Leave Nothing But Memories

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London four-piece, The Skints, have clawed their way up from the depths of the underground punk/ska scene to a unique fixture on the global reggae stage. Drawing influences as wide as soul, pop, grime and hardcore, their original brand of “tropical punk” has seen them evolve in to one of the hardest working and most respected bands in UK music.

Formed while at school in 2007, The Skints hail from the Waltham Forest and Redbridge boroughs of North East London, and they cut their teeth in London’s underground punk scene before venturing out of the M25 to play their first selfbooked DIY venture and embark on a heaving touring regime across the nation’s “toilet venue” circuit.

Debut album ‘Live, Breathe, Build, Believe’, released at the end of 2009, received late night/specialist rotation across radio including BBC Radio 1’s Punk Show, whilst 2012’s ‘Part & Parcel’, was the second full-length album by the band and further built their fan base and opened doors to heavy touring, festivals and markets outside of the UK and across Europe. The follow-up album, the critically-acclaimed ‘FM’, released in 2015, reached number 5 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart and number 7 on the Independent Albums Chart in the UK and saw The Skints tour relentlessly across the USA, Canada and Japan.

Since the band’s inception, The Skints have toured extensively across the globe, playing hundreds of shows and festivals including Summerjam (Germany), Dour Festival (Belgium), California Roots (US) and ReggaeSunSka (France). In the UK, The Skints sold-out their most recent 10-date UK tour including Shepherd’s Bush Empire and have performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, Bestival, Glastonbury and Boomtown Festival, performing to 15,000 fans. In addition, the band have supported bands that include NOFX, Less Than Jake, Mariachi El Bronx, Gym Class Heroes, Protoje, You Me At Six and Sublime with Rome & Easy Star Easy Star All Stars.

Their latest album “Swimming Lessons”, released spring 2019, draws on influences as sprawling as Bad Brains, Michael Prophet, No Doubt, Alton Ellis, Wiley and Weezer. From crushing heartbreak, the impending doom of Brexit, surviving as an independent musician and navigating the weird world of 2019 – all of these are proverbial “swimming lessons” life throws at us. Lyrically their darkest and most introspective release to date, it is also The Skints pushing and blurring the lines of genre to a more extreme degree than ever before. From 8-bit Game Boy influenced dancehall punk-pop to sound system shaking dub, melodic grunge to harmony laden soul and boasting collaborations from the crop of Jamaica’s brightest roots stars of today; Protoje, Jesse Royal & Runkus – Swimming Lessons is a musical ride that fully surpasses any confines of sound expected of a group from the world in which The Skints started.

Supporters of The Skints include BBC Radio 2’s Jonathan Ross, Robert Elms on BBC Radio London, Steve Lamaq and Craig Charles on BBC Radio 6 Music and David Rodigan on BBC Radio 1Xtra.

Never resting on their laurels and constantly striving to challenge perceptions of the band, Reverend and the Makers have become one of the enduring and great survivors of the British music scene. With a career spanning two decades Jon McClure and his collective of musicians burst onto the scene with their Top 5 charting debut album, ‘The State of Things’. The album spawned the UK top 10 single “Heavyweight Champion of the World”. The five albums since have seen the band move through several incarnations, sounds and line ups and experience all the highs, and most of the lows, that the music industry has to offer. Each album has reached the Top 20 of the UK album charts, an impressive unbroken run of six albums. These albums have seen them cut across a creative spectrum, ranging from collective efforts to the frontman’s singular visions. Instead, The Makers is more a sobriquet, a statement of intent, a commitment and a guiding principle that has seen McClure consistently strive to build, innovate and grow musically and artistically. The Reverend’s story is one of the great survival stories of the music industry as charisma, talent, defiance and sheer willpower sees the band start a new chapter reenergized and raring to go. With a point to prove, with ‘Heatwave In The Cold North’, Reverend And The Makers set about the task in hand armed to the teeth with an arsenal of their biggest, best and most accessible and ambitious songs to date.

