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.

Alfie Templeman is gifted musician, producer and songwriter who, at only 21, can only be described as a bonafide polymath. Almost entirely self-taught as a producer and musician (playing eleven instruments) and with over 300,000,000 streams worldwide and touring sold-out dates across UK, Europe, Japan, Australia & USA, Alfie has released a string of EPs, debut album “Mellow Moon” and just announced his second album “Radiosoul”.

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.’

They say the bonds formed as teenagers are the strongest. In that case, Wales’ main
contenders The Royston Club are an unbreakable unit, formed in Wrexham by schoolfriends
Ben Matthias (Guitar), Tom Faithfull (lead vocals, guitar) Dave Tute (Bass), later adding Sam
Jones (drums). After the lineup was complete, things moved fast: they hit the ground running,
performing a run of high-energy gigs in their hometown, self-recording and releasing demos
to an ever-expanding and devoted fanbase.

In 2021, they signed to Run On Records (home of The Coral), quickly making their mark by
releasing debut single Coasting, which reached no.10 on the official vinyl charts. Their sound
was established: anthemic indie hooks, life-affirming melodies and ragged riffs – songs to
soundtrack your life. Support slots soon came, with the likes of Jamie Webster, Blossoms and
The Academic, bookended by their own raucous headline tours. More studio time followed in
Chapel Studios, Lincoln; sessions which would eventually produce debut album Shaking
Hips And Crashing Cars, rocketing to number 16 on the official album charts, selling out of
all physical formats and subsequent special editions.

In the time after, things snowballed. They sold out London’s Koko, conquered Glastonbury
three times, headlined Focus Wales, and picked up Hollywood actor and Wrexham FC owner
Ryan Reynolds as a fan. Intermittent time on the road provided experience, space in which to
write. In early 2024, they went to Kempston Street studio, Liverpool, with producer Richard
Turvey (Blossoms, The Coral) for a session that led to last month’s critically acclaimed
comeback single The Patch Where Nothing Grows, showing a new depth to both the band’s
songwriting and performing, paving the way for an album to be confirmed later in the year.

In the meantime, the band’s rigorous work ethic continues; namely with slots at Portsmouth’s
Victorious festival, a couple of European dates, headlining both This Feeling’s Bridlington
By the Sea and Stockton’s Gathering Sounds festival, Liam Gallagher’s Malta Weekender,
and two shows at Liverpool O2 Academy, both of which have already sold out. If the
Royston Club are about to go skyward, then The Patch Where Nothing Grows is the perfect
launchpad.

Hand-break off, Sports Team are back. With musical pedals to the metal and saxophones at full throttle, a river of halogen glows golden and an incisive critique of latter-day capitalism burns through the haze as the six-piece’s new single ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ glides into view.

A song not only born to float out of car stereos, but one to question the mass-produced, brand-obsessed cultures that create them.

Carpooling with the likes of Trust-era Elvis Costello, city-pop icon Mariya Takeuchi and Bryan Ferry shimmering with all his Roxy Music sophistication, ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ merges thematic lanes with Prefab Sprout’s ‘Cars And Girls’, to deliver an updated exploration of cynical sting lurking behind the new car dream, though with a power steering assuredness Sports Team embrace the musical spirit of ‘the road’.

“The mood of the first verse and the chorus is quite sincere, a Hollywood-inspired, teenage love song,” explains guitarist and lyricist Rob Knaggs, “but by the time we get to the second verse, we’ve found the worm in the middle of that apple. All the symbols of teenage rebellion, the car itself, have all been co-opted into selling something that can’t actually be bought. It’s that classic, Freudian-drenched symbol of a middle-aged bloke in a sports car, wearing his racing gloves as he goes through a crisis. A real corporate, capitalised view of masculinity that is divorced from reality or what might genuinely be cool.”

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.

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.”

“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.

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.