.

Main course, a good medium-rare steak.

Dessert, Jelly Babies.

Most likely to burn something…me, I often burn toast!

You’re curating a three‑day festival and can pick any act, dead or alive. Who headlines each night, and why do those artists matter to you?

Garran: Friday night, Neutral Milk Hotel. Saturday night, The Pogues, and Sunday night, Fontaines DC.

Tell us one strange, amusing, or completely unexpected fact about the band — or about one of you individually — that fans wouldn’t guess.

Xavier: We do a weekly pub quiz together! Our best position record to date is second to last…not because we’re rubbish, but because the quiz is really hard!

Looking ahead, where do you see FRIEDA STAR in 12 months? What’s the ambition, the scale, the version of the band you’re building toward?

Garran: ‘I see us creating better art, and that’s through having the freedom to be entirely expressive to our current state of emotions and environment. We want to become to biggest band we can be but remain ‘the people’s band’, for working class people especially upcoming bands and kids across the country to say ‘“them lot are one of us, if they can do it, we can”

Important final question: what’s your favourite cheese, and which band member has the most chaotic cheese‑related opinion?

Xavier: When it comes to cheeses, we all have differing opinions. If we’re talking about chaotic cheese stories, there was a time we played a festival in France (not as FRIEDA STAR!) where we were offered a cheeseboard. We accepted it out of kindness but did not expect some of the cheese to be quite so funky! I tried Roquefort for the first time and the smell is something I simply cannot describe. For some reason, I let the rest of the band egg me on to actually try it, BIG mistake. After this, it was all I could smell on my hands and every time I took a sip of my pint I could still smell this stinky cheese!

What emerges from this conversation is a band with their feet firmly on the ground and their eyes fixed on the horizon. FRIEDA STAR may have already faced challenges that would have derailed many young acts, but their response has been to double down on creativity, community and authenticity. Whether they're blending influences from Pixies to rap, chasing bigger stages, or simply finishing second-from-last in the local pub quiz, there's a genuine sense of togetherness that runs through the band. If the next 12 months bring the artistic freedom and growth they're striving for, FRIEDA STAR look set to prove that some of the most compelling voices in modern indie music come not from privilege or hype, but from ordinary people determined to make extraordinary noise.

Keep up to date with the band via INSTAGRAM

Few reunions have been greeted with the level of excitement that has accompanied Gene's return. What began with a handful of comeback shows quickly snowballed into sold-out venues, culminating in a triumphant night at London's Eventim Apollo and proving that the band's music still resonates deeply with audiences more than three decades after their debut. Ahead of two special October dates at Camden's Roundhouse, where Gene promise two nights and two distinctly different sets, we caught up with frontman Martin Rossiter to discuss revisiting the catalogue, reconnecting with his bandmates, and why thousands of voices singing songs written in their youth still feels as thrilling as ever.

After last year’s comeback shows sold out in ten minutes and culminated in that huge sold-out night at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, what does returning to London for two nights at the Roundhouse in Camden mean to you at this stage of Gene’s story? 

We all crave validation, it's only human. I try my best not to get it from something as eventually meaningless as ticket sales. However, I am human, and the idea of thousands of people singing the songs we wrote when we were barely out of nappies still feels thrilling and vital.

You’ve promised “two nights, two different sets” at The Roundhouse. What shaped that decision, and how do you imagine fans experiencing the contrast between the two evenings?

We didn't want to do 'cookie-cutter' sets. Of course we'll play the hits both nights but the chance to dig deep into the catalogue was too hard to resist.

You’ve said there are “too many songs to fit into one evening.” How do you approach balancing the classics with deeper cuts, B‑sides, and songs that maybe never got their moment?

It's like silt settling after a storm, we've spent months suggesting songs to each other and eventually consensus emerges.

The Hammersmith show — 5300 people, a genuinely triumphant return — seemed to carry a huge emotional charge. What did stepping back into that moment unlock for you personally?

I just enjoy waggling my sagging buttocks on stage. What I discovered was that sagging buttocks are oh so 2026.

That concert was recorded and released as a live album, Apollo, which charted incredibly well for an independent release. Hearing that performance back, what did it reveal to you about Gene’s chemistry after 21 years away?

As long as we can stand and sing, strum, pluck and hit that chemical equation, it will still work like it always did.

With Olympian now 31 years old, how has your relationship with that album changed, and what does its longevity say to you about Gene’s place in the era?

Please don't remind me of my age! What I do love about Olympian is it successfully documents four young scamps learning how to record music. It's not perfect, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The classic line‑up is back together. What’s surprised you most about reconnecting musically with Matt, Steve and Kevin after two decades apart?

Just how little people change. We're essentially the same, but for every pound we've put on, we've become a kilogram more kinder to each other.

You’ve invited The Slow Readers Club and Rialto as special guests at the Roundhouse dates. What drew you to those bands, and what do you feel they’ll add to the atmosphere of these shows?

All we're hoping is that their glamour rubs off on us a tad!

You’ve said, “In this increasingly bleak world come and throw your arms in the air…” What role do you think live music plays right now in giving people that sense of release or communal energy?

We inhabit a world where human contact will be close to illegal in twenty years, so come and spin around like Kylie while you still can.

With momentum building, sold‑out shows, and fans fully re‑energised, do these Roundhouse dates feel like a celebration of Gene’s past — or the beginning of something new?

Maybe a touch of both. Let's see what the future (if there is one) holds!

Gene's return could easily have become a nostalgia exercise, but Rossiter's answers suggest something far more meaningful is taking place. There's affection for the past, certainly, but also an unmistakable excitement about the present and a curiosity about what's next. As the band prepare to take over the Roundhouse for two nights of hits, rarities and deep cuts, one thing is clear: Gene aren't simply revisiting their legacy, they're reconnecting with the community that helped build it in the first place.

Keep up to date with their whereabouts via INSTAGRAM

Some bands set out with a carefully mapped plan; others discover their path as they go. For Black Doldrums, the journey has been one of instinct, experimentation and constant evolution. What began as a shared love of music between Kev and Sophie has grown into one of the UK's most compelling dark alternative acts, drawing from post-punk, gothic rock, shoegaze and electronic influences while always sounding unmistakably like themselves. With the release of Repetition Compulsion, the final instalment of their ambitious State of Mind Trilogy, the duo have brought a years-long exploration of obsession, longing, memory and identity full circle. We caught up with Kev and Sophie to talk about the band's origins, the hidden connections that shaped the trilogy, the creative process behind the new album and what lies beyond this defining chapter.

You’ve spoken before about the band’s beginnings in London’s underground psych scene — when did Black Doldrums truly become Black Doldrums, and what were the early sparks that made you realise this project had its own identity?

K: The first thing Sophie said to me years before we even considered being in a band was that I look like Ian Curtis and then we started talking about music and sharing our different influences but meeting in the middle somewhere. When we started we had loads of different influences and were finding our sound and experimenting a lot over the first couple of years. We were also very much regulars on the gig circuit and discovering what works and what didn’t, so our whole thing is completely organic and real development which we are proud of. At around this time in London, psych was quite popular and a lot of the gigs at the time were geared around this sound so it was easy to get put in with psych and shoegaze genres. I seem to remember at the time our current record label Fuzz Club were putting out bands that were considered psych but we thought they were closer to post-punk.

S: As we started out as a duo we could only rely on each other on stage and we needed to experiment with sound to fill in for a 3rd member. We've always had our own sound, because for a long time we didn't really know where we fitted, we never set out to be neatly sat in a genre, it was external people who said we sounded post-punk or we'd get 'you sound a bit like this but also like yourself', after we started to see more goth adjacent people at our gigs we cleaned up the sound and fine tuned it.

Your sound pulls from dark psych, post‑punk, shoegaze and even cinematic synth textures. Which artists or movements have shaped you the most, and how have those influences evolved across your releases?

K: My main inspiration as a songwriter is to be understood and communicate something that can’t easily be communicated in person. I tend to write about Sophie for Sophie, or generally what Sophie is reading, watching or listening to can make its way into my writing. We’re inspired by lots of darkwave electronic music as well as many old and newer artists within that scene, however if I’m honest, I tend to draw inspiration for different purposes. For example, The Beatles for song writing, Bauhaus for the attack, New Order for atmosphere, or The Cure for melody. I don't tend to take one artist or song as inspiration and in actual fact I don’t learn entire songs of other artists. The day I learnt three chords to play Heartbreak Hotel I got bored and tried making my own song out of the same chords.

S: Something we’ve found is Kev will write a song on an acoustic guitar, it’ll already sound like a complete song by itself and have an identity, then obviously I will come up with drums and we’ll talk about the arrangement, but the characteristics of genre or inspiration is weirdly not apparent until after everything has been mixed and I mean that in the sense that for us and I suspect many artists, a portion of that process is unconscious.

From Dead Awake to In Limerence and now Repetition Compulsion, how has your approach to writing and recording changed? Are there habits or rituals you’ve carried through the trilogy — or ones you’ve deliberately broken?

K: Not really anything too special as far as I know but then again I don’t really look into how anyone else does it. I don’t think we realised it was a trilogy until half way through writing and recording In Limerence when Sophie was making the artwork she said they all feel like they have the same theme of obsession, longing and Limerence. After that we leant more into those themes and realised that I would naturally write a song and then write another one almost in response to myself. So this means on the albums there is almost this mirroring of tracks that complement each other. I think this came about because we always ask ourselves “what did we learn last time and how can improve this time”. This way we are learning and improving and giving people a better album each time.

S: Kev will write the song at home and then show it to me in the rehearsal room - or with this album I actually bought an electronic kit and worked out 90% of the drum parts on that, which I found they came much quicker to me, I find when you're paying for a space for 4 hours you're under pressure to develop the song and I find it hard to come up with something that feels good enough in that environment. I never want to settle with drum parts as they play such a big part in the identity of the songs, so I always want to come up with something different or that lends itself to the song.

The State of Mind Trilogy explores psychological cycles, identity and emotional inheritance. What drew you to this thematic arc, and how does Repetition Compulsion complete the story you’ve been telling?

K: I’m not entirely sure what drew us to these themes, but I can only assume it was a subconscious decision to use the past in order to make sense of the present. We didn’t realise all the albums were connected in some way until half-way through the second album. I think it’s because we all tend to repeat behaviour and writing these songs could essentially be us attempting to address the same issues and almost rewriting some songs in some cases in order to feel understood and ensure we’re being very clear. This is basically repetition compulsion which completes the albums story perfectly because we have been doing it all along even without realising it.

S: For me, it came from being interested in why we become who we are, and how much of that is shaped by things that happened long before we were consciously aware of them. Across the three records, there’s been this recurring idea of trying to understand yourself through your past, the relationships, experiences and patterns that keep resurfacing, even when you think you’ve moved beyond them.

Repetition Compulsion felt like the natural conclusion because it gives a name to something we’d already been writing about for years: the tendency to repeat familiar emotional patterns, sometimes in an attempt to understand them or somehow change the outcome. I think the trilogy gradually moves from experiencing those things, to recognising them, and then finally understanding that recognition doesn’t necessarily mean you stop repeating them.

