London music

London music

Many years ago, I was rehearsing with a band in a rehearsal room in New York. From the next-door studio came the sound of a series of some of the biggest disco hits known to man. Within a few minutes we were happily chatting to the members of the legendary KC and The Sunshine Band. If you're not old enough to remember them, KC and The Sunshine Band were huge in the 1970s selling over 100 million records worldwide.

The gig will be the band's first performance together since a five-night run at the London Palladium in 2019.

Every now and again, a scene seems to be bubbling up out of nowhere, and all of a sudden, everyone is talking about it. That is what's happening with the U.K. underground right now. Fakemink is the rapper that you need to know from that world. You might have seen him popping out at Wireless Festival with Drake. This my dog right here.

English National Opera opens its 2025-26 season with a new production of Rossini's sparkling comedy La Cenerentola (Cinderella). With conductor, director, and both leads all making their ENO debuts, the feel is fresh and fun in a production set in a contemporary world but with moments of magic plus white mice, a pumpkin, a ghost and even a glass slipper, even if Rossini's version of the story involves matching bracelets.

Noughties emo titans My Chemical Romance have announced a huge UK tour to celebrate 20 years of landmark album The Black Parade. Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero and Mikey Way are bringing their Long Live The Black Parade tour to stadiums around the world - and next summer there will be several dates here in London. Wembley Stadium will host the band's only UK dates in the Long Live The Black Parade tour, and the shows will be in July 2026.

"I've come to realize over 24 years that I enjoy making music," Cocker says. "It's a main source of enjoyment. I mean, I enjoy being with my wife and stuff like that. But in terms of creativity, it's my favorite thing to do."

Lad rock is officially back. And the return of beer-soaked, riff-heavy, chorus-yelled rock ain't ending when Oasis' final Wembley gigs wrap up this weekend: next summer Kasabian have announced their biggest ever London headline show at Finsbury Park. Serge Pizzorno and co will be in north London next July, and they're the first headliner announced for Finsbury Park's series of gigs next summer. In 2025 the park was headlined by the likes of Fontaines DC, Stereophonics and Slayer (plus Drake at Wireless).

I was living in fear of the next fucked-up experience, he says. Sitting in a store room above the London venue his band Militarie Gun will later fill with shoutalong aggro-pop energy, the singer is jetlagged but animated as he puts himself back there, his sandy hair peeking from beneath the hood of his sweatshirt. Twice, my bus pulled up as an ambulance pulled away from our house, he continues.

The Regent Sounds recording studio on Tin Pan Alley in London was famously used by Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones between the 1960s and early 1980s. Now, having been walled up and lain silent for decades, it is being brought back to life through a multimillion-pound investment that will turn it into a landmark site for rock'n'roll, jazz and blues,

This autumn, the Magic Flute returns to the Royal Opera House stage in a revival of David McVicar's acclaimed production. Running from 10 October to 3 November 2025, the Royal Opera House celebrates the 400th performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute, one of the most popular operas ever written. Mozart's coming-of-age story about true love and the search for wisdom is a repertoire staple of The Royal Opera and is always a crowd-pleaser.

You know how it is. You got your phone, I've filmed it and gone, 'Look at the state of this garden. I'm going to sort this garden out'

After a year away, the ice rink is heading back to Somerset House for another winter of festive fun and they've got a whole new series of Skate Lates events on for 2021. As well as spinning around the rink during the day, you can take to the ice once night falls as they play host to an array of DJs, artists and clubs. It's a truly diverse programme with the likes of Jaguar, Foundation FM, and CLyde Built Radio taking to the decks.

The 19-year-old, part of an emerging wave of UK underground rap getting hyped up like the '03 NBA draft class, has bags under his eyes. His hair is in a messy bun. He's wearing a wrinkled white tee, a colorful scarf he bought off Depop, black skinny jeans, and house slippers with the heads of stuffed teddy bears on the top.

In an overcrowded pop market, where artists are encouraged to maintain a constant presence and stream of what's depressingly termed product, south London singer-songwriter Joy Crookes's career has progressed in a curious series of fits and starts. After releasing a series of EPs, she ended 2019 as a hotly tipped act: appearances on Later With Jools Holland, nominated for the Brits Rising Star award, placed high in the BBC's Sound of 2020 poll, invited to support Harry Styles on tour.