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Formed in 2004 The Pigeon Detectives are Matt Bowman on lead vocals, Oliver Main and Ryan Wilson on guitars, Dave Best on Bass, and Jimmi Naylor on drums. The band enjoyed a meteoric rise starting in Leeds where they released their first single in 2005 with Leeds label Dance to the Radio, then growing into the UK Music scene rapidly with debut album ‘Wait for Me’ that landed all over Radio Playlists and hit number 3 in the charts, eventually selling platinum. The album featured singalong hits like ‘I’m not Sorry’, ‘Take Her Back’, ‘I found out’ and ‘Romantic Type’. Second album ‘Emergency’ (led in by Top 20 single ‘This is an Emergency’) also charted in the Top 5 selling Gold, and 3 further albums followed.

A live act that always brings an energetic show packed full of indie bangers, The Pigeon Detectives recently went out on a packed anniversary tour to celebrate 10 years of ‘Wait for Me’ in 2017. A regular on the festival scene the Pigeon’s songs have stood the test of time as have the audiences which are a mix of all ages and testament to a band that has big tunes in the streaming age.

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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.

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Change can be volatile, overwhelming, wonderful and heartbreaking – but above all else, it can open a portal into a new season of life. The past few months for Nieve Ella have felt similar, as though everything turned on its head and time started to move faster by the day. Out of all this comes the 21-year-old’s transformational new EP Watch It Ache and Bleed, a collection of invigorating indie-rock anthems brimming with raw feeling; it’s the sound of a young, determined woman ready to go out into the world with a whole new perspective on what ambition and desire mean to her.

In just two short years, the West Midlands singer-songwriter has galvanised a legion of devout fans thanks to her wit and electrifying stage presence. An accomplished self-taught guitarist with a finely-tuned ear for a soaring hook, Ella’s lyrics recall the candid songwriting of Sam Fender. By writing astutely about growing pains, unfiltered impulses and those first real, unexpected breakups with sincerity and flair, she extends a helping hand to listeners going through similar journeys of growth.

Melding Nineties influences such as Liz Phair and Veruca Salt with an innate ear for pop melodies, Watch It Ache and Bleed details the rocky road of heartbreak in eviscerating detail. Yet the EP also celebrates courage, and the bravery required to realise you’re not quite getting what you deserve. “The person I was with… it was quite lovely and wholesome,” she says. “But when I was realising that I shouldn’t be in this relationship anymore, I was like: ‘Oh, I want to do all of the fun stuff’. The things a 21-year-old should be doing.”

The last time you heard The Big Moon was welcoming the release of their dazzling second album, Walking Like We Do, back in January 2020, when life was very different. That was a coming of age record, with bold songs for Saturday nights and sad songs for Sunday mornings. So much has changed and continues to change. And in this world of constant change, we yearn for something familiar. Thankfully, we can continue to rely on the unique, jubilant, unassailable bond that sews this brilliant London band together.

Like so many records landing in store and on streaming services right now, their forthcoming record Here Is Everything was conceived during the weight and worry of lockdown in a pandemic. Lives became seismically different, whilst every day a carbon copy of the last. So, whilst Covid pulled the duvet tightly up over our heads, it was also the unlikely backdrop to welcoming new life. Vocalist Juliette Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent, but she ended it as mother to a super little human being.

Here is Everything documents the arrival of that baby in real time, and the simultaneous arrival of a new mother, full of excitement and fear. Meanwhile, the rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules’ embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes.


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!


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In British towns where nothing much besides real life happens, there’s enough peace to form plans and the abundant energy, momentum and initiative to fuel all notions of escape. The K’s, Merseyside’s four-strong, rousing, real-world-documenting indie phenomenon, brought up in a town caught between other places, used every benefit and drawback of out-of-the-way youth to create their adored, masterpiece debut album, I Wonder If The World Knows? and watch as it reached the Top 3 of the UK Official Album Chart at the first time of asking.

It’s a success made of belief. A success catalysed by the achievements of sell-out UK-wide tours, cresting with a 3,700-capacity ‘homecoming’ at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, being handed the Best Breakthrough Act award at the 2024 Nordoff Robbins Northern Music Awards (aka The Northern Brits) and reaching major festival stages, including their Glastonbury debut in 2024, in addition to main stage appearances at Leeds, Reading and Isle of Wight Festivals, Camp Bestival, Kendal Calling and more. Knowing just those small parts of their story, who would have bet against The K’s turning out to be the band so many lost music lovers, young or old, cut adrift on seas of similarly staid suburban life, have been anxiously waiting for?

