Dermot Kennedy has always written like someone carrying the weight of the world in his chest — but on The Weight of the Woods, that weight finally feels shared. Released this week via Island Records, his third album is a return to the source: the land, the folklore, the quiet corners of rural Ireland that shaped him long before the stadiums and streaming numbers did.

The Meffs have carved their path the hard way — DIY releases, zero industry backing, and a stubborn refusal to soften their edges. Now, with UK radio finally paying attention, a rapidly growing hometown festival, and their angriest album yet on the horizon, the duo are stepping into a new chapter without losing the fire that got them here. In this candid conversation, Lily and Lewis talk streaming pennies, punk politics, touring chaos, and why Business might be their most urgent work to date.

There’s a particular kind of band whose sound feels less like a collection of songs and more like a weather system rolling in. South West psych‑gaze quartet COSM have been quietly building that reputation over the past few years — and this spring, they’re taking it on the road for their ‘Black Holes’ UK Tour, celebrating the release of their shimmering new single Black Holes.

Dry Cleaning have always occupied their own strange, magnetic corner of British guitar music — a place where deadpan poetry, wiry riffs and surreal emotional snapshots collide. With their third album Secret Love already hailed as “a surrealist masterpiece” and earning Album of the Week/Month nods across the board, the London quartet are stepping confidently into a new chapter. And now, ahead of a huge run of European, UK, North American and Australasian dates, they’ve dropped a brand‑new single: ‘Sliced by a Fingernail’.

Inside Bristol Beacon, the demographic was unmistakable: this was a gathering of the musically seasoned. The majority of the audience were 50+, the generation who lived through the acid‑jazz explosion the first time around. And honestly, it suited the room. A seated show initially felt surprising, but as the night unfolded, it became clear that the setup offered the best of both worlds — space to dance, space to breathe, and space to soak in musicianship without distraction.

For most people, a gig is a night out. For Glenn Morrison, it became a decade‑long document of a community in motion — a living archive of sweat‑fogged rooms, raised fists, and the kind of catharsis only Frank Turner can summon.

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. We caught up with Grace to find out a bit more about her and the show itself.

There are gigs that feel like a booking, and then there are gigs that feel like a moment. The Bluetones landing at Things Happen Here firmly belongs in the latter camp — a full‑band, electric, up‑close show from one of the UK’s most quietly enduring indie institutions, right in the heart of Dartington.

When Iron Maiden announced they’d be taking over Knebworth for a full weekend in July 2026, the rock world already felt the tremors. But with the latest additions to the bill, EDDFEST has transformed from a major anniversary event into a once‑in‑a‑lifetime pilgrimage for Maiden fans — and a rare chance to see the band on UK soil before they disappear from the country’s stages until at least 2028.

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.