On The Beach is a series of summer day concerts run with British station Radio X, all set on a giant stage on Brighton Beach. Past iterations have brought the likes of Royal Blood and Noel Gallagher in 2023, The Kooks and The Libertines in 2024, and both Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party last year. For this July, the other events cover ska and electronic music, with Madness on the 24th and Moby on the 26th, while Fatboy Slim is booked for three shows in his spiritual home across the 17th, 18th and 19th. The Maccabees, who play the biggest night of music in this years event on the 25th of July, chose to split and send the band off with a farewell tour in 2017, but returned for live shows starting with Glastonbury and a headline set at All Points East last year.

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The full lineup was announced yesterday on Dan O’Connell’s Evening Show on Radio X, as he sat down to chat with co-host Felix White, guitarist for The Maccabees. Under its former name XFM London, the station was the first to promote the group before their breakthrough, and Brighton was the place where they initially rose to prominence. Prior to the news, White was asked whether there might be new music in the pipeline for the band, to which he responded cautiously “it’s not a no at the moment.”

The day opens with local indie quartet Lime Garden, before singer-songwriter Damon Gough, better known as Badly Drawn Boy plays. Northern Irish cult classic rock band Ash take to the stage third, before the incredibly talented singer-songwriter Anna Calvi makes her appearance. Miles Kane is next up, bringing his captivating solo show, and Editors fill the penultimate set with their brand of darker post-punk. Finally The Maccabees close the night with what will most definitely be another emotional, long-awaited headline set.

Radio X On The Beach with The Maccabees runs from 1PM to 10:30PM on Saturday the 25th of July at Brighton Beach. The new wave of tickets go on pre-sale on Tuesday the 31st of March, with a sign-up link here. The Maccabees play On The Beach as part of a UK tour with tickets for other dates here. You can find the full tour dates below:

• 06/07 – Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
• 07/07 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
• 09/07 – Alexandra Palace Park, London
• 11/07 – Eden Project, St Austell
• 23/07 – Bristol Amphitheatre & Waterfront Square, Bristol
• 23/07-26/07 – Truck Festival 2026, Abingdon
• 25/07 – Brighton Beach, Brighton
• 31/07 – Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds

The new album, which was effectively announced around the same time as the musician’s divorce, is set to be officially released on June 2nd, 2023. The album revelation is coupled with an early single release “Easy Now” showcasing the guitarist’s trademark brit pop writing skills. It offers us a touch of his nostalgic sound, accompanied by a new music video featuring Milly Alcock, who recently starred in House Of The Dragon.

Gallagher explains in a Radio X interview how the album was written during lockdown and, although he considers the album should be interpreted as one desires, he recognises Council Skies as a reflective project. When Gallagher talks about the title of the release he says “It sparked off thoughts of my youth and all my dreams that I dreamt of underneath the council skies“.

It is a short tour, set to start on the Friday, 21st of July in Buckinghamshire, not long after the album release, which will run through to finally wrap up in Dublin at the end of August. If anyone knows how to put on a show it is Noel Gallagher. This is not just any other tour around the UK. He will be playing in a variety of locations such as the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham in Dublin as an outdoor show, as well as Wythenshawe Park in Manchester, not to mention Caldicot Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales, and several other festivals.

If the album release and locations aren’t reason enough already to awaken excitement and anticipation for these performances, a series of special guests will be making an appearance to jazz up the shows for us. Each performance will include a different guest star appearance, making each show just as unique as the other. We are expecting to see visits from artists such as Johnny Marr, The Zutons, Tom Meighan, Feeder, Primal Scream, Future Islands and Happy Mondays. 

Click here for tickets!

UK Tour dates:

21/07/23 – Pennfest – Buckinghamshire
28/07 – Crystal Palace Bowl – London
05/08 – Audley End – Essex
19/08 – Caldicot Castle – Monmouthshire
20/08 – Hardwick Festival – Sedgefield
26/08 – Wythenshawe Park – Manchester
27/08 – Royal Hospital – Dublin

Radio X took to their Instagram to announce the news to the network’s listeners and fans, the post gives perspective listeners a brief description of what they can look forward to from the duo’s radio series.

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The comical pair’s new radio show will start on Sunday 8th August 2021 from 7 pm until 9 pm and will run throughout this August every Sunday night. This is not the duo’s first time presenting, Gallagher and Morgan will bring their broadcasting experience and skills from Morgan’s podcast to their new radio series. The podcast titled ‘Matt Morgan’s Funny How?’ sees Morgan joined by special guests each episode, the host and guests engage in a comical QA type of interview which explores whimsical and pop culture fuelled questions. Gallagher has been a guest on the comedian’s podcast several times and joined his long-term friend on the podcast’s first episode, aired on 13th January 2020.