Your new record feels like your most expansive and introspective work yet. What were the key ideas, sounds or personal experiences that shaped this

K: I think what’s cool with this album's theme came from one thing Sophie said to me about the psychological term splitting which formed the very first line of the album “is your mind split in two”. The theme of Repetition Compulsion to me is a perfect fit for my type of writing and how I like to reference the past. So much so, I dug up two songs from a fairly long time ago “Beat the Rain” which was a song I wrote a few days after meeting Sophie for the first time a while back now and it is so strange how it fits the theme. And the last track on the album “Eulogy”, I discovered when going through a box of cassettes that I had made in my bedroom when I was very young. It was an instrumental that we re-worked. Because the album is about the past affecting our future, the fact that we purposely dived into the past and dug up these ideas that were unused, I’m very proud our artistic approach is definitely a life’s work.

S: A lot of it came from thinking about how contradictory people can be, and how different versions of ourselves can exist at the same time. The idea of splitting became quite important early on, seeing people or situations as entirely good or bad, but also the broader idea of feeling divided within yourself. That opened up a lot of the themes around identity, memory, relationships and the way the past affects how we experience the present.

Musically, I think we gave ourselves more freedom on this record. We weren’t interested in making every song occupy exactly the same space, so there are moments that are heavier and more immediate, but also songs that are more melodic, vulnerable or atmospheric. Because the subject matter is so internal, it made sense for the music to move around emotionally as well. A lot of it comes from personal experience, but those experiences become something other people can project their own meaning onto rather than explaining exactly what happened to us.

Where did you record Repetition Compulsion, and how did the environment or production team influence the final sound? Were there any unexpected breakthroughs or challenges during the sessions?

K: We recorded this album in Farm Road Studio in Brighton and Holy Mountain in London. The locations didn’t really influence the overall sound too much as we have the vision and a really strong idea of what direction the sound should take. So, we would plan and prepare the songs and arrangement before we approach anyone to help record. We’re very much in control of our own songs and the production.

We did encounter some issues with time in the studio to allow us to experiment. Guitars were recorded in three different locations, Farm Road, Brighton, studio 7 in Tottenham and even some guitar parts and synth at home. This allowed us the freedom to really fine tune all the tones and get down what is in our heads. It could be a bit excessive to do take after take, but if you don’t push yourself to the brink, it’s not making an album is it? We were just fortunate enough to work with a good team that was patient and open minded to allow us this freedom and ultimately trust our direction and production.

Your live shows are known for being immersive and atmospheric. With the new tour kicking off in February 27, how are you translating the new material to the stage, and what can fans expect from this run of dates

K: Once the album is out in November, we’ll go straight into rehearsals for the tour. By this time all the singles would have been released, and we’ll have a good idea of what has landed and that will inform our set. Live and studio are two different things, but when we prepare for live shows, we want to honour the album but give people something new and extra. We’ve picked up some new tech and gear to record these songs so that will be one thing that’s different. We always like to keep things progressing and experiment with new sounds.

S: We have about an hour and 20 minutes of material that we actually want to play live. We'd love to play new and older stuff and might be putting that to a fan vote if what they’d like to hear because we will need to narrow the time down slightly.

If you were curating your own dream festival, which three acts — dead or alive — would headline, and what makes each of them essential to your personal musical universe?

S: That’s quite a difficult question, I find narrowing music choices down really hard, but we’ve agreed on The Beatles, Depeche Mode and Bauhaus. Personally I would have The Beatles open up as a legacy act, but Kev will want them headlining, Dave Gahan and Peter Murphy can fight out the top spot. The Beatles because when we’re in the writing process, Kev tends to refer to them as an early inspiration and find their catalogue of work a good blueprint for writing. Each album pushes forward from the last, that’s what we try to do. Depeche Mode because of their ability to be both electronic and rock, the way they perform live is exciting and brings in elements of their recorded material and live. Bauhaus, pretty self-explanatory, actually we did see them in 2021, and they were one of the best bands both of us have ever seen live.

We love asking this one: if Black Doldrums were hosting a ‘Come Dine With Me evening’, what’s the starter, main and dessert you’d serve — and who in the band is actually doing the cooking?

K: Sophie would be in charge of this, she can cook anything. If it was me you’d have to be happy with it being cooked all in going one pot and tasting the same throughout. I can do a mean chilli or cottage/shepherds pie.

S: I’ve decided to approach this with my food crazes in mind - I tend to go through phases of meals I like to eat to the brink of complete boredom and move onto a new one.

To start we’ll have a miniature version of taco salad. This usually would involved a bowl of romaine lettuce, plum tomatoes, red onion, black beans, jalapeños, brown rice, avocado, coriander, Tabasco, lime and olive oil, then with either shredded chicken on top or steak sliced (rare) and soft corn tacos, and you essentially work your way through the salad by making tacos with the ingredients.

Main is Pad Kra Pao. fast-fried minced meat (I do turkey, but I think it’s chicken or pork usually) stir-fry tossed with garlic, chillies, soy sauce, fish oil and Thai Basil, served with rice with a fried egg on top.

Dessert, we don’t really have dessert at home, but when we went to Memphis, I did have a cocktail called a Fat Elvis which was chocolate and peanut whisky, something else I can’t remember, basically it tasted like Reese’s Pieces/ M&Ms so I’d give one of them to everyone!

With a new album and a fresh run of live dates, where do you see Black Doldrums in 12 months’ time? What’s the next chapter after completing such a defining trilogy?

K: Sitting in our mansion polishing our Grammy or other than that as I’ve completed this creative cycle with the trilogy of albums iI think we’ll be almost starting a fresh and finding new inspirations. Really looking forward to seeing what comes next, because I’ve always been writing constantly, so all three albums were basically one piece of work. I think we’ll be looking to experiment with more tech, maybe some remix projects or potentially even consider a new member of the band.

S: I think after finishing a trilogy, that’s been so conceptually connected, I’d like the next chapter to feel a little less prescribed. We’ve spent a long time looking backwards and examining patterns, memory and identity, so I’m interested in what happens when we give ourselves permission to move away from that and follow whatever feels exciting next.

I’d definitely like us to keep expanding what Black Doldrums can be, both sonically and live. I don’t think that necessarily means abandoning what people recognise in us, but I’d like to experiment more, take a few risks and avoid feeling like we have to repeat what we’ve already done. In 12 months, I’d hope we’re still touring, reaching more people, and starting to get a sense of what the next version of the band looks like.

What becomes clear throughout our conversation is that Black Doldrums have never been interested in standing still. Whether discussing songwriting, production, psychology or the ever-evolving nature of their live shows, Kev and Sophie return time and again to the idea of growth through reflection. Repetition Compulsion may bring the State of Mind Trilogy to its conclusion, but it also feels like the closing of a creative cycle rather than a final destination. As the band prepare to take these songs on the road and turn their attention towards new ideas, fresh technologies and unexplored territory, Black Doldrums seem poised to embrace uncertainty in the same way they've embraced evolution all along. Whatever comes next, it is unlikely to sound quite like what came before, and that's exactly the point.

Keep up to date with their musical happenings via INSTAGRAM

There’s a particular kind of quiet that arrives before a turning point — not the peaceful kind, but the charged, disorienting hush that forces you to listen inward. For SOAK — the Irish singer‑songwriter Bridie Monds‑Watson — that silence wasn’t metaphorical. It was real, physical, and frightening. An autoimmune disease stripped away their ability to sing, leaving a void where their voice, livelihood, and identity once lived.

Out of that void comes decembers, SOAK’s new album arriving December 4, 2026 via Rough Trade Records. It’s the most expansive, searching, and emotionally intricate work of their career — a record shaped by movement, memory, and the slow, brave act of becoming someone new.

decembers feels like a travelogue written in the margins of recovery. We follow SOAK through America’s wide‑open roads, along frost‑lit Dublin streets, under Portuguese skies hunting meteors, and finally back home to Derry. Each place becomes a waypoint in a larger internal map — one charting grief, release, and the tentative joy of returning to oneself.

The album’s title track, shared today with a visualizer, sets the tone: spacious, reflective, quietly devastating. It’s SOAK at their most vulnerable, but also their most assured. The absence of sound — that forced stillness — has sharpened everything. Lyrics land heavier. Melodies feel braver. There’s a sense of someone rebuilding their voice from the ground up.

LISTEN / WATCH HERE

Monds‑Watson anchors the album’s emotional core in a quote from Thomas Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again, a meditation on the impossibility of returning to the past. “For a long time I wanted to disprove that concept,” they say. “Maybe the familiarity of before felt safe. In the end I realised that was no way to live… In a way, I think decembers is about forgiveness”

It’s a striking sentiment, and one that threads through every song.

SOAK has never been an artist who stands still. From their Mercury‑nominated debut Before We Forgot How to Dream to the raw introspection of Grim Town and the guitar‑driven warmth of 2022’s If I Never Know You Like This Again, each era has reshaped their sound without losing the emotional clarity at the centre.

Recent years have widened their reach even further: the viral Fred Again.. collaboration just stand there (now over 25 million plays), the standalone single death valley fridge magnet, and extensive touring across the US and Europe, including Glastonbury, SXSW, Primavera, Other Voices, and support slots for Julien Baker, Modest Mouse, Lucy Dacus, Pulp, The Lumineers and more.

decembers feels like the culmination of all of this, not a pivot, but a deepening.

SOAK heads to America this autumn supporting The Barr Brothers, including a stop at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom. Then, in February 2027, they embark on a newly announced headline UK and EU tour, with tickets on sale Friday, October 2nd at 10am local time.

It’s a fitting return to the stage: an artist who lost their voice now stepping back into rooms full of people ready to hear what came out of the silence.

This album marks a moment of transformation — not dramatic, not explosive, but quietly radical. It’s SOAK learning to let go of the past, to forgive themselves, and to move forward with a voice that has been tested, reshaped, and ultimately strengthened.

For longtime fans, decembers will feel like a homecoming to a version of SOAK that’s both familiar and newly illuminated. For newcomers, it’s a stunning entry point into one of Ireland’s most distinctive and emotionally resonant artists.

Tracklisting:

01) decembers

02) death valley fridge magnet

03) speed

04) woodstock

05) minus 3

06) subaru

07) backroads

08) transmitter park

09) closing down

Tour Dates

October 28 - Brattleboro, VT @ The Stone Church^

October 29 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom^

October 30 - Providence, RI @ The Met^

February 5 - Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny

February 6 - Sheffield,UK @ Hallamshire Hotel

February 7 - Manchester, UK @ YES, Pink Room 

February 9 - Bristol, UK @ Strange Brew

February 10 - London, UK @ Bush Hall

February 11 - Leeds, UK @ Hyde Park Book Club

February 13 - Glasgow, UK @ King Tut's Wah Wah Hut

February 17 - Belfast, IE @ Empire 

February 18 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory

February 19 - Limerick, IE @ Dolan's

February 20 - Cork, IE @ St Luke's

February 24 - Paris, FR @ Le Hasard Ludique

February 25 - Antwerp, BE @ Trix 

February 26- Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso 

February 28 - Berlin, DE @ Mikropol

^ = w/ The Barr Brothers

Some exhibitions feel like events, others feel like homecomings. Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits manages to be both, a vivid collision of memory, music, and art unfolding inside the very walls where Hendrix once tuned up, hung out, and felt most himself.

