Buckle up tight kids and pop a condom on, for it’s time for the 2026 Brit Awards (aka The Brits…aka, a bunch of bands and artists whose record labels have paid through the nose for an award that means jack-shit unless you’re a 14 year old teeny-bopper who lives for Sabrina Carpenter or Olivia Rodrigo). 

Gorillaz have always lived in the space between worlds — between the virtual and the human, the cartoon panel and the global stage, the absurd and the achingly sincere. But with the release of their new album The Mountain and an accompanying eight‑minute animated short, the band’s universe feels more tactile, more soulful, and more defiantly hand‑made than it has in years.

There’s a particular kind of honesty that only ever seems to come from bands who’ve spent years grafting in vans, back rooms and borrowed floors. PET NEEDS have always been one of those bands — scrappy, self-aware, and allergic to the idea of smoothing their edges for anyone. Their new single “Ducklings”, taken from the forthcoming album Elbows Out! This Is Capitalism, might be their sharpest distillation of that ethos yet.

Isak Danielson has always written like someone unafraid to sit with the ache. His songs don’t rush to resolve heartbreak or dress it up—they linger in the quiet, complicated corners of love. With Always You, released today, the Gothenburg singer‑songwriter turns that instinct inward once again, offering a beautifully restrained meditation on the relationship that could have been, and the version of himself that lived inside it.

Two decades after Creamfields first planted its flag in the fields of Daresbury, the UK’s biggest dance weekender is gearing up for a milestone year — and the 2026 line-up reads like a love letter to every era the festival has shaped, championed, and outlasted.

Wage War have never been shy about where they come from, but their newly announced EP It Calls Me By Name feels like the moment they drag Florida’s wild heart straight into the centre of their sound. Landing 17th April 2026 via Fearless Records, the five‑track release promises a heavier, more primal strain of the band’s signature metalcore — a homecoming soaked in humidity, hostility, and the kind of natural aggression only the Deep South can breed.

Del Amitri are stepping into 2026 with a tour that feels less like a run of shows and more like a living retrospective. The newly announced Past To Present UK Tour marks forty years of songs that have threaded themselves through car stereos, student flats, heartbreaks, road trips, and the quiet corners of everyday life. It’s a celebration of a band who have never chased trends, never lost their melodic instinct, and never stopped meaning something to the people who grew up with them.

stepbrothers’ new single Bones + Gristle doesn’t just mark the start of their debut album cycle, it feels like the moment the London duo finally step out from the wings and announce themselves as one of the most quietly ambitious DIY bands in the capital. What began as scrappy, lo-fi experiments between two not-actually-related brothers has sharpened into something bigger, stranger, and far more narratively charged. This is the sound of a band levelling up without losing the charm that made them magnetic in the first place.

There’s always been something slightly otherworldly about The Dream Machine — a band who treat the Wirral coastline not as a backdrop but as a portal. Their songs feel like dispatches from a parallel seaside town: one where the arcades never close, the fairground lights flicker with supernatural intent, and the ghosts of old jukebox 45s whisper through the salt air.

For a decade, Shambala has been the UK festival world’s most reliable meat‑free utopia — a place where the smell of frying onions never hides a burger, and where the ethics of your lunch are as much a part of the experience as the music, circus tents, or late‑night wanderings through neon‑lit woodland. It’s a festival that didn’t just remove meat; it built an identity around that decision.

Two decades after they first gate‑crashed the UK indie landscape with awkward charm, razor‑edged wit and a sound that felt like post‑punk fed through a blender of suburban surrealism, Young Knives are returning to the record that started it all. Their Mercury‑nominated debut Voices of Animals and Men turns 20 this year — and the band are marking the occasion with a full UK tour celebrating the album’s strange, spiky brilliance.

Michael Monroe unleashed the unapologetic and electrifying third single ‘Shinola’, taken from the recently released studio album Outerstellar, which landed on Friday, February 20th via Silver Lining Music.

Download Festival has never been shy about scale, but DLXXIII is shaping up to be one of those rare years where the booking feels less like a lineup and more like a statement of intent. Today’s second wave announcement adds 14 new names to the Donington pilgrimage — and it’s a mix that captures the full, chaotic, genre‑bending energy of heavy music in 2026.

Every summer, the UK fields a curious crop of “heritage festivals” — those one‑ or two‑day nostalgia blowouts built around acts who once ruled the charts, usually sometime between the mid‑80s and the early 00s. They’re colourful, chaotic, occasionally charming… and sometimes a little tragic. Depending on which decade you pledge allegiance to, they’re either a warm hug from your youth or a slightly desperate attempt to squeeze one more drop of relevance from a long‑retired era.

As the Prestbury Hills roll into summer, Wychwood Festival returns to Cheltenham Racecourse from Friday 29th May to Sunday 31st May 2026, marking a huge milestone — its 20th anniversary. Two decades of music, laughter, workshops, late‑night singalongs, and that unmistakable Wychwood warmth.

Multi-million streaming, UK-based PRESIDENT operates at the intersection of heavy music, electronic experimentation, and cinematic atmosphere. Refusing to conform to the traditional structures of genre or identity, PRESIDENT prioritises intent over image.

Gogol Bordello have never been a band to sit still. Across decades of border‑smashing punk, diasporic storytelling, and sweat‑drenched live shows, they’ve built a reputation for constant reinvention — a group forever mutating, forever restless, forever charging toward the next sonic frontier. With their new album We Mean It, Man! the New York‑via‑Ukraine collective double down on that instinct, emerging with their most distilled, electrified, and defiantly future‑leaning record in years.

There’s something about the Cavern on a Sunday night that feels like stepping into a parallel universe — the low ceiling, the soft amber glow, the sense that anything could happen once the first chord rings out. As I walked in, the room was already humming with familiar faces from across Exeter’s alternative scene, including members of bands and DJ’s from the Exeter Phonic FM station. It felt less like a gig and more like a reunion — the kind where everyone’s older, wiser, and still clinging proudly to the DIY spirit that the Cavern has championed for 35 years.

Shindig has always been one of those festivals that feels like a secret garden — a place where the boundaries between rave, roots, funk, family-friendly chaos, and late-night mischief blur into one long, sun‑drenched weekend. This year’s edition, running across the late May Bank Holiday, looks like its most eclectic yet. Seven stages, a sprawling creative village, a holistic sanctuary, and a lineup that swings from bass-heavy mayhem to brass-driven joy — Shindig is the kind of festival that rewards curiosity.

Below is a guided tour through the artists lighting up the weekend, plus a look at the wider world of Shindig and who it’s perfect for.

Few British bands have carved their place in the country’s musical and cultural fabric quite like Levellers. Nearly four decades on from their formation, the Brighton folk‑rock icons remain a vital, fiercely independent force — and in 2026 they’re marking a major milestone. Their seminal, platinum‑selling second album Levelling the Land turns 35, and the band are celebrating the only way they know how: by taking it back to the people.