Download 2026: “Bigger, better, louder than ever.” With the capacity increased by 20,000, it seems the punters agreed. For me, this journey started decades earlier, a one‑day Monsters of Rock in the early nineties, headlined by AC/DC and Metallica, plus a 14‑hour round trip from Penryn in Cornwall. So how would a four‑day camping marathon with ten times the number of bands stack up? We set off in the rain on Thursday to find out.

The Snuts are stepping into a new era, and they’re doing it with clarity, heart, and a renewed sense of purpose. Today, the West Lothian four‑piece announce their fourth studio album, Joy In Short Moments, landing 23 October via Happy Artist Records in partnership with Virgin Music Group. Alongside it comes a brand‑new single, ‘Defibrillator’, a euphoric, drum‑driven jolt of life that sets the tone for what might be their most personal work to date.

Blossoms are back in technicolour, unveiling their brand new single “Meet Me In Love”, a shimmering, disco‑kissed rush of romance, alongside a cinematic video starring none other than Maya Jama. It’s the band at their most playful, most widescreen, and arguably their most instantly addictive in years.

The second single from rising singer‑songwriter Bella Cutts does more than just build on the momentum of her debut, it sharpens her voice, her perspective, and her place in the new wave of emotionally intelligent pop. Curious is a bright, rhythmic, quietly devastating look at modern connection, wrapped in a hook that refuses to leave your head.

HENGE don’t do things by halves. The Manchester cosmic‑rock travellers have announced the most ambitious mission of their decade on Earth: a 75‑date world tour spanning the UK, Europe, Canada, the USA and Mexico, with even more territories still to be revealed. For a band who’ve built their reputation on euphoric, intergalactic live experiences, this feels like the moment everything goes supernova.

Fletchr Fletchr are having a moment, and they know it. Fresh from the momentum of last autumn’s breakout EP We All Feel the Same, the fast‑rising indie outfit return with ‘Fucking With My Head’, a widescreen, emotionally charged new single that cements their reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting young guitar bands.

A bruised, funny, painfully honest ode to pub gardens, purgatory, and the tiny joys that keep us going.

Trashcan Sinatras have always occupied their own corner of the musical universe — a place where poetic lyricism, intricate guitar work and emotional honesty quietly outshine trends. With Melodramatic, the latest reveal from their forthcoming seventh album Ever The Optimist, the Irvine‑born five‑piece prove that time has only sharpened their instincts.

Macclesfield’s Dead Wells have been a name whispered around the North West for months, the kind of band people talk about before there’s even anything to stream. Sold‑out Manchester shows, early backing from sharp‑eyed promoters, and a signing to rising label Home Taping all helped build the rumour. Now the curtain finally lifts with Stain, their first official release, and it lands like a blunt impact.

London indie-pop stalwarts Spearmint are back, and they’re not just releasing another record. They’re unveiling a full-blown story. Their new album ‘Chase Me’, out 24 July 2026 via WIAIWYA Records, is a bold, ambitious concept piece that folds thriller, allegory and emotional resurrection into one of the band’s most imaginative works to date.

And it all begins with a dancefloor in 1986.

Two of the most disruptive forces in the US rocktronic movement, HIGHSOCIETY and Micah Martin, have reunited for their most explosive collaboration yet. Their new single ‘Tomorrow’s Over’ is a blistering fusion of metal riffs, EDM power, and emotionally raw vocal work that pushes the hybrid genre into even heavier, more ambitious territory.

Olivia Rodrigo has entered a new chapter, and she’s kicking the door off its hinges. Today, the GRAMMY‑winning, multi‑platinum phenomenon releases her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, a record that finds her leaning deeper into vulnerability, chaos, humour and heartbreak than ever before. It’s out now via Geffen Records, accompanied by a wave of limited‑edition merch, vinyl variants and curated collectibles that are already flying off shelves.

The Black Country duo, vocalist Joe Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, have spent the last few years tearing through the UK’s underground with a sound that fuses working‑class fury, bleak humour and bruised tenderness. Now they return with a full UK winter headline tour and a brand‑new EP, O’JOY!, out now via SO Recordings.

Kodaline have never been a band to shy away from emotion, but their newly announced fifth, and final studio album We Were Only Young feels like something deeper. Out October 2nd via Concord, the record marks the end of a journey that began over a decade ago with In a Perfect World, taking the Irish quartet from intimate acoustic beginnings to global stages and platinum‑selling success. This time, though, they’re signing off with a collection shaped by reflection, closure and the kind of life changes that force you to take stock of everything you’ve built.

The Jacksons’ 2026 UK tour lands at the perfect cultural moment. With the recent Jackson 5 biopic pulling audiences back into the raw, relentless, and often heartbreaking rise of the world’s most famous musical family, this tour arrives like a living epilogue. A chance to see the legacy not as a museum piece, but as something still breathing, still moving, still dancing. This November, Manchester, Cardiff, Wolverhampton and London will feel that legacy up close.

Motörhead never did nostalgia, but when the past hits this hard, you make an exception. The band have just unleashed ‘Be My Baby (Live at Lowlands Festival 2007)’, the second track lifted from the upcoming 20th anniversary edition of Kiss of Death, landing 3rd July on expanded double LP and 2CD.

With just three months to go until Mucky Weekender throws open the gates at Vicarage Farm, the beloved independent festival has dropped another heavyweight announcement, and it’s a big one. DJ Yoda and X‑Press2 are officially joining the party, bolstering an already stacked 2026 bill.

Devon’s enigmatic alt‑rock collective Gravity Machine have never been a band to colour inside the lines. Hailing from the wilds of Dartmoor and the creative sprawl of Totnes, they’ve built a reputation as the best cult band you’ve never heard of, a group whose music blends alt‑folk, electronica, hard rock, metal and widescreen cinematic textures into something unmistakably their own.

Rodrigo y Gabriela have never been afraid of ripping up their own rulebook, but their newly announced album OurHome, arriving 18 September via ATO Records, might be their boldest pivot yet. Written and recorded in Japan, shaped by grief, rebirth, and a deep creative reset, and launched with a music video drawn by manga titan Naoki Urasawa, this is the duo stepping into an entirely new dimension - and honestly, it suits them.