From September 30, 2026 to April 11, 2027, Handel Hendrix House in Mayfair will unveil two brand‑new, never‑before‑seen portraits of Jimi Hendrix painted by Ronnie Wood, alongside a selection of Wood’s much‑loved Hendrix works. For the first time, these images will hang inside Hendrix’s own flat at 23 Brook Street, the place he famously described as the only home where he ever felt truly settled.

It’s hard to imagine a more charged setting — a guitarist painting another guitarist, decades later, inside the room where their friendship once sparked.

Wood remembers Hendrix not as the mythic guitar deity, but as the quiet, sweet man who arrived in London in 1966 “totally unknown.” They shared PP Arnold’s Holland Park flat for a short, chaotic stretch — Hendrix, Wood, and a Basset Hound named Loopy — before Hendrix’s explosive early shows at places like the Bag O’ Nails rewrote the rules of guitar music.

One of Wood’s new portraits captures that exact moment: Hendrix on stage, incandescent, reshaping what a guitar could be. “Jimi’s immense & unique talent took guitar playing to another planet,” Wood says. “I hope the paintings capture all that and more.”

There’s something deeply compelling about Wood’s perspective. He didn’t just admire Hendrix — he witnessed him. Jammed with him. Lived with him. Watched him transform from a quiet newcomer to a generational force.

Handel Hendrix House has become one of London’s most quietly fascinating cultural spaces — a dual museum preserving the homes of two musical giants separated by centuries but united by creative fire.

Handel’s restored 18th‑century rooms now sit alongside Hendrix’s lovingly recreated 1968 flat, complete with the stairs George Harrison once had to step over a passed‑out visitor to descend. The museum’s recent £3 million restoration has opened up Handel’s full house for the first time, adding new exhibitions, historic rooms, and a mixed‑reality experience exploring the writing of Messiah.

Against this backdrop, Wood’s portraits feel like a bridge — connecting Hendrix’s private world with the public imagination, and linking two eras of musical revolution under one roof.

As museum director Simon Daniels puts it, Wood’s work “offers a truly personal tribute to the legend he knew.” And seeing these portraits in Hendrix’s own home adds a layer of intimacy no gallery could replicate.

Before he became a Rolling Stone, Wood was an art student at Ealing Art College, sketching long before he was shredding. His paintings have travelled the world, capturing bandmates, icons, and the cultural figures who crossed his path.

On Desert Island Discs last year, he chose art materials as his luxury item — a reminder that painting isn’t a side project for Wood. It’s a parallel career, a second language.

His Hendrix portraits feel like the culmination of both worlds: the musician who knew Hendrix’s sound, and the artist who can translate that sound into colour, movement, and memory.

There’s a rare electricity in seeing art hung in the place where its subject once lived. Hendrix’s Brook Street flat isn’t a shrine — it’s a lived‑in space, restored with care, filled with stories, and still humming with the energy of the 60s London scene.

Placing Wood’s portraits here turns the exhibition into something more than a display. It becomes a conversation between past and present — between two musicians who shaped each other, and between the fans who continue to keep Hendrix’s legacy alive.

This is one of those exhibitions that feels essential: a chance to stand inside Hendrix’s home and see him through the eyes of someone who knew him before the world did.

Exhibition Details

Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits, Handel Hendrix House, 23 Brook Street, Mayfair

30 September 2026 – 11 April 2027

Entry included with museum admission (£14.50 adults / £10.50 students / free under 12s)

Nearest Tube: Bond Street

Tickets: handelhendrix.org

There’s a particular electricity that runs through Newcastle whenever a major name in British dance music rolls back into town — that sense that the night ahead might just become one of those stories people tell for years. This December, that charge is about to hit again. After ten years away, Rudimental are finally returning to the city, stepping into NX Newcastle for an exclusive DJ set that marks a new chapter in their evolution.

For a group whose sound was forged in the heat of East London pirate radio, Rudimental’s journey has always been about energy, community and connection. They broke through in 2012 with Feel The Love, a track that didn’t just top charts — it rewired the mainstream’s relationship with Drum & Bass. What followed was a run of hits that became part of the UK’s cultural fabric: Waiting All Night, These Days, Dancing Is Healing. Billions of streams, three Number One singles, two Number One albums — the kind of stats that usually belong to pop juggernauts, not a collective born from sound system culture.

But 2026 finds Rudimental in a different gear. Their fifth album, RUDIM3NTAL, is a deliberate homecoming — a return to the raw, bass‑driven foundations that first brought Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon “Locksmith” Rolle together. The record is stacked with collaborators who reflect the breadth of their world: Popcaan, Idris Elba, Khalid, MIST, Skepsis, Charlotte Plank, Riko Dan, Mystic Marley. It’s a celebration of lineage and future, of the underground and the global stage.

And that shift has changed their live show too. Historically, Rudimental’s performances were a hybrid of DJing and live instrumentation — brass, drums, vocalists, the full spectacle. Now, they’re stripping things back. The trio are returning to the decks, delivering high‑energy DJ sets built around the music and culture that shaped them. It’s leaner, heavier, more immediate. The kind of set that thrives in a venue like NX, where the crowd is close enough to feel every drop.

Luke Rushfirth, Venue Manager at NX, knows exactly what this booking means for the city. “Rudimental are a massive booking for NX and exactly the calibre of artist we want to keep bringing to Newcastle,” he says. “They’ve gone back to their Drum & Bass roots and built a new show around that energy, so this feels like the perfect time to welcome them back. It’s been a decade since Newcastle last had the chance to see Rudimental, and to have them here at NX for their return is something we’re really proud of.”

It’s hard to argue with him. Newcastle’s dance community has always been fiercely loyal, and Rudimental’s absence has been long enough to make this feel like a genuine homecoming. Their recent festival run — Coachella, Glastonbury, Parklife — proves they’re operating at full power, and the chance to see this new incarnation in an intimate, high‑impact setting is rare.

For fans who’ve grown up with their catalogue, this show is a celebration. For newer listeners pulled in by Green & Gold or Dancing Is Healing, it’s a chance to experience the roots of the Rudimental story. And for the city itself, it’s another reminder of how NX is reshaping Newcastle’s live landscape — bringing heavyweight names back into the fold and giving them a stage that matches their ambition.

Ten years is a long time. But some returns are worth the wait.

Rudimental – Exclusive DJ Set

NX Newcastle Saturday 12 December 2026

Pre-sale: Thursday 1 October, 12 noon General sale: Thursday 1 October, 2 pm

Tickets & info: NXNewcastle.com

Mallory Knox have always been a band defined by momentum — three Top 40 albums, festival main stages, a reputation for emotional intensity and alt‑rock anthems that cut through the noise. But their new single “Afterglow” marks something rarer: a genuine rebirth.

And crucially, it’s a rebirth with the voice that helped define their rise.

When Mikey Chapman stepped back into the fold at Slam Dunk 2024, it was a shockwave. His return didn’t just reunite a lineup; it reconnected Mallory Knox with the emotional core that powered Signals, Asymmetry and Wired into the UK charts.

“Afterglow is the very first song Dave, James and I jammed out after deciding to write again as a band,” Mikey shares. You can hear that immediacy in the track — the urgency, the optimism, the sense of something being rekindled rather than reconstructed.

He continues: “The song reflects the anticipation, excitement and hope we found in those initial moments as we brought the band back to life… that there is life yet to be lived if only you are willing to try.”

It’s a mantra that feels stitched into every part of the song.

“Afterglow” is unmistakably Mallory Knox: widescreen guitars, melodic heft, emotional clarity. But there’s a renewed sharpness here — a sense of purpose that comes from stepping away, reassessing, and choosing to return because it matters.

The band — now Mikey Chapman, James Gillett and Dave Rawling — have spent the past year writing and recording new material. This isn’t a victory lap. It’s a statement of intent.

Mallory Knox’s track record speaks for itself:

• Three consecutive UK Top 40 albums

• Two No.1 Rock & Metal Albums (Signals, Wired)

• Record Store Chart No.1 (Asymmetry)

• BBC Radio 1 playlist support

• Festival main stages at Reading & Leeds, Download, Slam Dunk

• International runs including Warped Tour and Rock am Ring

• Sold‑out headline shows at Electric Ballroom, KOKO, Roundhouse

• Magazine covers (Kerrang!, Rock Sound)

• Award nominations including Kerrang! Best British Newcomer

It’s a résumé that many bands would kill for — but “Afterglow” proves they’re not interested in living in the rear‑view mirror.

The band’s first shows of this new era are already sold out:

• Friday 21st August — The Lower Third, London

• Saturday 22nd August — The Deaf Institute, Manchester

That alone tells you everything: the appetite is real, the fanbase is energised, and the return of Mikey Chapman has reignited something powerful.

The single is out now on all major streaming platforms, accompanied by a video directed by William Howe and produced by Mikey Chapman — a visual extension of the band’s renewed creative chemistry.

For a group whose music has always carried emotional weight, this new chapter feels like the most meaningful one yet.

Five years ago, two teenage siblings stood side‑stage at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, nervously waiting to play their first ever show as The Molotovs. They were the unknown support act, buskers with big dreams, opening for The Libertines. On Saturday night, they returned to the same room — this time as headliners — and walked straight into the kind of moment bands spend whole careers chasing.

Because halfway through their second sold‑out night at the Forum, Carl Barât stepped out of the wings and joined them for a riotous, grinning run through What A Waster. The crowd detonated. The band looked stunned. And suddenly, the story of The Molotovs wasn’t just about momentum — it was about lineage.

For Matt (18) and Issey Cartlidge (20), the significance was impossible to miss. Their first gig was here. Their first co-sign came from Barât. Their first belief that this band could be something more than a busking dream started in this building.

Barât captured it perfectly afterwards:

“The Molotovs are a true force for good for music today… selling out two forums on their own, they’ve managed to carve their path the old school way.”

It’s a rare thing for a band this young to be spoken about in “old school” terms — but it fits. The Molotovs have done the miles, the graft, the rain‑soaked street corners, the support slots, the relentless gigging. 600 shows in five years. A top‑3 album. International tours. And now, two sold‑out Forums of their own.

The band’s national ‘Welcome to Urbia’ tour is winding down, but the next phase is already locked in. Their second album — also titled Welcome to Urbia — is available for pre‑order now via Marshall Records and lands 9 April 2027.

On Saturday, Issey took a moment to acknowledge the journey:

“So here we are, 600 gigs later… This isn’t a final destination, this is only a stop along the way.”

It’s the kind of line that feels less like stage banter and more like a mission statement. The Molotovs aren’t arriving — they’re accelerating.

Before album two drops, The Molotovs head straight back out — this time supporting Razorlight on a major UK run, including a huge night at OVO Arena Wembley on 4 December.

Full dates:

• Thu 26 Nov — O2 Academy, Glasgow

• Fri 27 Nov — O2 City Hall, Newcastle

• Sat 28 Nov — The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

• Mon 30 Nov — O2 Academy, Leeds

• Tue 01 Dec — Rock City, Nottingham

• Thu 03 Dec — O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester

• Fri 04 Dec — OVO Arena Wembley, London

• Sat 05 Dec — The Prospect Building, Bristol

• Sun 13 Dec — Telegraph, Belfast

• Mon 14 Dec — 3Olympia, Dublin

Tickets are on sale now

The Molotovs’ rise has always felt fast — but Saturday night made it feel earned. A band who started by busking in the rain were welcomed onstage by one of the architects of 2000s indie, in the same room where their story began. It wasn’t nostalgia. It wasn’t ceremony. It was recognition.

