Succulents didn’t arrive with a grand plan or a neatly packaged origin story — they bloomed slowly, quietly, almost accidentally, the way the best indie projects often do. What began as Laurie Hulme’s years‑in‑the‑making lofi sketches eventually found their shape during lockdown, then found their voice when Lucy returned to Manchester and stepped into the frame. Together, they’ve built a duo that feels both deeply personal and wonderfully unpretentious: cassette‑backed, melody‑forward, and anchored in the kind of DIY charm that can only come from someone who’s spent decades obsessing over songs, tunings, and the strange magic of making music on your own terms.

Echo & The Bunnymen have never been a band that simply continues. They endure, they mutate, they brood, they blaze. And now, twelve years since their last album of new material, they’ve returned with Apples For Isaac — a record that feels less like a comeback and more like a reckoning.

Clifton Downs, Bristol | Saturday 29 & Sunday 30 August 2026

There are festivals that feel like a collection of stages, tents and artists, and then there are festivals that feel like a city has temporarily relocated itself onto a hill.

FORWARDS is very much the latter.

LOSERS have never been a band that followed a straight line, and in this conversation with Tom Bellamy, that winding journey comes sharply into focus. From the ashes of The Cooper Temple Clause to late‑night Berlin sessions, from remixing The Prodigy to rediscovering creativity through an old piano bought on eBay, Tom traces the band’s evolution with disarming honesty. Across themes of transformation, experimentation, emotional rebirth and the strange alchemy of long‑term collaboration, this interview digs into the DNA of a group who have spent years shapeshifting their way into something unmistakably their own.

Two decades after Costello Music crashed into the UK charts and cemented The Fratellis as one of the country’s most infectious indie‑rock exports, the band are preparing to celebrate its 20th anniversary properly — even if the party is arriving a little later than planned.

Young Knives have always thrived on being the outsiders — the art‑rock misfits who somehow gate‑crashed the mid‑2000s indie boom with sharp suits, sharper riffs and a sense of humour that cut through the noise. Now, two decades on from the album that made them cult heroes, the band are stepping back into the spotlight to celebrate the record that changed everything.

Joy Crookes has always written like someone who sees the world in widescreen — soul, jazz, R&B, politics, identity, the messiness of love, all folded into songs that feel lived‑in and unmistakably hers. With ‘Painkiller’, her new single featuring Florida rap innovator Denzel Curry, she sharpens that instinct again, delivering a track that feels both intimate and cinematic, bruised and bold, nostalgic yet unmistakably forward‑facing.

Dolours arrive with the kind of name that already feels like a mood — heavy, atmospheric, and slightly tongue‑in‑cheek in the way only a Midlands‑born band could pull off. Formed in early 2026 on a Shrewsbury industrial estate that might as well have been designed for post‑punk incubation, they channel frustration, humour and emotional abrasion into something sharp, danceable and defiantly odd. Their early singles have begun rippling through the Midlands alternative scene, carried by a sonic palette that swings from breakcore to hardcore and every “core” they can physically play, stitched together with a mischievous self‑awareness that makes Dolours feel less like a new band and more like a fully formed world.

Gold Cup are a three‑piece built on fast riffs, loud instincts and the kind of dry humour that could only come from a band forged in Manchester’s scruffy rehearsal spaces and late‑night pub corners. They’re a group who treat mythology with a wink, punk with reverence, and the idea of “being a band” with the sort of chaotic enthusiasm that makes everything feel alive. From writing their first track in a jam room to accidentally driving to the wrong city on tour, Gold Cup operate on instinct, noise, and a shared love of anything that rattles the bones. This interview digs into the origins, influences, misadventures and future plans of a band who are clearly having far too much fun to slow down.

Against The Current have never been a band to sit still. Across fifteen years, the New York‑born trio have shapeshifted from teenage pop‑punk hopefuls into one of alternative rock’s most globally recognised, fiercely self‑driven outfits. Now, with their third album Till Death & Back arriving on 30th October 2026, they’re stepping into their boldest, most thematically charged era yet — one built on fate, fire, and the versions of ourselves we leave behind.

Tom A. Smith isn’t slowing down. If anything, the 22‑year‑old songwriter is accelerating — expanding his sonic universe, sharpening his creative identity, and proving that Put On A Record Tommy was never a closed chapter but the start of something far more elastic, theatrical, and defiantly his own.

Walt Disco have never been a group to sit still. Even in the UK’s ever‑shifting alt‑rock landscape, the Glasgow five‑piece have carved out a space that feels defiantly their own — theatrical, emotionally exposed, and gloriously unbothered by genre boundaries. But their new single, ‘Don’t Do This Alone’, marks a deeper shift: not just a sonic evolution, but a moment of reckoning.

We caught up with MERYL STREEK literally 2 minutes after he came bounding off the main stage on the Sunday afternoon, he had a smirk on his face that said it all….

The Punk Rock Museum is opening a new exhibition, it’s cracking open a portal into the beating, blown‑out heart of Motörhead. On October 2nd, 2026, Las Vegas becomes the latest city to raise a glass to Lemmy Kilmister, the patron saint of volume, velocity, and absolute musical conviction. And this isn’t a polite retrospective. It’s a full‑throttle immersion into the life, legacy, and sheer sonic force of one of the most influential bands to ever shake the foundations of rock.

Prayers Electric don’t waste time pretending to be bigger than they are. They don’t need to. The Manchester-based duo have carved out a sound that feels oversized, unruly and gloriously physical, all built from one split guitar, one drum kit and two musicians who simply refused to stop turning up.

Neverskin have never been a project that stands still. Across their first three singles, the Dutch rising‑star outfit carved out a reputation for emotionally charged heaviness, songs that felt both intimate and immense, built on a foundation of raw guitar power and melodic instinct. But their new single ‘Consumed’, arriving this Friday, September 4, marks the moment everything shifts.

With Cyber Celt arriving 18 September, CHASING ABBEY have expanded their world tour, added intimate in-store performances, and doubled down on the cultural fire that’s been building around them for the past decade. What’s unfolding now feels less like a traditional album rollout and more like a full‑scale movement.

“About Face” has to do with the change of direction the band took when Chris (drummer) and Andrew (bassist) joined NOTNORTH and we began to work together to create a new sound. It was like something clicked into place. And the idea of a turning also feels apropos to the concept of NOTNORTH at large. “About Face” also feels right for the touches of glam, the queerness, and the “giving face” so many of our community enjoy.

Burn It Down Festival has always had a knack for putting established names alongside the bands who look destined to become tomorrow’s headliners. Spread across Torquay’s grassroots venues, the festival feels less like a traditional festival and more like a city-wide celebration of alternative music, intimate, energetic and gloriously loud.

Evanescence have never been a band that simply releases a song — they release a feeling. And with “Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough”, the latest single from their upcoming double‑vinyl album Sanctuary, they’ve dropped one of their most confrontational, self‑possessed statements in years. Filmed on the road during the band’s 2026 North American tour and directed by Eric Richter, the video captures Evanescence in their most natural habitat: under lights, under pressure, and utterly unshakeable.