Record Store Day Black Friday 2026 takes place on Friday 27 November, with exclusive titles available from participating independent record stores across the UK and Ireland from 8am.

The boat that rocks (Thekla) played host to Violet Grohl as she celebrated her debut album, Be Sweet to Me, with her first Bristol headline show. Having already sold out several grassroots venues across the UK, anticipation was understandably high.

Independent musicians releasing music between gigs and day jobs often feel the same pinch: online presence growth seems to demand constant output, yet every post can feel like shouting into the void. The core tension is staying visible without burning out or slipping into content that doesn’t sound like the artist behind the songs. With the right mindset around consistency in content, clearer storytelling, and creative engagement strategies, digital music marketing becomes less of a grind and more of a repeatable practice. Momentum comes from building trust, not chasing noise.

David Bowie’s legacy takes centre stage as Bowie80 launches a year-long worldwide celebration

From chart-conquering rap star to one of Britain's most relatable public voices, Professor Green is taking his story back on the road.

Swedish folk favourites First Aid Kit return to the UK and Ireland in 2027 with their intimate Visions of the Past tour, celebrating nearly two decades of music, deep cuts, fan favourites and brand-new songs in a family affair not to be missed.

Few young bands have spent the last couple of years generating the kind of momentum that surrounds Man/Woman/Chainsaw. Emerging from London's fertile experimental underground and steadily transforming curiosity into genuine devotion, the six-piece now find themselves at a pivotal moment. With their debut album Cannonball freshly released via Fiction Records and a new run of UK dates set for May 2027, the band are no longer the exciting newcomers everyone is talking about. They're becoming a serious force in British alternative music.

Few contemporary songwriters possess the linguistic dexterity, emotional candour and theatrical presence of Edinburgh's Hamish Hawk. Since emerging as one of Britain's most compelling lyrical voices, Hawk has built a reputation for turning introspection into art, balancing literate storytelling with post-punk energy and sharp social observation. Now, with the announcement of his forthcoming album Intriguer / Tenderness, due for release on 2 April via SO Recordings, Hawk appears ready to venture deeper than ever into the darker corners of his own psyche.

"As of December 31st 2027, Enter Shikari will fall dormant as a recording and performing entity.  
This dormancy may eventually end with an eruption back into activity, or may end with extinction.  
We have no idea which."

Three decades after redefining drum & bass and claiming the Mercury Prize, Roni Size Reprazent are bringing the groundbreaking New Forms album back to life as a full live experience.

Few bands have left a mark on alternative music quite like Joy Division. More than four decades after the release of Unknown Pleasures and Closer, their influence continues to ripple through post-punk, indie, alternative rock and beyond. Now, fans will have the chance to experience those landmark records performed in full when Peter Hook & The Light arrive at Sunderland Fire Station on Friday 21 May 2027.

Sometimes setbacks become the catalyst for something greater. For FRIEDA STAR, losing the rights to their former band name could have been a devastating blow, wiping out years of hard-earned momentum and a loyal following overnight. Instead, the South West quartet channelled that frustration into a fresh identity and renewed purpose. Built on longstanding friendships, shared experiences and a collective love of music that refuses to sit neatly in one genre, FRIEDA STAR combine jagged indie energy, sharp storytelling and working-class heart. We caught up with the band to talk about starting over, musical influences, pub quiz failures, questionable French cheese, and why staying connected to ordinary people remains central to everything they do.

Few reunions have been greeted with the level of excitement that has accompanied Gene's return. What began with a handful of comeback shows quickly snowballed into sold-out venues, culminating in a triumphant night at London's Eventim Apollo and proving that the band's music still resonates deeply with audiences more than three decades after their debut. Ahead of two special October dates at Camden's Roundhouse, where Gene promise two nights and two distinctly different sets, we caught up with frontman Martin Rossiter to discuss revisiting the catalogue, reconnecting with his bandmates, and why thousands of voices singing songs written in their youth still feels as thrilling as ever.

Some bands set out with a carefully mapped plan; others discover their path as they go. For Black Doldrums, the journey has been one of instinct, experimentation and constant evolution. What began as a shared love of music between Kev and Sophie has grown into one of the UK's most compelling dark alternative acts, drawing from post-punk, gothic rock, shoegaze and electronic influences while always sounding unmistakably like themselves. With the release of Repetition Compulsion, the final instalment of their ambitious State of Mind Trilogy, the duo have brought a years-long exploration of obsession, longing, memory and identity full circle. We caught up with Kev and Sophie to talk about the band's origins, the hidden connections that shaped the trilogy, the creative process behind the new album and what lies beyond this defining chapter.

There’s a particular kind of quiet that arrives before a turning point — not the peaceful kind, but the charged, disorienting hush that forces you to listen inward. For SOAK — the Irish singer‑songwriter Bridie Monds‑Watson — that silence wasn’t metaphorical. It was real, physical, and frightening. An autoimmune disease stripped away their ability to sing, leaving a void where their voice, livelihood, and identity once lived.

Some exhibitions feel like events, others feel like homecomings. Ronnie Wood: The Jimi Hendrix Portraits manages to be both, a vivid collision of memory, music, and art unfolding inside the very walls where Hendrix once tuned up, hung out, and felt most himself.

There’s a particular electricity that runs through Newcastle whenever a major name in British dance music rolls back into town — that sense that the night ahead might just become one of those stories people tell for years. This December, that charge is about to hit again. After ten years away, Rudimental are finally returning to the city, stepping into NX Newcastle for an exclusive DJ set that marks a new chapter in their evolution.

Mallory Knox have always been a band defined by momentum — three Top 40 albums, festival main stages, a reputation for emotional intensity and alt‑rock anthems that cut through the noise. But their new single “Afterglow” marks something rarer: a genuine rebirth.

Five years ago, two teenage siblings stood side‑stage at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, nervously waiting to play their first ever show as The Molotovs. They were the unknown support act, buskers with big dreams, opening for The Libertines. On Saturday night, they returned to the same room — this time as headliners — and walked straight into the kind of moment bands spend whole careers chasing.

The Snuts have never been a band afraid of big feelings, but their new single ‘PTS’ lands with a different kind of weight — not the stadium‑sized catharsis they’ve mastered, but something more internal, more human, more quietly seismic. It’s the penultimate track written for their upcoming fourth album Joy In Short Moments (out 23 October via Happy Artist Records / Virgin Music Group), and it arrives as a meditation on self‑belief, generational trauma and the long, slow work of forgiving yourself.