And with a new album incoming, a major support tour ahead, and a fanbase growing gig by gig, The Molotovs are stepping into a future that suddenly feels much bigger than the venues they’re selling out.

This isn’t a stop along the way. It’s the moment the way forward lit up.

The Snuts have never been a band afraid of big feelings, but their new single ‘PTS’ lands with a different kind of weight — not the stadium‑sized catharsis they’ve mastered, but something more internal, more human, more quietly seismic. It’s the penultimate track written for their upcoming fourth album Joy In Short Moments (out 23 October via Happy Artist Records / Virgin Music Group), and it arrives as a meditation on self‑belief, generational trauma and the long, slow work of forgiving yourself.

Listen to ‘PTS’ HERE

‘PTS’ began in the afterglow of Scotland’s World Cup qualification win over Denmark — a night of pure communal electricity. Jack Cochrane describes it as “a shooting star of collective celebration,” the kind of moment that makes you feel briefly invincible. But instead of staying in that high, the band dug into the question underneath it: why is belief in yourself so rare where we’re from?

That pivot — from euphoria to introspection — is what gives ‘PTS’ its emotional charge. It’s a song that starts with the roar of a crowd and ends somewhere quieter, somewhere more honest.

Cochrane frames ‘PTS’ as a kind of emotional reset:

“Growing up without a positive role model, generational trauma… ‘PTS’ is a remedy to melancholy, an end to past‑life pain. It’s a song for widespread forgiveness, of others and of yourself.”

It’s rare to see a band at this level speak so plainly about the stuff that sits at the bottom of the “important to talk about” pile — the inherited heaviness, the self‑doubt, the patterns you spend adulthood trying to unlearn. That honesty feels like the defining thread of Joy In Short Moments.

If ‘Defibrillator’ was the euphoric jolt and ‘Joy In Short Moments’ the reflective centrepiece, ‘PTS’ feels like the emotional hinge of the record — the point where celebration meets reckoning. It’s the sound of a band who’ve grown up in public choosing to grow inward too.

Tracklist – Joy In Short Moments

1. In Motion

2. Youth Ain’t Easy

3. Defibrillator

4. Joy In Short Moments

5. PTS

6. Get Up, Get Out

7. Country Music

8. Summer Rain

9. Motherlands

10. Warsaw

11. Little Marathon Man

The Snuts’ ascent has been one of the most compelling in recent British guitar music:

• #1 debut with W.L.

• Top 3 follow‑up Burn The Empire

• Top 2 independent, self‑produced Millennials — making them the first act since One Direction to land three Top 3 albums in three consecutive years.

• Sold‑out tours across Japan, Australia, Europe and North America.

• A triumphant Scottish arena headline at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro.

They’re a band operating at full velocity — but ‘PTS’ proves they’re not afraid to slow down long enough to tell the truth.

Catch the band this Autumn on their UK headline tour:

19 Nov — Dundee, Livehouse

20 Nov — Aberdeen, Beach Ballroom

21 Nov — Edinburgh, Corn Exchange

23 Nov — Dunfermline, Alhambra Theatre

24 Nov — Newcastle, O2 City Hall

26 Nov — Sheffield, Octagon Centre

27 Nov — Nottingham, Rock City

29 Nov — Norwich, UEA

30 Nov — Bristol, The Prospect Building

1 Dec — Hull, City Hall

2 Dec — Leeds, O2 Academy

3 Dec — Manchester, Victoria Warehouse

4 Dec — Manchester, Victoria Warehouse

8 Dec — Birmingham, O2 Academy

9 Dec — Portsmouth, Guildhall

10 Dec — London, Brixton Academy

‘PTS’ is The Snuts at their most vulnerable — and arguably their most vital. It’s a reminder that the moments of joy we cling to are often built on years of unspoken struggle, and that healing isn’t loud or glamorous; it’s slow, deliberate, and deeply personal.

It’s exactly the kind of track that shows why The Snuts continue to resonate far beyond their chart stats: they write songs that feel lived‑in, songs that understand the people who listen to them.

KEEP UP WITH THE SNUTS
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE

musomuso recently attended the inaugural Days in the Sun Festival in Gloucestershire and  enjoyed 3 days of great music, lovely people and an atmosphere that meant you just didn't want it to end. 

Days In The Sun is a 3 day Folk & Roots festival based in Gloucestershire. The title comes from the Roving Crows song 'Days In The Sun', which encourages us to live our dreams. Days In The Sun is curated jointly by Caitlin Barrett and Paul Chief O'Neill from the Roving Crows band, who have programmed and curated many events for third parties over the last 20 years, leading to them creating this bespoke event which they plan to grow slowly as the years progress. And they weren't alone, fellow band members Jim and Laurence  were also put to work, be it compare and sound engineer for the second stage and even working behind the bar! Not to mention the family members and friends all supporting the preparation and onsite activities.  

​

It was always planned to start small and the professionalism and attention to detail meant everyone had a fantastic time and it was seemingly absent of any  major hiccups all weekend long. ​​The music was first class, a real mix  of styles across nearly 30  bands. We had singer songwriters, bands from 3 to 11 members and even a 70 person choir......and just about every instrument you could imagine. We even had a stylophone ! In-between acts there was also an open mic in the second tent, and the Pentacle Drums and Syren Belly dancers performing in the field. Food selection was small but the fresh rice / poke bowls were first class and the 'burger van' option had a wide selection and even a complete Greek offering. It was certainly a good varied range for the small event. 

With a note to the potential changing weather in late September, the performance stages (and the bar!) were both in tents and when full, were packed but not to an uncomfortable level. We had a blustery wind day 1, a wet start day 2 but by Saturday evening the sun came out and Sunday was a glorious late summer day.  The facilities were more than adequate, great feedback was heard regarding the onsite showers and backstage toilets, and with the camping literally the other side of the fence from the arena it made it easy to pop back and forth for supplies, a rest or recharge.

And the bands. We had Liberty Tree,  the brilliant Vespas, Cash Rewired (a young band living their best lives doing Johnny Cash covers), the Severn Collective,  the fabulous Nick Parker with 2 sets, one on each stage, Common Culture from Barnsley playing a fantastic set, the pure rhythmic drive of Arcadia Roots and The Dolmen closing out Day 1. Day 2 opened gently with James J Turner, followed by the Kitchen Island Band before, Burn The Midnight Oil, The Whipjacks, Rusty Shackle and Dub Catalyst heated up the tent with their high energy. Trevor Babajack Steger and Jesse Benns gave us some hardcore blues (and then a more chilled acoustic set in tent later on) before traditional Scottish music band Skipinnish closed out the night. Sunday was to end on a high with the likes of Birdbrother, Reivers' Gallow, the fabulous Mighty VU choir, Mobius Loop,  the celestial Brutha T & Be, A Bloke Called Maddie and Perkelt. The festival finished with a rip roaring closing set from the Roving Crows themselves. What a way to end a fabulous 3 days.

I spoke to so many people  over the 3 days, young and old, and they all talked about the relaxed and fun atmosphere and the general vibe of this wonderful festival. Many said it felt like festivals of old, before everything got so big and corporate. Everyone said how friendly it all felt and how, by the end, many have made new friends and gig buddies. Even the 4 legged attendees seemed content with the weekend, even if the field was a bit spikey and their owners grumbled about tents and camper vans full of old straw! 

This was a wonderful achievement for Paul and Caitlin and I believe they couldn't have imagined it going any better.  Early Bird tickets are already available for next year and I can't wait to see what that will look like in 2027. If they can retain all that has been great about this year (and that was just about everything!) and build on it,  there is no limits to how amazing it could be. 

It was a wonderful way to spend 3 'days in the sun' (and a little rain) 

Words and Pictures by Glenn Morrison

The Lemonheads performing in Torquay feels like one of those quietly historic moments — the kind of booking you double‑check because surely they’ve never played here, let alone anywhere in Devon. Yet on a late‑September Sunday, the blue eyed poster boy Evan Dando finally rolled into town, bringing with him decades of cult‑favourite songwriting, a new record, and the unpredictable energy that has always made his shows part gamble, part gift.

But before Evan stepped into the spotlight, Torquay was treated to something special.

Bottlemoth opened the evening with a kind of understated confidence that only comes from a band who truly know their identity. Even as a three‑piece — two members absent, arrangements reworked on the fly — they filled The Arena with warmth, emotional weight, and a widescreen indie‑rock presence that belied their stripped‑back setup.

Drawing heavily from Even Us Ghosts, the set moved between tender introspection and soaring, cinematic surges. Tracks like Suki and Lilac added a nostalgic guitar shimmer, hinting at the richer palette they’re exploring in their newer material. The trio carried the room with tight chemistry and quiet command; nothing felt compromised, just distilled.

A chat at the merch table afterwards revealed the story behind the trio configuration — last‑minute absences, quick rearrangements, a “make it work” mentality. What’s striking is how naturally they pulled it off. If anything, tonight made the prospect of seeing Bottlemoth as a full five‑piece even more exciting. The trio showed the bones: the songwriting core, the emotional rawness. The full band promises the widescreen lift, the dynamic punch, the full bloom.

It’s rare to leave a support slot already planning the next time you’ll see them. Tonight, they earned it.

Evan Dando’s name carries decades of stories — some turbulent, some triumphant, all unmistakably his. And tonight, for the first time ever, he took over The Arena in Torquay.

With the new record Love Chant out in the world, you might expect it to dominate the setlist. Instead, only four tracks made the cut, leaving plenty of room for the staples — the songs that make a Lemonheads show feel like a Lemonheads show.

I’ve seen Evan many times over the past twenty years, and it’s always a roll of a dice as to which version of Evan is going to walk onto the stage! There was the haphazard solo show at Glasgow’s Oran Mor in 2007, and the much tighter Bristol O2 Academy gig more recently, where even the mid‑set acoustic interlude held together beautifully. Tonight? Tonight landed firmly on the right side of the coin.

Minimal banter, a slightly tweaked setlist (confirmed by his stepdaughter at the merch counter), and a few monitor issues that were quickly ironed out — once everything settled, Torquay got a genuinely solid presentation of The Lemonheads as most fans want to remember them.

Fresh from a stint in rehab, Evan looked better. More present. More in control. I did spot a couple of large handwritten lyric posters on the floor — a reminder that we all need a little assistance sometimes — but he kept on top of his role, delivering a set that felt grounded, nostalgic, and surprisingly tender.

The run of highlights across the set landed with a mix of nostalgia, surprise and genuine emotional weight. Stove came tearing out of the gate, full‑speed and razor‑tight, easily one of the night’s standout moments and the lone representative from their 1990 album Lovey. Hearing Different Drum again was a personal full‑circle moment — beautifully delivered, and all the more affecting in the same town where I once tried to emulate its chords from a battered pirated tape (they used to tell me that ‘home taping is killing music but I didn’t listen!).

