How many bands have the career longevity to release ten albums? They might have
been perilously close to falling apart on various occasions in their history, but the
Dub Pistols have rolled with the punches and are now gearing up to release their
tenth album in early 2025.

It’s been a long road travelled, full of twists and turns, but with their legion of faithful
fans and numerous collaborators and friends the Dubs are in a better place now than
they’ve ever been with a new album, their own festival, a documentary, a book and
more international tours on the horizon. These renegade Pistoleros are unstoppable.

With fourteen top 40 singles and four top ten albums in almost forty years, the Inspiral Carpets were built to last. The reformed classic jukebox band continue their musical journey, selling out tours and underlining their undying popularity whilst creating a platform for a rumoured new album to add to their set, which is dotted with inventive big songs built around their signature Farfisa and perfect harmonies that always brings the house down.

Their hit singles underlined their electric, eclectic creativity from the punk rock rushes of Joe to the melancholic kitchen sink dramas turned into huge hits like the glorious This Is How It Feels. Then there are the soaring choruses of Saturn 5 or the thrilling pop/noise of I Want You with the late and great Mark E. Smith lending his classic snark sneer to the song. 

Far from being one trick ponies, the Inspirals brought a musical sophistication and a poetic language to much loved sixties garage rock and updated it into every decade they have existed in. Their albums gave them even more space to stretch out, starting with their debut 1990 Life, which catches the mood of that great musical year, followed up by the adventurous stretching out on 1991’s Beast Inside and 1992’s Revenge Of The Goldfish and then their final top 10 album of their first phase, 1994’s Devil Hopping which saw them somehow make sense in the middle of Britpop which they had already paved the way for without sounding out of place and out of time.

In the late eighties, the Inspiral Carpets were a key part of the crucial three Manchester bands that changed the musical landscape in the UK. Along with the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, they were the cornerstones in a new indie psychedelia that played out in many different ways. Madchester reshaped the cultural, sartorial and sonic landscape of Brit indie and would then be reinvented as Britpop – the mid nineties scene dominated by Oasis, the band formed by their roadie – a young Noel Gallagher whose on the road education from the Inspirals was crucial to him.

With their roots going back into punk and then shaped by the weird and wonderful post-punk underground, the Inspirals were as enthralled by the sixties garage rock Nuggets albums as they were by late night John Peel sessions. Their early gigs saw a shifting lineup and a dedication to psyche with lava lamp light shows and melodies and the electric rush of garage rock to match.

They organised themselves on stage into a great live band and off the stage into a cottage industry with their brilliant merch masterstrokes like the ‘cool as fuck’ T-shirt, and a long way from jumping on the baggy bandwagon, they were the pioneers of the new northern scene and the first band to break out of the city’s next wave of bands after the Smiths. 

Whilst other legends were finding their way, they were grabbing four Peel sessions and touring the UK. They did the spadework for this new kind of Manchester with their lysergic tinged songs built around great hooks and becoming instant pop classics. The Inspirals always knew how to write a killer chorus, and when everything went supernova, they peppered the charts with hits.

In fact, they had some of their biggest hits in the early nineties before retiring the band and entering various well respected roles on the music scene before the urge of playing again overtook them. They first reformed in 2011 with original singer Stephen Holt that saw a return to their punkier roots. Three years later, they released a new eponymous comeback album before the tragic passing of drummer Craig Gill in 2016 saw them knock it on the head, as guitarist Graham Lambert explains.

‘After Craig passed we were all broken. We could not play as a band. For years I walked past my guitars at home thinking that used to be my thing and for some time I envisaged never playing them again’.

Therefore it was a surprise to hear in 2023 that the band had decided to reform again which was greeted with an adulation that surprised Clint Boon. 

‘When we made the decision, in the autumn of 2022, to get the Inspirals back on the road, none of us could have imagined the incredible reception we would get, not just in the UK, but in all the other countries we were lucky to visit. It’s heart-warming to know that our music still resonates with people of all ages after all these years.

