Midge Ure has never been the type to sit back and let his legacy do the heavy lifting. For someone who helped define entire eras — from the icy synth drama of Ultravox to the cultural earthquake of Live Aid — reinvention is a habit, and in 2026, he’s stepping into yet another new chapter.

A cold Wednesday night in Torquay shouldn’t feel this electric, but The Foundry was already buzzing long before the first chord rang out. Two full-sized tour buses were parked outside like visiting titans, hinting that this wasn’t just another midweek booking — this was a triple‑hit of rock ’n’ roll delivered by bands who live for the road. Inside, the crowd packed in shoulder‑to‑shoulder, shaking off the workday as Rubikon, Michael Monroe and Buckcherry prepared to turn an ordinary night into something loud, sweaty and unforgettable.

There’s a moment, right at the start of Jakobo, where a saloon‑bar piano clinks into life like someone nudging open a door to a dimly lit room. It’s a tiny gesture, but it tells you everything about where Die Twice are heading. This is a band unafraid of space, mood, or mystery — a four‑piece who understand that tension is often more powerful than noise.

Dead Chic’s debut album always felt like a world you stepped into rather than a record you simply played. Serenades & Damnation arrived in 2024 as a fully formed universe — all widescreen shadows, desert‑heat tension, and that unmistakable blend of grit and elegance the band seem to conjure without breaking a sweat. Now, with a deluxe edition landing on 27 February 2026, they’re not just revisiting that world. They’re widening it, deepening it, and letting a little more of the darkness seep through the cracks.

"Hello, is that Kscope Records? Yes, I'd really love to hear some songs by Mansun - you know...'Being a Girl'? 'Wide Open Space'? Yeah, that's them. But for some reason I don't want to listen to the existing, perfectly fine albums that were released. Do you happen to have some lazy, half-arsed reworkings, maybe done by the lead singer of the band...yeah, a sort of vanity project, I guess...What's that? 'Mansun Retold'?...Sounds absolute cack. It's out now, is it? OK, I'll give it a listen, cheers."

Drug Church will top the bill of Burn It Down Festival this year, as they disembark from a historic run in support of Deftones, and after a huge 2025 playing on tour with Blink-182, Alkaline Trio and Drain. The band has grown a cult-like following after a breathtaking run of impassioned and thumping albums, and their appearance at Burn It Down is a match made in heaven.

There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when an artist on the cusp of something seismic steps onto a stage that feels bigger than the moment itself. That’s the energy brewing around Jacob Alon’s newly announced appearance at TK Maxx presents Live at Powderham, where they’ll join Lewis Capaldi for two summer headline shows that already feel like a dream come true.

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.