Withered and Died (A Richard and Linda Thompson composition) arrived as a fragile acoustic treat, while The Outdoor Type held the room in absolute silence, Evan’s slightly off‑kilter vocal doodles somehow adding to its charm. Then came It’s a Shame About Ray — 35 years old and still devastating, its stripped‑back delivery amplifying every strained vocal and nuanced note, earning huge applause. Being Around brought a burst of looseness and fun, a perfect sing‑along that reminded everyone why these songs endure. And finally, as tradition dictates, Frank Mills closed the night a cappella, the whole venue joining in — simple, communal, and the ideal ending to a show that proved Evan still has the ability to hold a room in the palm of his hand.

Leaving the venue, I overheard a couple talking about how much they loved the acoustic section — Evan alone on stage, bass and drums taking a breather, the room holding its breath. They weren’t wrong. In those moments, he switched into another mode entirely: emotional, stripped back, soul bare, pin‑drop quiet.

For all the ups and downs, all the unpredictability, Evan Dando clearly still has it.

Torquay got something special tonight — a first, a rarity, and a reminder of why these songs still matter….a lot!

Bravo!

Formed in Boston back in 1986, The Lemonheads emerged from the American underground with a revolving‑door lineup that became part of their mythology — punk‑leaning beginnings, alt‑rock ascendance, and a catalogue that shaped a generation of indie songwriters. Across all those eras, all those tentacles and tangential branches, one constant remains: Evan Dando is the only original member still steering the ship. That continuity matters. It means every show, every tour, every new record is anchored by the same voice, the same melodic instinct, the same wry emotional clarity that defined the band from the start. Seeing him bring that legacy to Torquay for the first time added an extra charge to the night — a reminder that while the lineup may shift, the heart of The Lemonheads has always been Evan.

Motörhead never did anniversaries for the sake of nostalgia — but Orgasmatron turning 40 feels less like a milestone and more like a resurrection. On November 6th, BMG releases the 40th Anniversary Edition of one of the most singular, divisive and fiercely beloved records in the Motörhead catalogue. It’s a celebration of an album that split opinion in 1986, shaped the band’s future, and still sounds like nothing else in heavy music.

Released in 1986, Orgasmatron arrived during a period of upheaval and reinvention. Lemmy, Phil Campbell, Würzel and Pete Gill were pushing into heavier, darker territory — not abandoning Motörhead’s speed and aggression, but sharpening it into something more brutal and atmospheric.

Tracks like ‘Deaf Forever’, ‘Built For Speed’ and the towering title track became staples of the band’s live arsenal. Beneath the controversy around its production, fans found a record with a strange, snarling magic: part hard rock, part heavy metal, part punk, and entirely Motörhead.

Four decades later, Orgasmatron stands as one of the band’s most distinctive statements — a cult favourite that has only grown in stature.

The 40th Anniversary Edition digs deep into the album’s history, presenting Orgasmatron in two powerful forms:

• Bill Laswell’s original mix, remastered and cut at half speed from the original tapes

• A brand-new remix and remaster from longtime Motörhead collaborator Cameron Webb

The Motörhead team describe the remix as an idea born from late-night fan debate — a “what if?” that became irresistible. Laswell’s stylised production has long been part of the album’s identity, but Lemmy and Phil famously felt some of the bite had been softened. Webb, who helmed six Motörhead studio albums, was the natural choice to revisit the tapes.

And he didn’t hesitate.

“My brother introduced me to Orgasmatron when I was 14,” Webb says. “It was like the devil coming through my cassette tape — and I loved it.”

Webb approached the remix with reverence, not revisionism. He wanted to preserve the wild, messy character of Laswell and engineer Jason Corsaro’s work while imagining what Lemmy and Phil might have asked him to do: more bass here, sharper guitars there, more of the band’s raw force revealed.

The new edition is available in multiple formats, each offering a deeper dive into the Orgasmatron era:

ORGASMATRON TRACKLISTING
3LP VERSION

LP1 – 40TH ANNIVERSARY MASTER
SIDE A
1. Deaf Forever          
2. Nothing Up My Sleeve       
3. Ain't My Crime       
4. Claw
5. Mean Machine       
 
SIDE B
1. Built For Speed      
2. Ridin' With The Driver
3. Doctor Rock
4. Orgasmatron          
 
LP2  – CAMERON WEBB 40TH ANNIVERSARY REMIX
SIDE A
1. Deaf Forever          
2. Nothing Up My Sleeve       
3. Ain't My Crime       
4. Claw
5. Mean Machine       
 
SIDE B
1. Built For Speed      
2. Ridin' With The Driver       
3. Doctor Rock
4. Orgasmatron
 
LP3  - REHEARSALS, OUTTAKES AND SESSIONS
SIDE A
1.  Orgasmatron & On The Road  (Studio Rehearsal  - 1985)
2.  Nothing up My Sleeve  (Studio Outtake – 1985)
3. Doctor Rock & Ridin’ With The Driver  (Studio Rehearsal  - 1985)
 
SIDE B             
4.  Claw (Alternate Version)
5.  Mean Machine (Studio Outtake – 1985)
6.  Killed By Death (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
7. Orgasmatron (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
8. Doctor Rock (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
9. Deaf Forever (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
10. Orgasmatron (Spoken Word) (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
 
2CD VERSION
 
CD ONE
40TH ANNIVERSARY MASTER
1. Deaf Forever          
2. Nothing Up My Sleeve       
3. Ain't My Crime       
4. Claw
5. Mean Machine       
6 Built For Speed       
7. Ridin' With The Driver       
8 Doctor Rock
9. Orgasmatron          

OUTTAKES, REHEARSALS (1986)
10. Orgasmatron & On The Road  (Studio Rehearsal  - 1985)
11.  Nothing up My Sleeve  (Studio Outtake – 1985)
12.  Doctor Rock & Ridin’ With The Driver  (Studio Rehearsal  - 1985)
13.   Claw (Alternate Version)
14 .  Mean Machine (Studio Outtake – 1985)
 
CD TWO
 CAMERON WEBB 40TH ANNIVERSARY REMIX (2026)
1. Deaf Forever          
2. Nothing Up My Sleeve       
3. Ain't My Crime       
4. Claw
5. Mean Machine       
6. Built For Speed      
7. Ridin' With The Driver       
8. Doctor Rock
9. Orgasmatron          
 
RADIO ONE FRIDAY ROCK SHOW (1986)
10. Killed By Death (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
11. Orgasmatron (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
12. Doctor Rock (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
13. Deaf Forever (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)
14. Orgasmatron (Spoken Word) (BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show)

It’s the most comprehensive exploration of the album ever released — a chance to hear Orgasmatron from every angle, including the sounds and sessions that shaped it.

Alongside the announcement comes a brand-new video for ‘Orgasmatron’, bringing fresh visual weight to one of Motörhead’s most iconic songs. It’s a reminder of how timeless the track remains — a sermon, a curse, a prophecy delivered in Lemmy’s unmistakable growl.

Orgasmatron has always been a record that rewards repeat listens. With this anniversary edition, fans can finally experience it with the clarity, depth and alternate perspective it deserves. Whether you’re revisiting it or discovering it anew, this release captures Motörhead at a moment of fearless experimentation — still loud, still uncompromising, still utterly themselves.

Full details, updates and preorders are available at iMotorhead.com.

Some bands are forged in rehearsal rooms, others in college dorms — but AWAP’s story begins on a five‑a‑side pitch with a squad of local punks and metalheads calling themselves the Metal Godz. From there, chaos, camaraderie and a shared desire to “make some noise” did the rest. What followed was a band built on friendship, football, and a healthy disregard for the ordinary. Whether it’s their singer duetting with Jack Black, their first gig landing two weeks before lockdown, or the fact they carry earplugs specifically to survive Matt’s waffle, AWAP are the kind of outfit that remind you why DIY scenes matter: they’re loud, they’re real, and they’re having a ridiculous amount of fun doing it.

Please tell us about your background. What led to the band forming?

We all met through a group of mates that played 5-a-side football called the ‘Metal Godz’ which was made up of a load of the local punks and metalheads and we wanted to get together and make some noise!

Tell me a fascinating fact about a band member

Matt our singer once sung a duet with Jack Black on his radio show many moons ago.

Do you remember the band or artist that made you want to pick up an instrument and learn to play?

Aaron: For me it would have to be Metallica specifically James Hetfield.

Dan: It would be Paul Simon who first made me want to pick up a guitar.

Do you remember the first gig you ever played? How did you feel? Did it all go according to plan?

We certainly do, it was 2 weeks before lockdown so the excitement of our first show was short lived as the rest of the year’s gigs got cancelled! We had a great time though and it was Matt’s first ever show and he showed more than people were expecting!

Have you ever met one of your ‘heroes’? Who was it and how did it go?

Matt met everyone from his radio days people like Rob Halford, Chuck Billy, Henry Rollins, DeeDee Ramone, Bruce Dickinson etc they were all really pleased to meet him.

What do you carry with you at all times that you CANNOT live without?

Ear plugs! To block Matt's waffle out.

How has the response to your new single “Panikos” been so far?

Well, we are currency typing this from our yacht in St. Tropez while popping the champagne into a super model filled jacuzzi so pretty well so far we think. In all seriousness it’s going down great, we’ve had it in the live set for a while now and it’s been going down well.

What do you prefer more, playing a regular gig or playing a festival? How do they differ for you? (apart from the mud of course!)

We’d prefer to headline Wacken, however the local pub to 6 people on a Tuesday will have to do!

Tell me about the STRANGEST thing that ever happened to you when you’ve been on stage?

We once got offered a live sex show and 4 kilos of Cocaine whilst looking for the sound man at a show, so that was an experience!

Let’s imagine that you’ve been washed up on a desert island and there’s a record player, an amp and some speakers but only enough space for 3 records, which 3 would you have in the box to keep you going until you’re rescued? Why these three?

Dan: Clandestine by Entombed.

Matt: First and last and always by Sisters of Mercy.

Aaron: All We Love We Leave Behind by Converge

Name 3 bands or artists that our followers should be checking out….

One Fall, Long Knife and Skulker

Where can people keep up to date with you on social media (please list all relevant sites)

Check out awap.uk on the interwebs for all our links!

Lastly, there are MILLIONS of bands/acts/artists out there, why should people be spending the time to check you out?

Honestly if you like Discharge, Amebix, Zeke, Entombed, GBH, Testament, Lady Gaga (for visuals!) and The Haunted you need some AWAP in your ears.

If you’re into the raw energy of Discharge, the grit of Entombed, the swagger of GBH, or even the theatrical flair of Lady Gaga (their words, not ours), AWAP are already halfway to winning you over. Their new single “Panikos” is landing well, their live shows are unpredictable in the best possible way, and their humour is as sharp as their riffs. In a world overflowing with bands, AWAP stand out because they don’t try to be anything other than themselves — loud, unfiltered, and proudly forged in the fires of the Metal Godz. Dive in at awap.uk and let them rattle your speakers.

There’s a disarming honesty to the way Seraina Telli talks about music — not as a career move or a grand plan, but as something that simply helped her survive the tougher moments and made life feel lighter. That instinct to turn personal solace into shared strength runs through everything she does. From discovering Alicia Keys and nervously singing her first school‑play solo, to opening for Bryan Adams and finding new creative freedom on her latest album GREEN, her story is one of growth, grit and quiet determination. With a UK tour on the horizon and momentum building around her new material, she’s stepping into a chapter that feels more confident, colourful and completely her own.