The 2023/24 chapter of the Inspirals was, for me, one of our finest moments in the band’s history. Having convinced myself that we’d never record or tour again after Craig’s death, I appreciated things more than ever this time around. I think we all did. Having Oscar along on bass was an absolute joy and Kev’s drumming is a revelation. Without Oscar, Kev and Jake Fletcher, I believe this reunion might not have gone so well.’

The new line up played 50 plus sold out shows and key festival slots with one of the high points being Albert Hall in Manchester where Craig’s son Levon Gill drummed on Commercial Rain during the encore. They also headlined Shiiine Festival for the second time in 2023 to celebrate the just released The Complete Singles double vinyl album. 2024 saw more headline shows and a huge sold out tour with fellow travellers the Happy Mondays and Stereo MCS which included 3 sell out shows at the legendary Glasgow Barrowlands. They also played the wonderfully named Devils Arse Cave in Castleton as well as Bedford, Lytham and Beautiful Days Festivals.

Now back as a serious full time band, next year sees even bigger shows and the great news that the band’s bassist Martyn Walsh is back in the fold. ’It’s great to have Martyn back, I’ve missed him: he’s charmingly funny’ smiles Graham before Clint adds, ‘It’s great that Martyn’s getting back on board, and I’m convinced the next part of our story will be monumental’

Original vocalist who returned in 2011, Stephen Holt:

‘I’m really excited about the next chapter for the band. Having Martyn back is brilliant, it’s like finding your favourite pair of slippers that have been missing for a while. I’m sure our fans will be really excited as well and will really look forward to more gigs and new tunes as much as we are’.

The bassist is thrilled to back in the band that he was such a key part of, “Guess who’s back? Back again…” I’m re-energised, and raring to get back onstage and in the recording studio once more. For me, the past few years have had their fair share of upset and uncertainty but there was one constant – the songs need to be heard! Huge thanks to Oscar and Jake for playing the songs impeccably in my absence, and to Kev…Welcome to the Engine Room!  

With their much loved back catalogue and new songs ready to go, 2025 will see the Inspiral carpets in rude health as their guitarist explains, ‘We are looking at another year of Greatest Hits shows but with new material on the way. The last two years has reminded me what our songs mean to people and we love playing those songs and can’t wait to play the odd new tune as well.’

Legendary 70s folk-rock pioneers LINDISFARNE return to form with a classic five-piece line up of long-time members fronted by original founder-member Rod Clements on vocals, mandolin, fiddle and slide guitar. With a repertoire of unforgettable songs like Meet Me On The Corner, Fog On The Tyne, Lady Eleanor and Run For Home and a reputation for live performance second to none, LINDISFARNE’s power to galvanise festival and concert audiences remains undimmed and is guaranteed to get the crowd on its feet and singing along.

“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since my last album, but I’m so excited to be back doing
what I love the most,” beams Pixie Lott. “I’m taking risks this time. Previously, I’ve sung
other people’s songs and gone in the direction others have envisioned for me but nobody
really ever pushed me to try the things I wanted. Maybe, I even thought I wasn’t worthy
of doing that. It’s scary but I’m going with my heart now – I want to show other sides of
myself.”

It’s a surprisingly bold, admirably vulnerable statement to make, not least coming from a
star who’s already achieved so much in so many different mediums. Since selling 1.6
million copies of her 2009 debut album Turn It Up, Pixie has notched up three UK No.1
tracks, sold in excess of four million singles, secured four BRIT nominations, won 2 MTV
EMA Awards, all while collaborating with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Pusha T, Jason Derulo
and Lionel Richie. Elsewhere, she has fronted campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana, performed
at Fendi’s Paris Fashion Week, judged The Voice Kids (coaching four winners to victory!)
appeared as a guest judge on The X Factor and more. Despite all of this success, Pixie
knew she needed to make a big change for her next chapter. She needed to finally take
full control of her career.

Meet Maxïmo Park: 20 years young and, now, eight albums deep in a career that – without hesitation, repetition or deviation – has been consistently thrilling, as perennially invigorating a blast for the head, as it is the heart, as it is for the feet.

