The duo returned from a two-year absence earlier this summer with a batch of announcements – a new single ‘Ten Over Ten’, the November release date for their fifth album ‘Dead Company’, and a run of three UK shows to play “a couple of new songs!” ‘Ten Over Ten’ showcased a new heavier sound with raw, uncompressed production quality.

The initial set of UK shows ended with a night at Southampton’s O2 Guildhall on Thursday August 27, leaving a gap just in time for last weekend’s Reading and Leeds Festival. Their sole members, drummer Ben Thatcher and bassist/vocalist Mike Kerr made an appearance on Jack Saunders’ show on BBC Radio 1 to drop the news that they would be playing a secret set on Friday August 28 at 2pm.

As the crowds packed into the tent at The Gallery, the new alternative music second stage, Royal Blood ripped into fan-favourite singles ‘Out Of The Black’ and ‘Come On Over’ before giving ‘Ten Over Ten’ its festival debut, which brought the pits with its frantic, metallic riffage. From there, they broke into groovy jam ‘Boilermaker’ and radio hit ‘Little Monster’ before unveiling their second single from ‘Dead Company’. ‘Swallow The Bomb’ is a fast-paced punky blast, with its melodic bass strumming and desert-rock vocals. Kerr and Thatcher look like this is the most fun they’ve had all set, playing together in perfect synergy. The duo finished up with ‘Figure It Out’, one of the songs that made them so famous as a live act. Check the full setlist below:

‘Out Of The Black’
‘Come On Over’
‘Ten Over Ten’
‘Boiler Maker’
‘How Did We Get So Dark?’
‘Little Monster’
‘Swallow The Bomb’
‘Turn The Lights Out’
‘Trouble Coming’
‘Figure It Out’

Sadly the secret set was a one-off for Reading, with Leeds-goers missing out – but if you weren’t there, BBC iPlayer have the full show available until the end of September. Thankfully, Royal Blood will be back on tour this November and December supporting the November 13 release of ‘Dead Company’, with dates in Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, London and their hometown Brighton. Unpeople are support on all dates, with tickets on sale now.

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The hard rock two-piece of bassist and vocalist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher took a pause after the 10-year anniversary celebrations for their breakthrough self-titled debut album wrapped in 2024. 2014’s ‘Royal Blood’ shot the pair to stardom, topping the British Albums Chart and winning them the BRIT Award for Best British Group – but with their next 3 albums also earning Number One status and their fantastic live shows in ever-increasing demand, they seemingly never stopped.

With over a year passing with no songs, no shows, and not even so much as a social media post, Kerr and Thatcher released a teaser for a new track back in June. The snippet showcased a heavy, thrashy sound akin to their earlier style on ‘Royal Blood’-era singles like ‘Out of the Black’ and ‘Little Monster’. Shortly after the teaser was released, the group announced a run of 3 UK dates for the end of August, visiting Margate, Guildford and Southampton.

New single ‘Ten Over Ten’ was announced on Royal Blood’s Instagram yesterday, and received its premiere tonight as DJ Jack Saunders’ Hottest Record on his BBC Radio 1 show. Indeed the song from the teaser trailer, it opens with Kerr’s signature bass tone, which mimics an electric guitar, and frantic drum beats from Thatcher, before shifting into riffs that border on heavy metal. This is a new kind of aggression for the duo, blasting through the high-tempo verses into the sleazy, blues rock choruses. It’s a refreshing sound for such a popular act, showing that even though they don’t have a guitarist in the conventional sense, guitar music is still alive and well.

Following the radio broadcast of ‘Ten Over Ten’, Royal Blood took to social media to announce their fifth album would be titled ‘Dead Company’ and is due for a November release. Their post reads “After putting the Royal Blood engine in neutral for a couple of years, we’ve been building up the revs and are playing faster and harder than ever with this album. Written and recorded with the stage in mind, we cannot wait to play it live for years to come. Mike & Ben.” They also alluded to further live shows to be announced in time.

‘Ten Over Ten’ is out now, with new album ‘Dead Company’ releasing on November 13 through Warner Records. Pre-orders of the album on their official store will unlock pre-sale access for the unannounced gigs. Up next for Royal Blood are their shows at Dreamland Margate on August 24, G Live in Guildford on August 25, and O2 Guildhall in Southampton on August 27.