Please tell us about your background. What led you to become a songwriter?

Hi there! Yeah I became a songwriter because music always helped me get through difficult times and made everything easier. That’s what I wanna do for others now with my music.

Tell me a fascinating fact about yourself!

I have 5 siblings and 10 nieces and nephews.

Do you remember the band or artist that made you want to pick up an instrument and learn to play?

For me that was Alicia Keys. I saw and heard her and decided that I wanted to play the piano, sing and write songs.

Do you remember the first gig you ever played? How did you feel? Did it all go according to plan?

I barely remember the first gig since I was sooooo nervous. It was at a school play and I had a solo. It was the first time I sang in front of so many people. No one even knew that I could sing at that time haha.

Have you ever met one of your ‘heroes’? Who was it and how did it go?

I wouldn’t call him one of my heroes but he’s a real big star and I grew up with his music. I was able to play with Bryan Adams, as opener for his show, and meet him backstage. He was really nice and fun. That was awesome!

What do you carry with you at all times that you CANNOT live without?

Fluffy things haha

How has the response to “Green” been so far?

Amazing! People really like it and it feels like a new path opened up with this album. I’ve never felt more free playing live than when I play these songs.

You’re coming to UK shores soon. Where can we find you?

06.10 Edinburgh

07.10 Newcastle

08.10 Sheffield

09.10 Bradford

12.10 Nottingham

13.10 Milton Keynes

14.10 Bridgwater

15.10 London

Can’t wait!

What do you prefer more, playing a regular gig or playing a festival? How do they differ for you? (apart from the mud of course!)

Haha. I love both actually. Festivals are awesome and usually bigger stages and crowds but it’s always stressy, smaller setlists, no time to set up right on stage… Regular Gigs depend on if it’s a headliner show. If so, then I like that we usually have more time to set up, do the full decorations and I also can plan a real Show with outfit changes etc.

Tell me about the STRANGEST thing that ever happened to you when you’ve been on stage?

A guy once picked up a girl and put her on stage. I thought they were related. Found out later they weren’t. That was really strange in several ways.

Let’s imagine that you’ve been washed up on a desert island and there’s a record player, an amp and some speakers but only enough space for 3 records, which 3 would you have in the box to keep you going until you’re rescued? Why these three?

Heritage from Opeth - Because it’s simply brilliant!

Pearl Jam’s “Ten” - This album makes me feel free and alive

My GREEN Album - To remind myself to keep going and not to die on this island ;-)

Name 3 bands or artists that our followers should be checking out….

I call out some of my friends’ music:

Violet Greens

Fat Cat

Division Dark

Where can people keep up to date with you on social media?

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

My YouTube channel got hacked recently. I am fighting to get it back and hope it will be on very soon again!

Lastly, there are MILLIONS of bands/acts/artists out there, why should people be spending the time to check you out?

I think that my music makes people happy. It gives them hope and power. So if you’re looking for that you should definitely check it out

What lingers after speaking with her is the sense that her music isn’t just crafted to be heard — it’s built to help. She writes to lift people up, to give them hope, to offer a spark of power when things feel heavy. It’s why she’s worth paying attention to in a world overflowing with artists: there’s intention behind every note, and a genuine desire to make someone’s day a little brighter. As GREEN continues to find its audience and her UK dates draw closer, she’s clearly an artist moving with purpose — and one you’ll be glad you discovered.

New York singer‑songwriter Melody Stolpp, who records under the name Sweetbreads, has always written like someone trying to make sense of the emotional static in her own head. Her debut album, Punisher of Love, doesn’t pretend to have the answers — instead, it sits in the uncertainty, tracing the shape of anxious attachment, self‑doubt, and the strange stories we tell ourselves just to get through the day.

It’s a record that feels lived‑in from the first note: warm indie‑folk textures, alt‑country edges, and a voice that sounds like it’s confiding in you from across a kitchen table at 2am. Sweetbreads isn’t performing vulnerability; she’s documenting it.

The album takes its name from its title track, where Sweetbreads introduces the “Punisher of Love,” a character born from her own anxious attachment. It’s not a villain so much as a shadow — the part of yourself that whispers worst‑case scenarios, that asks too many questions, that never quite believes you’re enough.

“I think a lot of my life is shaped by my anxiety,” she says, “and writing songs has always been a coping mechanism for processing my very large, overwhelming emotions.”

That honesty is the album’s backbone. These songs don’t tidy up the mess; they map it.

After years of collecting songs, Sweetbreads finally stepped into The Creamery Studios in Greenpoint with producer Quinn Devlin, a collaborator she met at a house show — the most fitting origin story for a project this intimate. Over four days, a close circle of friends helped shape the record, turning private anxieties into something shared, something communal.

That sense of togetherness radiates through the arrangements: brushed drums, warm guitars, soft harmonies, and the kind of subtle instrumental choices that feel like someone placing a hand on your shoulder.

“Although these songs are deeply personal, Punisher of Love is about much more than my own struggles because it was made in community with so many people I love,” she says. “I hope these songs encourage people to reach out and ask for help when they need it.”

It’s rare to hear an album about anxiety that feels this generous.

Sweetbreads’ songwriting sits somewhere between the diaristic clarity of indie‑folk confessionalists and the dusty, narrative‑driven world of alt‑country storytellers. She writes with sharpness — not just describing feelings, but interrogating them.

Tracks wrestle with identity, self‑compassion, and the quiet catastrophes of everyday life. But there’s humour here too, and a refusal to let cynicism win. Even at its heaviest, Punisher of Love feels like a hand reaching out rather than pulling away.

Since dedicating herself fully to music in 2020, Sweetbreads has built her audience the slow, honest way: song by song, show by show, connection by connection. She now reaches 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, has earned praise from tastemakers like Coeval Magazine and The Line of Best Fit, and recently completed an East Coast tour with fellow songwriter Jackqueline Hackett.

It’s the kind of momentum that doesn’t come from hype — it comes from resonance.

Punisher of Love isn’t trying to fix you. It isn’t trying to fix Sweetbreads either. Instead, it offers something gentler: permission to sit with the questions, to practice self‑compassion, and to recognise that the places we feel most alone are often the ones where connection is waiting.

It’s a stunning debut — tender, searching, and quietly triumphant.

Listen to Punisher of Love on all streaming platforms

Follow Sweetbreads:
Instagram
TikTok
Spotify
YouTube

Nothing But Thieves have always been a band built on connection — the kind forged in sweat‑fogged rooms, in the shared catharsis of a chorus, in the strange electricity that passes between strangers who suddenly feel like family. With their fifth album Stray Dogs, released today via RCA/Sony Music, that instinct isn’t just present; it’s the entire thesis.

“Stray Dogs is about finding your people… connecting through live music. The album is for the community we’ve built over the last decade,” the band say. And for once, that’s not press‑release sentiment — it’s the lived reality of a group who’ve spent ten years building one of the most fiercely loyal fanbases in modern alt‑rock.

The Southend five‑piece didn’t chase reinvention this time. Instead, they went home — back to Angelic Studios, where their debut took shape, and back to the DIY spirit that defined their earliest days. Rather than writing on the road, they locked in for five months and created the album together, in real time, as a unit.

The result is their most cohesive work yet: a record that feels like a live set captured in amber. Songs rise and fall like the arc of a night on stage, blurring the line between studio precision and the communal chaos of a Nothing But Thieves show.

Last year marked ten years of NBT — four albums, billions of streams, global tours, and a fanbase that treats the band less like a brand and more like a home. Stray Dogs arrives after a run of singles that hinted at the album’s emotional range: the euphoric Evolution, the title track’s rallying cry, the 90s‑leaning Baby Kool (Evelyn), and the fragile beauty of A Different Kind of Happiness.

Produced entirely by Dom Craik for the first time, and engineered by Mark Rankin (QOTSA, Iggy Pop), the album’s 12 tracks include the towering focus track #5 — a song that feels built for arenas, yet rooted in intimacy.

NBT’s rollout for Stray Dogs has been pure fan‑service in the best way: guerilla posters, cryptic YouTube drops, a secret Newcastle gig, and — in a move that feels almost mythic — three shows in three countries in 24 hours. Utrecht, Brussels, London. No pyro, no spectacle. Just connection.

It’s the same ethos behind their September out‑store tour, already sold out, bringing stripped‑back sets, Q&As, and signings to the fans who’ve carried them from tiny clubs to global arenas.

Fresh off supporting Biffy Clyro at Finsbury Park and headlining festivals across Europe, the band now look toward their biggest headline tour to date. Kicking off January 2027, it spans the UK, Ireland, Europe, the US and Canada — including Manchester’s Co‑Op Live, London’s O2 Arena, and two instantly sold‑out nights at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome.

It’s a tour built for a band who’ve quietly become one of the UK’s most impactful modern rock exports: 1.2 million album sales, 2 billion streams, multiple gold and platinum records, and a reputation for live shows that feel less like performances and more like gatherings.

For Nothing But Thieves, Stray Dogs isn’t just album five. It’s a statement of identity — a celebration of the misfits, the outsiders, the people who found each other through this band. It’s a reminder that belonging doesn’t have to be loud or dramatic; sometimes it’s just the feeling of being in a room with people who get it.

And after a decade of evolution, experimentation, and relentless touring, NBT have made something rare: a record that feels both expansive and deeply personal. A record that understands its audience because it was built with them in mind.

Out-store Tour Dates (all dates sold out):
Fri 25th Sept – London – HMV Oxford Street (signing only) 
Sun 27th Sept – Trowbridge – The Civic (Sound Knowledge) 
Mon 28th Sept – Kingston – Circuit (Banquet Records) – 6pm & 8pm 
Thurs 8th Oct – Norwich – UEA (Rough Trade) 
Wed 14th Oct – Liverpool – Content (Jacaranda)
Thurs 15th – Bristol – Prospect (Rough Trade)
 
Headline 2027 Tour Dates:
 
January 2027:
Tues 12th – Paris – Zénith
Weds 13th – Cologne – Lanxess Arena
Fri 15th – Amsterdam – Ziggo Dome *sold out*
Sat 16th – Amsterdam – Ziggo Dome *sold out*
Mon 18th – Zurich – The Hall
Wed 20th – Munich – Olympiahalle
Thurs 21st – Lodz – Atlas Arena
Fri 22nd – Prague – O2 Universum
Sun 24th – Milan – Unipol Forum
Mon 25th – Vienna - Gasometer
Wed 27th – Ludwigsburg – MHP Arena
Fri 29th – Berlin - Max-Schmeling-Halle
Sat 30th – Hamburg - Sporthalle
Sun 31st – Antwerp – AFAS Dome
 
February 2027: 
Tues 2nd – Dublin – 3Arena
Thurs 4th – Nottingham – Motorpoint Arena
Fri 5th – London – The O2
Mon 8th – Cardiff – Utilita Arena
Wed 10th – Glasgow – OVO Hydro
Fri 12th – Manchester – Co-Op Live
Sat 13th – Birmingham – bp pulse LIVE
 
March 2027:
Tues 30th – Vancouver – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Wed 31st – Seattle – Paramount Theatre
 
April 2027:
Thurs 1st – Portland – Crystal Ballroom
Sat 3rd – Oakland – Fox Theatre
Sun 4th – Los Angeles – Hollywood Palladium
Tues 6th – San Diego – SOMA
Wed 7th – Phoenix – The Van Buren
Fri 9th – Denver – Mission Ballroom
Sun 11th – Minneapolis – The Fillmore
Mon 12th – Chicago – The Salt Shed
Tues 13th – Detroit – The Fillmore
Thurs 15th – McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania – Roxian Theatre
Fri 16th – Philadelphia – The Fillmore
Sat 17th – New York – Brooklyn Paramount 
Mon 19th – Boston – House of Blues
Tues 20th – Montreal – Mtelus
Wed 21st – Toronto – Massey Hall

 
Website | Instagram | Youtube

Good Health Good Wealth are a collision of humour, honesty and North London sass, wrapped in genre‑dodging ambition. What began as a lockdown exchange of demos between two musicians searching for something more authentic, has grown into one of the UK’s most quietly explosive new acts. Their world is built on momentum, mischief and a refusal to sit neatly in any box, and this interview digs right into the heart of that energy.