Beyond the plaudits and awards, beyond the radio play across BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Radio X and Absolute Radio and beyond the more than 2 million streams per month is the connection to a battalion of fans, many who have been there since their emergence in 2017. Circling a band that’s endlessly grateful for their support, so many more have caught the bug since. Speaking to NME in April 2024, front man and songwriter, Jamie Boyle, revealed that the band sees, in numerous exchanges between fans and kind words they receive directly, repeated confirmations that The K’s music has provided salvation in times of trouble. “That is worth more than any Number One ever could be,” he said. “We’re literally having a massive effect on people’s lives.”

Bands can do that. The K’s, made up of Boyle (vocals/guitar) Ryan Breslin (guitar/keyboards), Dexter Baker (bass) and Nathan Peers (drums), forming in Earlestown in 2017, have become one of those bands, yet the romance in their story doesn’t include any lines dedicated to overnight success. Quite the opposite. Giving a black eye to any critics of guitar-based indie as unintelligent or unambitious, The K’s debut single in 2017, Sarajevo, delved into the history books to find an unlikely formula of upfront, festival-ready songwriting and 20th Century European political upheaval. From the start, The K’s had gone beyond the ordinary.

Despite growing rapidly through regional venues (hitting the 1,000-capacity Manchester Academy 2 in 2019 after a handful of indie releases, including with Alan McGee’s Creation23 label), the band has released just their one, first and only album. What happened in the seven years from Sarajevo to I Wonder If The World Knows? Patience is what happened. “I’m really glad we’ve taken our time, and not rushed into anything,” said Breslin when questioned by Celeb Mix on the album campaign trail earlier this year. “I remember back in 2020 we were all feeling a bit frustrated because we felt like COVID had really set us back, but in hindsight, I think taking that little bit of a step back from everything was a smart move.”

In a world that’s always thinking one step beyond today, The K’s have taken care to live in the moment and craft songs that mean something to them and so much other people. Marquee singles from their album, No Place Like Home (600,000 Spotify streams) and Heart On My Sleeve (800,000 Spotify streams) rush with ambition yet are grounded in lyrical realism, offering as much open-hearted vulnerability and honesty as cranked-up, celebratory expressions of optimism. Giving it away line by line, such as on No Place Like Home – “Oh, but when it rains, then it pours / and I’m not moaning / I just want my serotonin levels / back to what they were before” – Boyle and the band have gained their listeners’ admiration, trust and loyalty by virtue of them holding up a mirror to the realities of their shared lives. It’s their authenticity that has counted the most.

In the same conversation with NME, Boyle opened up on the personal nature of the songs on I Wonder If The World Knows? confiding in the journalist, saying: “I feel like people can tell when someone isn’t being authentic. I want those songs to give people hope as well. It’s still a sensitive thing to talk about but a lot of the songs are about my battles with mental health. I’m living my dream every single day but there are plenty of times where I’ll feel like absolute shit. Maybe if people see that, it’ll make whatever they’re going through seem less scary.”

Disparate influences make up The K’s sound, having quoted Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, The Clash and The Jam most regularly as legends they admire and have, at one time or another, given them the motivation to pick up their instruments and create something new. In supporting Blossoms at their biggest ever outdoor show in summer 2024, stepping onto a stage before a potential 30,000 people, or accompanying Liam Gallagher as his Malta Weekender, The K’s will take up any opportunity undaunted. Knowing they have earned the right to be there, while honoured to be recognised by their peers, their destiny was mapped out by determination, faith and carrying each other over the line when it looked like the end of the road when, in fact, they were looking towards the horizon.

“I remember playing to my dad and two of his mates who weren’t even watching us,” said Breslin, in an interview with the Official Charts website. “Thank God we stuck at it through those times. If you believe in what you’re doing and love it, f**king stick at it!”

Our favourite band are back on the Main Stage!