So it is with Stream Of Life. Working with their customary self-imposed poetic efficiency, the northeast-based trio wrote throughout 2023 then booked a European tour for autumn 2024 – before they’d recorded the songs. “That’s how confident we were in this album,” jokes drummer Tom English. Only then did they arrange a pacy three weeks’ recording time, in Atlanta, Georgia, for January this year. “We almost book these things in to push us to come up with something fresh.”

Throughout Scouting For Girls’ immensely successful career they’ve sold over two million albums,two million singles, had four Brit Award nominations, an Ivor Novello nomination, had four top ten singles, sold-out Wembley Arena, The Royal Albert Hall and most recently sold-out two nights at The London Palladium and had a series of hit singles all of which were inescapable radio smashes. Scouting For Girls continue to prove they are unstoppable.

The past 2 years have been an unprecedented year in so many ways. And like many of us,
indie-pop band Scouting For Girls initially responded by surrounding themselves with sources
of comfort and escapism, things from what felt like a simpler time. Going back to the music
and culture of their childhoods in the 1980s, the band regrouped in 2020 during what should
have been a summer of festivals, and the result is a joyous album of 80s covers alongside
some incredible new tracks, and an optimism that 2021 could be everything that 2020 was
not! This rained true for the group as they have just completed their 42 date UK and Ireland
tour amidst the pandemic in 2021.

Roy commented; “Touring is our very favourite aspect of being in this band and to go
out longer and harder than ever is a dream come true. We’re going to put 2020 behind
us and put two years of pent-up energy into every night of this tour – We can’t wait to
give people the most fun night out of 2021”

During the lockdown’s, Roy had time to extend the bands repertoire, reimagining of some of
the biggest songs from the 80s. ‘Easy Cover’, their latest album release, is a joyous celebration
of that golden era of music with Scouting For Girls revisiting their favorite childhood musical
moments, from Tears For Fears, The Waterboys, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Phil Collins
and much more.

“We’re not trying to do justice to these songs! That’s impossible. We’re just trying to
have fun and take them out on the road to give people the night out they deserve
after 2020!”

However, it’s not just covers and Roy (who has songwriting credits with One Direction, Five
Seconds of Summer & The Vamps) was soon inspired to write some original material inspired
by the decade. Upcoming single ‘I Wish It Was 1989” (“An anthem for 2020!”) and album
closer and new single ‘Xmas In The 80s’ (“A nostalgic longing for when Santa was called
Father Christmas) are already set to be Scouting fan favourites and show Roy’s unique
songwriting at its very best.

Global pop icon Daniel Bedingfield is thrilled to announce his UK live return in 2024 to celebrate over 20 years of classic album ‘Gotta get Thru This’. His highly anticipated tour, his first since 2005 will see Bedingfield revisit his chart-topping anthems that have soundtracked millions.  

Kiwi born / South London raised Daniel Bedingfield is a multi-platinum award-winning singer, songwriter, and record producer who became one of the most beloved pop artists of his generation. His debut album and Grammy nominated single, “Gotta Get Thru This,” became an instant international hit. Apart from helping push garage into the mainstream Daniel spawned numerous hit singles, including the iconic pop ballad “If You’re Not The One”, “Never Gonna Leave Your Side”, “Nothing Hurts like Love”, and “James Dean.”

Since moving to LA and travelling the world the last few years, Daniel has been a judge on The X Factor New Zealand, performed with Fred Again… in NYC and has been working on new music. Watch this space for news to come.

From heart-wrenching ballads to the infectious dancefloor grooves Bedingfield’s musical journey has spanned over two decades, delivering countless hits that continue to resonate with fans across generations. This tour is a celebration of that legacy and will give fans the chance to experience these epic songs live once again.

ELVANA – THE WORLD’S FINEST ELVIS FRONTED TRIBUTE TO NIRVANA! From the bowels of Disgraceland, Rock & Roll icons of the afterlife are raised from the dead! Rock & Roll meets Grunge as Elvis fronts Nirvana and gives the band the front man it’s been missing since ’94. Elvana tear through Nirvana’s catalogue whilst splicing in grunged up sections of the king of rock & rolls finest moments, culminating in a whopper mash up of overdrive & old school Rockabilly. It smells like cheeseburgers and teen spirit, daddy-o!