Let’s start at the beginning—Good Health Good Wealth is a pretty loaded name. Where did it come from, and at what point did you realise it wasn’t just a phrase but the banner for everything you do?

We were going through so many names and everything sounded so contrived. Then I was out for a drink with some family and did a cheers to good health and good wealth and I thought, hold the bus this could be it. Felt right it was a personal thing because that’s where the songs come from.

Can you take me back to the moment you decided, ‘Right, this is a band’? Where were you in life, what were you escaping or chasing, and how different was the original vision from what GHGW has become?

For GHGW we were in another band, but me and Simon started sending loads of demos to each other around Covid time and realised we felt this was much more authentically us. I would say the sound is always evolving as it should do but the key elements from those early demos is all still there.

If we cracked open a Good Health Good Wealth track, what would we find inside—sonically and spiritually? Which artists, scenes or records sit at the core of your sound, even if they wouldn’t be obvious to a casual listener?

NERD ‘In Search Of…’ is a big one because it’s essentially a rock band played on a korg triton. That merging of worlds has always been a huge part of what we do. No one puts baby in a corner (or a genre based box).

How did this summer treat you—was it a blur of service‑station coffee and festival mud, or something more intentional? Which shows or festivals felt like real turning points for you, and did any unexpected moments stick with you?

It’s definitely been a blur, in all honesty from making ‘This Time Next Year We’ll Be Millionaires’ we haven’t stopped, intentionally to keep momentum going but also because that’s just how the bookings have gone. I think every festival with people there to see us is still unexpected at the moment to be honest but a big one was Misty Fields in the Netherlands, our first European festival playing to a massive full tent of people jumping about was very life affirming.

You’re given the keys to your own festival: Good Health Good Wealth headline one night, and you can book anyone—alive, dead, or broken up. Who’s on the bill, what’s the setting, and what kind of chaos or community are you trying to create?

Just do it at Finsbury Park for North London ease and I’d want it to be half like an England football game but then when people played the music everyone was actually watching it rather than chatting each others ears off. I’d book a totally chaotic line up of Tom Waits, young Eminem, OutKast, Oasis, Bruce Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, The Clash, Ian Dury because that’s who I’d like to see and I wouldn’t give a monkeys about anyone else!

Where are you creatively right now—are you in the thick of writing, sitting on finished music, or tearing things up and starting again? What can fans expect from the next wave of GHGW releases that they maybe haven’t heard from you before?

We just finished our new album ‘The Disco Never Ends’ so people can expect our best work yet from that! Out 16th October (Pre-Order HERE)

Tell me something surprising about Good Health Good Wealth, or about one of you that hasn’t made it into the press release version of the band yet. A habit, a fear, a secret talent…

Simon has modelled for Tom Ford which might not be big news but I actually modelled for the Dear Deidre agony aunt column in the newspaper once, which was a big turning point in my career.

Who are your true musical heroes—the ones who shaped how you think about art and life, not just sound? Can you remember a specific moment with a record, a gig, or a lyric that rewired your brain and nudged you toward doing this for real?

Plan B was probably the artist who informed my earliest music and made me think I could definitely do this, mixed with the humour of Ian Dury and Madness. Their unapologetically working class cockney thing really inspired me to believe well if they can do it maybe I can too. Jury’s still out.

You’re hosting ‘Come Dine With Me: Good Health Good Wealth Special’. What’s on the menu—starter, main and dessert—and who would cause the most chaos in the kitchen?

Simon is on a pretty strict diet of plain chicken and eggs so I suppose I’d cause the most mess. But if we’re talking like death row meal I’d go one of those pizza sized cheesy garlic breads, spaghetti and meatballs and then Sara Lee chocolate gateaux with squirty cream. Tell me that doesn’t sound absolutely quality?

Important business: what’s your favourite cheese—and why? Is there a cheese that best represents the band’s personality: loud and crumbly, smooth and underrated, or something that takes a bit of ageing before people ‘get’ it?

Mature cheddar because it does take a little bit of time to find itself, get past those early years. But once it’s there it’s actually a very universal cheese that works perfectly for so many different occasions.

If Good Health Good Wealth have proved anything, it’s that evolution doesn’t mean losing your centre, but sharpening it. From festival tents in the Netherlands to late‑night studio sessions shaping The Disco Never Ends, they’re building a universe that’s loud, funny, self‑aware and defiantly theirs. Whether they’re talking chaos in the kitchen, modelling for agony‑aunt columns or dreaming up a Finsbury Park fever dream of Tom Waits and OutKast, one thing is clear: this band is only just getting started.

Follow their sonic whereabouts via INSTAGRAM

Few heavy bands have carved their legacy as fiercely — or as vulnerably — as The Amity Affliction. Across nearly two decades, the Australian four‑piece have turned pain into catharsis, grief into connection, and personal turmoil into arena‑shaking anthems. Their music has always been visceral, emotional, and unflinchingly honest.

But their ninth studio album, House of Cards, feels like a turning point. Not a reinvention for reinvention’s sake — but a recalibration. A tightening of focus. A band stepping forward with clarity and control, and with a new voice in the room.

The arrival of Jonny Reeves — Amity’s new clean vocalist — is more than a lineup change. It’s a creative shift that reshapes the band’s sonic DNA. Reeves’ tone adds contrast and lift to Joel Birch’s trademark roar, creating moments of tension and release that feel fresh without losing the band’s core identity.

Tracks like Break These Chains, Swan Dive and Reap What You Sow showcase this dual‑vocal chemistry at its sharpest — heavy, melodic, and emotionally loaded.

If Amity’s catalogue has always been personal, House of Cards goes deeper still. Birch describes the album as “almost entirely written about my mother,” with each track pulling threads from his childhood, his grief, and the complicated emotional terrain that shaped him.

The stories behind the songs are raw:

• Break These Chains — navigating the confusion and emotional fallout of his mother’s death

• Speaking In Tongues — confronting the hypocrisy of being sent to church throughout his youth

• Afterlife — wrestling with the absence of belief in anything beyond this life

• Reap What You Sow — a continuation of that existential thread

• Eternal War — the emotional closer, capturing the persistent internal battles he carries

Birch’s writing is at its most vulnerable here — not abstract, not metaphorical, but lived‑in and unfiltered. The line “the fool is blind, the hand is dealt” lands like a thesis statement for the album: hope, disappointment, and the painful cycle of waiting for someone to change.

One of the album’s standout moments comes from an unlikely source: Jean‑Claude Van Damme. Dan Brown, watching Kickboxer on the tour bus, latched onto a line — “translated, kiss of death” — and texted Birch: “Can you write a song with Kiss of Death in it?” - Birch wrote the track in his bunk that night.

The result is Kickboxer, a blistering rejection of the religious rituals forced on him growing up — people praying over him, laying hands on him, insisting salvation was coming. It’s furious, focused, and one of the album’s clearest examples of Amity’s renewed sonic ambition.

With Dan Brown and Joe Longobardi completing the lineup, House of Cards is the sound of a band refusing to stagnate. It’s heavy, cohesive, and emotionally charged — a reminder of why Amity remain one of Australia’s most enduring heavy acts.

2026 has already been a relentless year: a regional Australian tour, global momentum, and now a huge run across Europe and the UK.

The Amity Affliction hit the road with Silent Planet, Varials, and Orthodox, bringing House of Cards to stages across Europe and the UK.

• 10 Oct · O2 Ritz · Manchester

• 11 Oct · O2 Forum Kentish Town · London

• 12 Oct · Rock City · Nottingham

• 13 Oct · O2 Academy · Bristol

Full dates run from 18 September – 13 October across Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and beyond.

Tickets are on general sale.

This isn’t just Amity’s ninth album. It’s a band confronting their past while reshaping their future. Heavy music thrives on honesty — and House of Cards is one of the most honest records they’ve ever made.

It’s Amity, rebuilt. Amity, reinvigorated. Amity, still swinging.

After more than a decade of quietly reshaping the UK’s alt‑folk landscape, This Is The Kit return with their seventh album Ghost Coat — a record that feels both intimate and expansive, rooted in friendship, ritual and the strange ways we try to make sense of the world. Released January 15th, 2027 via Memphis Industries, it’s a project shaped by community, collaboration and the soft, uncanny magic that has always lived inside Kate Stables’ songwriting.

Recorded at Rockfield Studios in the Wye Valley, Ghost Coat gathers a constellation of voices from across the band’s extended family: Richard Dawson, Sam Amidon, Ben Howard, Emma Broughton (Blumi), and Portron Portron Lopez’s Valentin and Marceau Portron. Long‑time bandmates Rozi Plain, Neil Smith, Jamie Whitby‑Coles and Jesse D. Vernon form the album’s backbone, their presence woven through the record like familiar handwriting.

Stables describes the album as a celebration of the people who make us feel anchored. “When you hear the voice of someone that means a lot to you, it can destroy you in a good way,” she says. “It makes me happy hearing all the voices, especially because of the themes of friendship.” That sentiment runs through the album like a pulse — a reminder that home isn’t always a place, but a person, a moment, a shared breath.

The album’s first single, ‘Skim A Stone’, arrives as a meditation on the rituals we cling to when life feels uncertain. Stables reflects on the tiny superstitions and repetitive behaviours that help us steady ourselves — the eyelash wish, the folded crisp, the stone that skips three times if the universe is listening.

Director Stewart Baxter leans into that ambiguity in the accompanying video, letting Stables move through objects and spaces without forcing meaning onto them. It’s a gentle, open‑ended portrait of someone “practising at life,” as Baxter puts it — a phrase that feels like a thesis for the entire album.

Home is the album’s central ghost — sometimes a physical place, sometimes a feeling, sometimes just the spot where you put your bag down. Stables, who travels frequently, describes the tug of homesickness as something that can strike anywhere, even in moments of joy. That tension — between belonging and wandering, between solitude and connection — shapes Ghost Coat’s emotional landscape.

The album’s title comes from a shadow in Stables’ new home, a phrase that echoed in her mind until it became a kind of mantra. “Ghost coat” becomes a symbol of memory, protection, disguise, and the unseen forces that accompany us. The record closes with the looping, invented phrase “gwennu betsu”, a soft sound Stables associates with soothing repetition — the kind of linguistic drift that mirrors the album’s dream‑like quality.