Dickinson joined British heavy metal icons Iron Maiden in 1981, making his first impact with their 1982 classic ‘The Number of the Beast’. Since then, his powerful singing voice and legendary high-pitched wails have been heard on all their most famous tracks across 13 albums and five decades, including ‘Run to the Hills’, ‘2 Minutes to Midnight’ and ‘The Trooper’. Maiden’s last album was 2021’s ‘Senjutusu’, but the group have continued to sell out stadiums and festival slots around the world since.

Dickinson’s solo career began when he wrote ‘Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter’ for 1989 horror flick A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. Though his solo version won a Golden Raspberry Award (or commonly a ‘Razzie’) and was lambasted, when it was released with Iron Maiden on 1990 LP ‘No Prayer for the Dying’ it became the band’s first and only UK Number One single.

After releasing debut solo album ‘Tattooed Millionaire’ in 1990, Dickinson left Maiden in 1993 to concentrate on his solo career. He released four more albums in the ‘90s before rejoining Maiden in 1999, and then released solo album ‘Tyranny of Souls’ in 2005. After a 19 year break, he returned with the cross-media experience of ‘The Mandrake Project’ in 2024, which launched with an accompanying adult comic book series.

Dickinson is back at a creative peak now in 2026 continuing work on the prospective 2027 album. In an interview with VSX at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, he explained the explosive sound of the material as “heavy as shit”, as well as discussing the next move on from ‘The Mandrake Project’, – “It’s kind of standalone. There’s one song that has a bit of something to do with ‘Mandrake’.” He added that he had no desire to write a sequel to ‘Mandrake’, saying “I try to not repeat – not because it’s bad. You want to move on and put different nuance on things. It’s like, I would say, if you have an amazing girlfriend and you start thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m getting a little bit bored,’ or something else like that, just turn the lights down and turn it a different way, and you see a side that you think, ‘Oh, my God, she’s absolutely incredible.’ Just the red light there or the green or whatever, and you see, you see the same person in a different day, in a different light.”

Blabbermouth report that a majority of the album was tracked this January and February at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 base in Northridge, California, and Dickinson told Rolling Stone in April that he’d recorded 16 songs during the sessions. Though it has not been confirmed, the new album looks likely to be the first without contribution from long-term co-writer and producer Roy ‘Z’ Ramirez, who worked on all of Dickinson’s albums since 1994’s ‘Balls to Picasso’ – Brendan Duffey has been brought in for mixing and mastering on the new LP.

Bruce Dickinson’s new album is due for release next year through BGM. It follows up a wild 2026 which saw Iron Maiden refuse to appear at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction this coming November, as well as host their own fledgling festival. Eddfest 2026 was a breakout success which saw the band celebrate their storied history with a cohort of massive support acts, before a monstrous live show covering a wide mix of their catalogue.

Since co-founding Las Vegas rock group The Killers in 2001, Flowers has released 7 albums with the band, all of which have been UK Number Ones. With their hits including ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, and their iconic debut ‘Mr Brightside’, The Killers have sold over 35 million records, been nominated for 7 Grammys, and won 2 BRIT Awards. The group’s shows have been celebrated as a fantastic live experience, having headlined Glastonbury in 2007 and the US’s Coachella Festival in 2009. While still active, The Killers have not released an album since 2021’s ‘Pressure Machine’, though Flowers told NME that their eighth album might release in 2027.

Flowers first stepped away from the fold to begin his solo career in 2010 with debut album ‘Flamingo’, which was again a UK Number One, as was his 2015 second album ‘The Desired Effect’. He toured ‘The Desired Effect’ extensively, including performances for Barack Obama and the British royal family.

