When we sat down for an hour‑plus conversation—recorded just two days before their sold‑out album launch at The Underground on Mutley Plain—we roamed through the full landscape of who they are and how they’ve carved out their place in the South West scene. From the moment they explained how they finally settled on that band name, to the origins of their formation, to the way they describe their genre‑bending sound, nothing was off the table.

Three decades after they first detonated onto the late‑90s landscape, Republica are stepping back into the spotlight with a full UK tour across October and November 2026 — a run that promises to reconnect fans with the fierce, neon‑lit energy that made them one of Britpop’s most distinctive forces.

Burn It Down Festival has dropped a seismic announcement for its 2026 edition: Australian hardcore heavyweights Speed will headline the Saturday of the seaside weekender, bringing a no‑barrier set to Torquay’s English Riviera.

A reunion, a revisiting, a revival: whatever you want, you can pretty much have. Four men on the wrong / right side of 50, plus the perennially cool Mick Talbot emerge blinking but defiant. There’s no new LP to plug, no biography - you can’t even call it payola like that recent Pistols charade. Above all, the songs are what matter and, my goodness, the quality and depth is scrawled all over the stage in blood, sweat and all of the years gone by since the mid-1990’s. 

South‑West London’s Slaney Bay have always had a knack for capturing the quiet moments — the glances, the hesitations, the emotional static that sits between two people who haven’t quite said the thing they’re both thinking. With their new single That’s Cool, the rising alt‑indie four‑piece lean even further into that intimate territory, bottling the fluttery uncertainty of a friendship that might be something more.

There’s a particular kind of magic that comes out of Wakefield. It’s scrappy, unvarnished, charming in a way that never tries too hard — and Charlie Padfield might just be its purest modern export. One man, one guitar, and a knack for turning everyday struggle into something that feels mythic. If you’ve ever caught him live, you’ll know: he doesn’t so much perform as channel something. One minute he’s all high‑energy grit, the next he’s dropping into a pin‑drop hush that pulls a whole room into his orbit.

Spend five minutes in an online fan group and you’ll learn more about human tribalism than any psychology textbook could teach you. I discovered this the hard way after daring — daring — to suggest Muse’s new track might not be the second coming of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. What followed was a digital pile-on of biblical proportions, complete with gatekeeping, gaslighting, and the kind of blind devotion usually reserved for cult leaders and dodgy wellness influencers. All because I said a song was a bit shit.

Four decades after they first plugged in and rattled the British indie landscape, The Wonder Stuff are gearing up for a celebration worthy of their legacy. October 2026 will see the band hit the road for an extensive 16‑date UK tour — a full‑throttle victory lap that stretches from Newcastle to Brixton Academy, with a setlist built to remind fans exactly why this band became such a defining force in alt‑rock.

Download Festival has always been a place where the riffs are heavy, the crowds are loyal, and the legends feel right at home. But over the past few years, something stranger — and frankly, more delightful — has been brewing on the fringes of Donington Park. District X, the festival’s late‑night fever dream of chaos, comedy, nostalgia and pure communal joy, has grown into a world of its own. And for 2026, it looks set to eclipse everything that came before it.

British progressive metal musician Grace Hayhurst is gearing up for a milestone moment this spring, announcing her first-ever headline show at London’s iconic Black Heart on March 26th. It’s a well-earned step forward for an artist who has spent the past few years quietly, and fiercely, carving out her own corner of the UK prog scene.

Exeter on a Friday night can be a mixed bag, and this one leaned towards the quieter side — unless you stepped into the Cavern. Outside, clusters of smokers huddled under the streetlights, eyeliner thick and gender‑neutral, swapping pre‑gig predictions. Inside, the venue was its usual self: smoky, dark, and bathed in that unmistakable sleazy red glow that makes the Cavern feel like an underground metal bar lost in time.

Melanie C is entering a new era — and she’s doing it with her gloves up, her chin high, and a beat that refuses to back down. Today she unveils ‘Undefeated Champion’, a soaring, club‑ready anthem that captures the heart of her forthcoming ninth studio album Sweat. It’s Melanie at her most euphoric, her most defiant, and arguably her most fun in years.

There’s something special about the way summer settles over Powderham Castle. The air gets softer, the estuary glows, and the whole estate feels like it’s waiting for music to roll across the grounds. This June, TK Maxx presents Live at Powderham returns for four huge nights — and organisers have just revealed a wave of upgrades designed to make the South West’s biggest outdoor music event smoother, greener, and more accessible than ever.

Brighton’s underground has a habit of spitting out artists who don’t ask politely for space — they carve it out with a grin, a glare, or a guitar. Cello, the classically trained cellist turned post‑punk provocateur, arrives with exactly that energy on her debut single “Vitamins”, released on International Women’s Day 2026. It’s a date loaded with symbolism, but Cello isn’t here to offer empowerment platitudes. She’s here to poke the bruise.

Across a wide‑ranging and candid conversation with Adam Kennedy, Randy Blythe, frontman of LAMB OF GOD reflects on a year that was meant to be quiet but became anything but — from releasing his second book and touring a spoken‑word show to recording Lamb of God’s new album Into Oblivion. He digs into the dual meaning behind the record’s title track, the loss of regional music scenes, and the formative punk influences that still shape his worldview. Blythe revisits the band’s rise from Richmond’s underground to global stages, unpacks the social commentary behind new songs like “Parasocial Christ,” and looks ahead to a packed touring schedule that includes a return to the UK for Bloodstock. It’s a conversation steeped in history, honesty and the restless creative energy that has defined his three decades at the mic.

There’s a particular kind of magic that happens when two artists who’ve admired each other from afar finally collide. All I Did Was Dream Of You, the new single from Beabadoobee featuring The Marías, feels like the moment that long‑imagined creative chemistry finally crystallises — a soft-focus daydream rendered in widescreen.

There’s a particular kind of intimacy that arrives quietly, long before you’ve realised you’ve let someone all the way in. On Tarragon’s new single ‘Tucked In Despair’, Callum Pickard captures that moment with a tenderness that feels both fragile and strangely vast — the sound of someone learning the shape of their own heart in real time.

There’s a particular electricity that follows Millie Manders and The Shutup around the UK — a kind of kinetic, brass‑flecked, punk‑charged weather system that seems to gather force with every tour. And this spring, that storm is rolling straight back into the South West.

With their new album Into Oblivion looming on the horizon, Lamb of God have taken a moment to look inward — and homeward. Their latest single, Blunt Force Blues, is a gritty love letter to Richmond, Virginia, the city that shaped them long before they were packing arenas or racking up Grammy nominations.

Bleachers are back in motion, rolling out their new single “Dirty Wedding Dress” — a track that folds all the band’s familiar heart‑on‑sleeve energy into something raw, romantic, and beautifully frayed at the edges. It lands ahead of their fifth studio album, everyone for ten minutes, due 22 May via Dirty Hit, and follows the shimmering recent single “you and forever.”