As ever, Stables treats language like an instrument. Words repeat, mutate, dissolve. Invertebrates and friendly garter snakes appear alongside references to Best in Show. The imagery feels impressionistic, like overhearing someone’s thoughts as they wander through a forest or unpack a suitcase in a new city.

It’s an album that invites you to lean in rather than decode — to sit with its textures, its voices, its gentle strangeness.

With Ghost Coat, This Is The Kit step into a new chapter that feels both deeply personal and quietly communal. The band will take the record across the UK, Europe and the US in 2027, bringing its themes of connection and shared experience to rooms where those ideas resonate most strongly.

The album arrives on Indie Exclusive Poltergeist Pink vinyl, a Dinked Edition Splattered Spectre vinyl with signed print, and all standard formats — a physical echo of the record’s spectral, tactile world.

Album Tracklisting

1.Safety Valve

2.Skim A Stone

3.Catcher

4.Builders

5.Lamp Post

6.Ghost Coat

7.Tiny Eyes

8.Toad In The Hole

9.Fall Away

10.Lovely Grub

11.Fiver

12.Not Enough Is Enough

THIS IS THE KIT TOUR DATES

2026
20 Nov - Les Créatives @ Salle Grand-Salève, Geneva, CH
21 Nov - Bluebird Festival, Vienna, AT
13 Dec - Duyster Festival @ Cactus, Bruges, BE

2027
26 Jan - Celtic Connections @ Fruitmarket, Glasgow, UK
30 Jan - Bristol Beacon, Bristol, UK
10 Mar - Crookes Social Club,  Sheffield, UK
11 Mar - The Glasshouse, Gateshead, UK          
12 Mar - Hangar34, Liverpool, UK
13 Mar - Coventry Central Library, Coventry, UK   
14 Mar - Junction 1,   Cambridge, UK
23 Mar - Tubby's, Kingston, NY, US
24 Mar - Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY, US
25 Mar - Warehouse XI, Somerville, MA, US
26 Mar - Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, Burlington, VT, US
27 Mar - Théâtre Fairmount, Montreal, QC, CA
29 Mar - The Garrison, Toronto, ON, CA
30 Mar - The Ark, Ann Arbour, MI, US

01-03 Apr - Big Ears Festival, Konxville, TN, US
04 Apr - Turf Club, Minneapolis, MN, US
06 Apr - Stoughton Opera House, Stoughton, WI, US
07 Apr - Constellation, Chicago, IL, US
09 Apr - The Warhol Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, US
10 Apr - Songbyrd, Washington DC, US
11 Apr - Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, US
24 Apr - Bogen F, Zurich, CH
25 Apr - Kuppel, Basel, CH
28 Apr - Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, DE
29 Apr - Frannz Club, Berlin, DE

01 May - Vega, Copenhagen, DK
02 May - Knust, Hamburg, DE
04 May - Maroquinerie, Paris, FR
06 May - De Roma, Antwerp, BE
07 May - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, NL

24 Sep - Button Factory, Dublin, IE
25 Sep - Roisin Dubh, Galway, IE
26 Sep - Live at St Luke’s, Cork IE
28 Sep - Tramshed, Cardiff, UK
29 Sep - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK

01 Oct - New Century Hall, Manchester, UK   
03 Oct - The Crossing, Birmingham, UK
07 Oct - Roundhouse, London, UK

Pamphlets aren’t a band that formed so much as they collided into existence — a Craigslist ad, a post‑Covid Brooklyn haze, and a stroke of cosmic coincidence that put Ben Griffin and Jeremy Marquez in the same room at exactly the right moment. What began as a solitary exchange of Logic files between two friends quickly grew into one of the most compelling DIY exports from the Brooklyn/Philly underground: a project shaped by post‑punk urgency, indie‑sleaze swagger, and the emotional weight of living through a world that feels increasingly off‑axis. With their new album Somewhere in Zacatecas, Pamphlets push deeper into that tension — bigger, louder, more deliberate — without losing the raw, heart‑on‑sleeve spark that made their earliest songs resonate.

You originally came together through the Brooklyn/Philly DIY scene — when did Pamphlets officially become “a band,” and what were the early conversations or moments that made you realise this project had real momentum?

Jeremy - Pamphlets originally started in Brooklyn, basically right out of Covid. We knew each other through friend groups, but it basically started out through a Craigslist ad Ben made. 

Ben - Yeah I wanted to start a new post punk band so I put up an ad in Craigslist. Only one person responded and he signed off as “Jeremy”. I was already friends with a Jeremy who loved post punk so I naturally texted him thinking he must be the guy who responded to my ad. Turns out it was him! It was clearly meant to be. Momentum wise, I first realized we had something going when people would always sing us lines from our first single “It Feels Like”. Perhaps they were playfully mocking us, but they remembered the tune so it clearly resonated.

Your sound pulls from post‑punk, indie sleaze, emo, shoegaze, and garage rock. Which artists or records shaped the DNA of Pamphlets most profoundly, and how have those influences evolved as you’ve grown?

Jeremy - Bloc Party is probably the biggest influence, along with Ought/Cola, Deeper, Protomartyr, Gang of Four. However, for this new album we really dug deep and looked back into bands from genres that we grew up with. Rival Schools, …and you will know us by the trail of dead, and VVV [Tripping you] were really big in writing this new one. 

From Cause//Effect to Somewhere in Zacatecas, how has your approach to writing changed? Are you more collaborative now, more structured, more chaotic — what’s different in the room?

Ben - It’s funny you ask what’s different in the room because essentially the difference is that we were never in the same room during the writing process. In a way that solitary back and forth allowed us to really focus on the songwriting more methodically as opposed to jamming in the studio together. 

Jeremy - I guess it’s a bit of both. C/E was very much a lightning in a bottle. We wrote the songs in the studio with our heart on our sleeves and really let out our frustrations and anxieties around us into our songwriting. SIZ still very much holds that essence but it’s a bit more contained, and I think that comes from how we wrote the songs. We live in different cities now, so we sent logic files back and forth to each other instead of jamming in a practice room. This sort of forced us to let these songs simmer and really dig deep on the message and tone we wanted to convey.

You worked with Caleb Thomas and Adam Cichocki on the new album. What did they bring out of you that wasn’t present in earlier recordings, and how did the studio environment shape the final sound?

Ben - I have a difficult time in the studio paying attention to much else besides the bass and guitars. Both Caleb and Adam are such active listeners that were key to hearing the complete composition and suggesting improvements for every individual instrument. Caleb was also very instrumental in adding textures like synths and additional percussion that we haven’t done much of in the past.    

Jeremy - Caleb’s our “fifth Beatle” at this point. He helped us shape our sound for C/E and so we knew we needed him to be involved with SIZ. He was massive in shaping every song from start to finish, really being that extra voice to help polish the sound. Adam was massive too because for this album we wanted to go for a bigger sound. Adam has plenty of experience with much heavier bands than us, but always wanted to record an indie record so it was sort of a match made in heaven.

Somewhere in Zacatecas wrestles with corruption, greed, power, and resistance. Which themes or stories were most important for you to explore, and why did this record need to exist now?

Jeremy - We’ve always written based on what’s going on around us and this time it’s no different. I don’t want to get too ‘soap boxy’ but we’re living through a time where corruption grows in broad daylight and where we are more divided than ever. This affects us personally and as musicians we write as a means to make sense of it all, expressing our anger and grief in its purest form. It’s a way of reminding us of what’s important in our lives and why it’s worth holding onto.

“Against the Forces of Nature” feels like a mission statement. What sparked that track, and how does it represent the emotional or political core of the album?

Jeremy - The name itself came from how Ben had to get his grandma’s Ford Escape from South Carolina to Philly, literally battling forces of nature with transmission issues and flooding. It’s sort of a taste of the rest of the album, heavy yet melodic, straightforward yet thoughtful lyrics. 

You’ve built a reputation for high‑energy, cathartic live shows. What dates are you playing to support the new record, and how does performing these songs live differ from how they felt in the studio?

Jeremy - In the states we only have one show in Philadelphia at Ray’s Happy Birthday bar on Sat 10/17. 

However we have a UK/EU tour set up in November that we’re excited about.

11/5 - Strongroom, London UK

11/6 - Abington Groove Records, Northampton, UK

11/7 - Bootleg Social, Blackpool, UK

11/9 - Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK

11/10 - La Binchoise, Binche, BE

11/11 - Nordstadtbraut, Hannover, DE

11/12 - Talsounds, Wuppertal, DE

11/13 - Noch Besser Leben, Leipzig, DE

11/14 - Loge, Berlin, DE

If Pamphlets were curating a dream festival, who are your three headline acts — dead or alive — and what makes each one essential to your ideal lineup?
Jeremy - Gotta do Sonic Youth, Death and Genesis. Sonic Youth has always been a massive influence for me. Daydream Nation was one of the first records I got. Death would be nuts to see, especially considering the history behind it. Genesis is my guilty pleasure,I’m a big fan of the Peter Gabriel era and watched many live shows from that era. I think it would be a vibe.

Ben - Jimi Hendrix, The Clash, Sade. The Jimi Hendrix headline speaks for itself. The Clash are my dad’s favorite band so they were probably the first punk band I ever listened to. They were highly influential for me plus they have such an extensive catalog so it would be legendary. Sade hasn’t had a live performance in over 10 years. The world needs her back.

You released ‘Spacesuits’ on September 23rd, tell me a bit more about it….

Yeah! This is Single #2 from our upcoming album Somewhere in Zacatecas. It's a bit of a different approach as we incorporated some acoustic guitar and is more somber/introspective in it's lyricism, but still very Pamphlets and sort of rounds out what to expect with the album.

For the Pamphlets “Come Dine With Me” special: what’s your starter, main, and dessert? Bonus points if the menu reflects your personalities or the mood of the new record.

Jeremy- For a starter let’s go with simply chips (crisps) and guac. Chips gotta come out of a greasy paper bag and guac has to have some kick to it. The main’s gotta be either a Hatch Chile burrito or a California Burrito. Let’s switch it up for dessert and go with an affogato.

Ben - I know affogato is Italian, but leave it up to Jeremy to slip in a word that includes “cat” in Spanish. Still, what Jeremy said is the perfect Zacatecas three course meal.

With Somewhere in Zacatecas being released into the world soon, where do you see Pamphlets in 12 months’ time — creatively, personally, or on the road?

Jeremy - I hope Somewhere in Zacatecas resonates with people, and I hope that momentum allows us to simply keep writing and playing shows.   

Ben - Oh yeah, we’ll definitely be playing more shows, hopefully some festivals, and having fun while doing it. Can’t ask for much else. Besides maybe some more affogato.

If Cause//Effect was lightning in a bottle, Somewhere in Zacatecas is the storm cloud that finally breaks — heavier, more intentional, and sharpened by distance, politics, and the strange intimacy of writing together while living apart.

Pamphlets are already gearing up for a run of UK and EU dates, but their eyes are fixed further ahead: more shows, more momentum, more songs that make sense of the chaos around them. Twelve months from now, they’ll still be doing what they do best — pushing forward, playing loud, and finding catharsis in the noise. And if the universe keeps aligning the way it has so far, they’ll be doing it on much bigger stages.

Keep up to date with their musical whereabouts via INSTAGRAM