In 2025, Flowers spoke to NME about the two “South West” styled solo albums he had recorded in Nashville, with a sound and feel inspired by Bruce Springsteen, hinting that they would be out before the next Killers album. He announced the first of them, ‘Thrasher’, earlier this week, with the lead single ‘Plans’ due to release tomorrow, the 26th of June. The full track-listing was made available this week:

1. Does It Ever Cross Your Mind?
2. One Of Us
3. Tiger’s Blood
4. Plans
5. Paradise
6. Miss America
7. Angel
8. The Red Ground
9. In A Heartbeat
10. An American Dream

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With the album’s announcement and ‘Plans’ releasing imminently, Flowers has announced his full solo tour since 2015, with September and October dates in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. His return to the Royal Albert Hall will be his first full show at the venue since The Killers played 2 nights there in 2009, which was recorded and later released as the album and concert film ‘Live From The Royal Albert Hall’. Here are the full dates for the UK and Ireland:

OCTOBER:

14 – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
15 – London, Royal Albert Hall
17 – Bristol, Beacon
18 – Nottingham, Rock City
20 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
21 – York, Barbican
23 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
24 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
27 – Dublin, Olympia

The single ‘Plans’ releases tomorrow ahead of ‘Thrasher’, which comes out on the 21st of August. Pre-ordering the album gives you access to the live show pre-sale, which opens on the Wednesday the 1st of July at 10am. General sale opens at 10am on Friday the 3rd.

English alternative rock two-piece Royal Blood have been impossible to ignore since their 2014 self-titled debut album brought them a plethora of award nominations, introduced them to TV adverts, and scored a UK Number One Album, going double platinum and selling over 600,000 copies. The duo is made up of singer and bassist Mike Kerr, who uses his instrument with a variety of effects, amps and pedals to make it sound like a low-tuned electric guitar, and drummer Ben Thatcher, whose pounding beats give the music its boisterous energy on both recording and live shows.

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With no releases since 2023, where they dropped their fourth album ‘Back to the Water Below’ and its B-side tracks ‘Supermodel Avalanches’ and ‘Everything’s Fine’, the band have flown under the radar since their last live performances in 2024. This weekend they posted a social media video of Kerr jamming on his bass with frantic drum beats blasting behind it and the simple request “sign up to the mailing list”. The snippet sounded heavy and raw compared to the slower, desert-vibes from ‘Back to the Water Below’ and the groovier, disco-inspired tracks from its predecessor ‘Typhoons’.

With the hint of new music still fresh, Royal Blood announced their mini-tour this week with the intention to play so-far unreleased songs live for the first time to UK audiences. The post reads “We are returning this summer for three special shows in Margate, Southampton and Guildford to play you a couple of new songs!” The three shows are scheduled for the end of this August, based all around the south of England where the band hails from. Check the post below for the dates and venues:

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While they wait for a new single to surface, fans looking for tickets should sign up to Royal Blood’s mailing list for pre-sale access before midnight today, Wednesday the 24th of June. Pre-sale opens on Thursday the 25th of June at 10am, before general sale goes live on Friday the 26th.

Announced with a reveal trailer earlier this week, ‘Separation From The Animals’ will be their eighth full-length release, following up from 2024’s ‘Meltdown’. So far, the group dropped single ‘Don’t Quit It’ in May, a pulsing drum and bass guitar-led hard rock anthem – now it has company in the shape of new track ‘In Your Eyes’ which came out today.

‘In Your Eyes’ is a slower, more sombre affair, an introspective indie rock ballad with deep lyrics and beautifully-pained vocal hooks. Twin Atlantic frontman Sam McTrusty explains the theme, saying “it’s about being at the other end of a relationship where you feel like no matter what you do, nothing is ever good enough.” However, he notes that it’s an optimistic message, adding “you take a step back and realise that in trying to appease that one person, you’ve blinded yourself to the fact that everything is great. Look outside of that window and life is much better.”

The album was a product of McTrusty’s relocation to Canada with his family following ‘Meltdown’ and its subsequent campaign. The massive changes allowed him the distance from his past to examine it properly, and allowed him to reset creatively. He spoke of the experience – “I’m from a family that’s fairly divided, so I’ve always been passed about from when I was six-months-old. It’s all I’ve ever known. As you grow up, you start to view life through a different lens – especially the whole struggle of going from boy to man.”

Channelling the emotions from the self-discovery journey, he also mentions how it brought new focus back to music and Twin Atlantic, saying “My experience of that is particularly painful, emotional and confusing. But because it seemed normal at the time, it didn’t really hit me until I found my tribe, my people, my band. My entire adult life is meant to have been looking ahead but my personal life is always looking back. That baggage is basically what the whole band is about. This is what we’ve always been but with the veil lifted. I hope people hear the record and it inspires them to do that and be more honest with themselves.”