At 19 years old, Debsey Wykes stood in front of a sold-out crowd at London's Hammersmith Odeon, her knees literally knocking with fear, as she puts it. It was the end of 1980 and Dolly Mixture were supporting the Jam for a second time, having piqued the interest of Paul Weller. Despite the shaky start, the teen trio made it through the set to appreciative applause.

BST has had quite the run of huge-name country headliners over the last few years. Zach Bryan, Shania Twain and Morgan Wallen have all headlined the Great Oak Stage in recent editions. Brooks' concert next June will be his first appearance in the UK in nearly 30 years. That's right, three decades. That's a hell of a long time for the best-selling solo artist in US history to have not played the UK. He last performed here in 1998.

Swag Age is set in a fictional version of the Joseon Dynasty (Korea's last Imperial Dynasty that ended in 1910). The central theme is a classic one, with oppressed citizens using a subversive art form to rebel against their rulers. Yet it's one with contemporary. This is Swag Age's power and beauty: it's a creative collaboration between the old and the new, combining differing cultural references.

Radiohead have always strived to protect their audience from exploitative ticket touts which, in the absence of robust government legislation, becomes increasingly challenging, said the band's manager, Julie Calland. Fans will be encouraged to stay away from secondary sites and we will work alongside venues, promoters and organisations like FanFair Alliance and FEAT [Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing], to shut down unauthorised sales at inflated prices tickets that for the most part, don't actually exist.

A teenage Marty McFly races to fix his parents' past and save his future in this thrilling, high-energy stage musical adaptation of Back to the Future. Winner of Best New Musical 2022, Back To The Future The Musical is a trip back to 1955. Normally at 2025 prices, there's a sale on at the moment, which means some performances are nearly half-price.

Waiting at a stoplight, there's sometimes a brief instant when all the turn signals of the cars in front of you sync together. Maybe you were zoning out, watching your windshield wipers, listening to the soft murmur of the radio, but in that moment, you snap to attention. What might be even more satisfying is when they begin to pull apart from each other again, creating an increasingly complex sequence.

Reid, born in Cambridgeshire, England, had a uniquely resonant and soulful voice with an enormous range that earned him the nickname "Superlungs." He was a coveted figure among the arena-rock titans of the era - even vocal powerhouse Aretha Franklin once claimed in 1968 that "There are only three things happening in England: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid." Reid first found local success in the teen rock group the Redbeats, and soon joined the band Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers.

Alder looks faintly amused, then reminds me she's been at Glyndebourne doing three performances of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro every week since the end of June. In fact, she was on stage as the Countess barely 12 hours earlier. It's never-ending, she says. I don't want this to come across negatively it's been the most amazing contract but an extremely long run.

Rick Davies, the co-founder, singer and songwriter of British band Supertramp, has died after a long battle with cancer, the band said Monday. He was 81. Davies, who co-wrote the band's music with Roger Hodgson, was the voice and pianist behind Supertramp's most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history, the band said in a statement on its website.

Since 2022, Coldplay have embarked on multiple international legs of their "Music of the Spheres Tour," which has become the first rock tour (and second tour ever) to gross over $1 billion. According to frontman Chris Martin, however, they're not done with this tour just yet, promising a massive slate of Coldplay shows to come in 2027. "This tour has 138 more shows to go," Martin told audiences during the band's penultimate show at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday, September 6th.

Arijit Singh is set to become the first Indian-born artist to headline a UK stadium when he heads to London for his only European date of 2025. Described by the BBC Asian Network as "one of the most popular and beloved playback singers in India", the 38-year-old's music is listened to by nearly 50 million people a month, according to Spotify. The vocalist, whose music often features in Bollywood films, is performing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Friday.

When Guy Fawkes was preparing to blow up the Houses of Parliament all those centuries ago, he probably didn't foresee that 420 years later, thousands of Londoners would gather on a hill, serenaded by a Dolly Parton tribute act, watching hundreds of drones make cool neon shapes in the air to celebrate the failure of his plot. That's exactly what'll be happening in a few months time, though.