Gallagher and Morgan’s new radio show will no doubt be full of laughs and honest conversation and will see “Noel and Matt setting the world to rights”, the show will also be available to watch on-demand via Global Player. The new series will also feature some specially curated music by Gallagher, the former Oasis member will pick a collection of his favourite music to include within the new Radio X show. Similar to Morgan’s podcast series, the radio series will also feature a QA segment which will see the duo answer questions from fans.

The Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds founder has provided the following description of what listeners can expect from Radio X’s new series, “You lucky little indie kids are getting the pleasure of mine and the thinking man’s fuddy-duddy Matt Morgan’s company for a Residency. You’ll be hearing some great tunes, and a lot of nonsense, being spouted mostly by me! Tune in… you might learn summat. NG.”

Managing Editor for the radio network has also spoken on the exciting news, in the following statement, Matt Deverson describes the station’s history with the musician and hails Gallagher and Morgan for their distinctive manner, “Whether it be through Oasis or the 10 years of his High Flying Birds, Noel Gallagher’s music is part of the fabric of Radio X, and I’m delighted that the man himself will be hosting a show on the station. He’s teamed up with his good mate Matt Morgan, and as a man who’s never short of a word to say, I can’t wait to hear them put the world to rights in their own unique style, as well as pick some of their favourite tunes. Noel Gallagher really does live on Radio X.”

Radio X has been a staple within the alternative and Indie music scene since its inception in 1992, the station was formally known as Xfm until 21st September 2015 when the network was rebranded to Radio X. One of the station’s founders, Sammy Jacob, would go on to co-create NME Radio in 2008 and in 2015 Jacob founded CDNX (Camden Experience), the radio service which celebrates Camden’s heritage and music. Once the station was rebranded to Radio X, the network gained a collection of well-known new presenters such as Chris Moyles, Ricky Wilson, Johnny Vaughan and Vernon Kay, who recently participated in the British reality TV show, ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. The arrival of Radio X was fully confirmed by the 2004 Girls Aloud track ‘Love Machine’, which was the first song to be played on the new station at 7 am on 21st September 2021 on Chris Moyles’ show.

Radio X is broadcasted on 104.9 FM in London, 97.7 FM in Manchester and is available to listen to across the UK on DAB digital radio services. The network shows are also available to view on Global Player, the free and downloadable media player on any iOS and Android device. Listeners and viewers can also view the station’s content via the website radiox.co.uk.

The public had to chose between a long list of all the tracks, featured on Radio X’ Record Of The Week, selecting their individual Top 10 for the year. The final positions saw the intimate balad ‘Impossible‘ claim the top spot as the best song of 2020, closely followed by ‘Real Love Song‘ at second place and Royal Blood’s upbeat single ‘Trouble’s Coming‘ at third. Celebrating yet another huge success from last year, Nothing But Thieves thanked everyone who voted with the message: “Absolutely mind blowing […] having 3 songs in the top 10 is a great way to end an awful year, you legends“.

:: AND NUMBER 1! Absolutely mind blowing. Thanks to @RadioX and everyone who voted, having 3 songs in the top 10 is a great way to end an awful year, you legends :: https://t.co/jEJeR0Fb9O

— Nothing But Thieves (@NBThieves) December 31, 2020

‘Impossible‘ first premiered back in September as the final promotional single before the official release of Moral Panic a month later, and shortly after had an atmospheric orchestral rendition recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Radio X shared the simple but accurate description of the track: “Ballads don’t get much more anthemic than Impossible, the track that silenced critics of the Southend band“. Speaking with the radio team, singer Conor Mason recalled the writing process: “In a way we’d written a lot of thematically-dense stuff and I remember thinking it’d be great to have a simpler song with a big chorus, a melody that was easy to sing back“. 

At the second spot of the year-end popular vote, ‘Real Love Song‘ was shared on 23 June alongside the official announcement of the upcoming third record, and also saw an orchestral make-over by the Bucharest Symphonic Orchestra during the Summer Well Festival. ‘Is Everybody Going Crazy?‘ was the first single by Nothing But Thieves in 2020, premiering back in March and reaching almost 20 million streams on Spotify since. The track ended at the sixth spot at the Radio X’s annual overview.

IT’S OFFICIAL! @NBThieves have WON the Radio X Record Of The Year with Impossible! CONGRATS LADS pic.twitter.com/8UPCfjUoIe

— Radio X (@RadioX) December 31, 2020

Just behind Nothing But Thieves’ first two spots and Royal Blood’s only single of the year, at #4 and #5 are Courteeners’ ‘Hanging Off Your Cloud‘ and Declan McKenna’s ‘The Key To Life On Earth‘. The seventh position is claimed by Biffy Clyro and the powerful track ‘Space‘ taken off their chart topping record A Celebration Of Endings. At the last three spots in Radio X’s Top 10 of 2020 are ‘Don’t Let The Devil Take Another Day‘ by Stereophonics, Sea Girls’ ‘All I Want To Hear You Say‘ and Gerry Cinnamon’s ‘Ghost‘.