The rest of the lineup will include Arooj Aftab, Greentea Peng, Overmono, Kokoko, Cass McCombs, Lee Fields, Yeule, Dungen, and many more. More further details about the lineup will be here.  Regarding tickets, this year’s edition of End Of The Road has proven to be the most successful “fastest selling yet” though a very limited number of tickets are still available, confirmed by organisers. It is currently on sale but on the fourth tier, as tiers, 1-3 have been sold out. Further information regarding deposit schemes will also be available here.

The wait is over, folks. Say hello to our first wave of acts playing #EOTR2023.

Undisputed kings of neo-psychedelia, @kinggizzard synth-pop disruptors @futureislands psychedelic pop four-piece @UMO and indie rock icons and Grammy Award winners @Wilco and many more.

(1/3) pic.twitter.com/veMsYRRzw7

— EndOfTheRoadFestival (@EOTR) January 31, 2023

This year marks history for two major artists in a while. It will be the first time that King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard make an appearance 6 years prior to this year’s lineup. Singer-Songwriter Angel Olsen’s appearance at End Of The Road will be the first time in a decade.

End Of The Road owner, Simon Taffe expressed his thoughts about this year’s lineup. “This year’s lineup excites me beyond words. I feel so lucky to be able to bring my record collection to life! King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Future Islands, Angel Olsen, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ezra Furman have put on some of my favourite live performances over the years and more recently Arooj Aftab, Greentea Peng and John Francis Flynn have blown me away.” 

He continued, “End Of The Road is all about discovery, and I can’t wait to welcome a whole load of amazing new acts that have never played before like Biig Piiig, Flohio, Floodlights, Horse Lords, Infinity Knives and Brain Ennals, Moin, They Hate Change and a lot more! As always we will be doing everything we can to  make it the best year yet, with plenty of surprises to come.” 

Last year, in a five-star review of End Of The Road 2022, NME wrote, “It’s deeper into the forest that the festival’s most special moments occur- at the miniscule Piano Stage in a buried woodland clearing, some of the weekend’s biggest acts (including Kurt Vile and Lucy Dacus) perform quick and unannounced 15-minute acoustic shows. In general, there’s a gentle surrealism to the End Of The Road site- where else would you look up to see a glorious golden-green parrot squawking away in the trees, or a peacock enjoying the soundchecks on a bleary Sunday morning?”

Just announced: New Europe shows this Fall! Presale starts tomorrow at 10am local. PW: KOS2022 https://t.co/lLiWcdKpYF pic.twitter.com/PcPqp55IB3

— Future Islands (@futureislands) March 21, 2022

Their first UK tour since 2018, it’s on the back of their album As Long as You Are, which was released in October 2020. The band isn’t used to such a long time being unable to tour, what with their prolific live reputation from before the pandemic. Having opened for the likes of Morrissey and Grace Jones, and playing at numerous worldwide festivals like Coachella and Øyafestivalen, they’d already passed 1,000 live performances within ten years of playing together.

Fans should have a lot to look forward to, what with the serious approach they take towards the performing arts. Having formed from the art school ethos that was Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, band frontman Sam Herring has been quoted as saying “I fell in love with performance art when I was 17 … you can stand on the street and perform for 30 minutes with some weird thing you came up with off the top of your head … people are going to walk by and you’re going to get a reaction …. And that’s an exciting thing, to look into people’s eyes. There’s no expectation …. It can grab people and that’s a cool thing.”

His dedication to the craft can be seen by all the torn ligaments and throat problems Herring’s reportedly had over the years, but it doesn’t change the fact fans are probably in for a good show with a guy who knows how to give it his all.

In other news, the band are reportedly working on their seventh studio album, although it’s been a while in the making, having announced work on it back in January 2021. And they were also seen on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert last February, playing their new song “King of Sweden“. You can see this performance below, as well as their upcoming UK and Ireland tour dates.

Future Islands UK and Ireland Tour Dates

23/03/2022 – Academy – Manchester
25/03 – Alexandra Palace – London
27/03 – Ulster Hall – Belfast
28/03 – Vicar Street – Dublin
31/03 –  Northumbria SU Institute – Newcastle
01/04 – Usher Hall – Edinburgh
02/04 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
10/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
11/11 –  Cardiff University Great Hall – Cardiff
12/11 – Mountford Hall – Liverpool
14/11 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
16/11 – Rock City – Nottingham
17/11 –  O2 Guildhall – Southampton
18/11 –  Brighton Centre – Brighton
19/11 – Exeter University (Great Hall) – Exeter

The band, originally from North Carolina, will play six shows in the UK as part of a wider tour of Europe between April and May, before playing a gig at Iveagh Gardens in Dublin. Two or three years ago such a tour would have been unthinkable for the band, but since their performance on Late Night With David Letterman of their acclaimed and successful single ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’, they have gone from strength to strength. From playing small town American gigs for ’30 bucks a night, gas money to get us to the next place and have something to eat’ (via The Guardian), they now frequently play sold-out venues and festivals whether that be in their homeland or across the Atlantic.

The last time they played on these shores was in 2015 when they played a host of festival sets, including at Glastonbury, End Of The Road and Bestival. Speaking to the Guardian about his live persona, frontman Sam Herring, revealed he tries, ‘to open up the audience by opening up yourself … The feeling we’re trying to create in our shows is to kind of poke at people. It’s just like, Move! Get going! Do something! Feel something, take my hand, hold on to that person beside you, feel this energy, you know. That’s the hope. It’s all a hope.’ If that sounds like your kind of thing, tickets for the UK dates wll be available from 10am on Wednesday (25^th January) whereas Irish fans will have to wait until 9am on Friday (27^th January) to get their hands on them.

Although their last album was 2014’s singles and there are no official plans for anything this year, members of the band have still been busy with side-projects or contributing on a more ad hoc basis to creating music in a variety of places. Samuel T. Herring appeared on Toronto based jazz collective BadBadNotGood’s 2016 single, ‘Time Moves Slow.’ Meanwhile, another member of Future Islands, William Cashion, released an album, ‘Honey’, last September with Double Dagger’s Bruce Willen, as members of Peals. Herring has even moved beyond the strict confines of making music, and appeared in Clams Casino’s video ‘Ghost in a Kiss’ which follows the Future Island’s frontman through a day in his life (well, not his life exactly, but the life of a normal person…)

The full UK and Ireland Tour schedule is shown below:

27/4 – Barrowlands – Glasgow
28/4 – University Stylus – Leeds
29/4 – O2 Academy – Liverpool
30/4 – Brighton Dome – Brighton
2/5 – Rock City – Nottingham
3/5 – O2 Academy – Bristol
6/7 – Iveagh Gardens – Dublin