The group popped up for a hometown show at Glasgow’s TRNSMT Festival this weekend as a hotly tipped secret act. Currently out on a run of summer dates, first with The Xcerts at the start of June and now with McFly, Twin Atlantic announced the October tour supporting ‘Separation From The Animals’ earlier today. The tour will see them again link up with fellow Scottish alternative rock band The Xcerts.

‘Separation From The Animals’ releases on the 2nd of October through independent label Dance to the Radio. Tickets for the October headlining tour go on sale at 10am on Friday the 25th of June. Check the poster below for the full run of dates:

Texas four-piece Polyphia broke through to the mainstream with the unique catchiness and sheer complexity of their instrumental rock music. The dizzying guitar work of Tim Henson and Scott LePage, whose virtuoso noodling on tracks like ‘G.O.A.T.’ and ‘Playing God’ have gained cult status for their difficulty to replicate by other players, is rounded off by the dynamic rhythm section of bassist Clay Gober and drummer Clay Aeschliman. Their fourth album, 2022’s ‘Remember That You Will Die’, indulged in more guitar solo heroics and delved further into their hip hop and trap influences – the LP had an appearance from guitar icon Steve Vai, as well vocal as features by Chino Moreno of Deftones plus rappers $NOT and Lil West.

Since the final singles from ‘Remember That You Will Die’ released, the group distributed their first live album in 2023, ‘Live at the Factory in Deep Ellum’.Other than a 2025 collaboration with Riot Games for ‘Let’s Go’, the main theme of fighting game 2XKO, there was little news – until last week’s surprise reveal of new single ‘Can You Feel It’. Polyphia dropped the track, a bass-heavy, metal dance-floor anthem, with an accompanying music video packed with cynical imagery about politics and world affairs, although they have now uploaded a new video with a full band performance.

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The tour dates were announced yesterday, along with the full list of support acts for the 4 month stretch. The North American leg begins in Dallas on the 5th of September and ends in Nashville on the 18th of October, with appearances from Ladrones, RJ Pasin, Intervals and Plini. It comes to Europe on the 18th of November in Zurich, visiting 17 cities, before finally reaching the UK in December. Four shows are scheduled for Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and London, where the tour finishes. Europe and UK dates feature support from Pertubator and RJ Pasin. The full list of European shows is below:

NOVEMBER:

18 – Halle 622, Zurich
19 – Le Radiant, Lyon
20 – Interference, Toulouse
22 – Razzmatazz, Barcelona
23 – Sala La Riviera, Madrid
25 – Alcatraz, Milan
27 – Zenith, Munich
28 – SaSaZu, Prague
29 – Progresja, Warsaw
30 – Haus Auensee, Leipzig

DECEMBER:

2 – Docks, Hamburg
4 – Amager Bio, Copenhagen
5 – Tempodrom, Berlin
6 – Turbinenhalle, Oberhausen
7 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
8 – AFAS Live, Amsterdam
9 – Zenith Paris, Paris
11 – O2 Academy, Birmingham
12 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
15 – O2 Academy, Leeds
16 – O2 Academy Brixton, London

Tickets and VIP perks for all dates are on pre-sale now with the entry code ‘CANYOUFEELIT’ here, with general sale opening at 10am on Friday the 19th of June. 2026 single ‘Can You Feel It’ is available to stream and buy now.

‘The Wow! Signal’ will be the Devon trio’s tenth album, taking their ever-changing alternative rock sound into new pastures of metal, synth-rock and more, wrapped in sci-fi concepts of extraterrestrial encounters and space-faring. The LP was announced in March with a cryptic social media campaign and the release of adventurous lead single ‘Be With You’, accompanied by a cinematic music video of a celestial phenomenon which set the tone for the album’s lore.

Further singles have dropped since, starting with ‘Cryogen’ and ‘Hexagons’, both of which returned to the classic Muse sound from albums like 2001’s ‘Origin of Symmetry’ and 2006’s ‘Black Holes and Revelations’. The latest single ‘Nightshift Superstar’ released on the 7th of June – the track has a disco pulse, driven forwards by slick basslines and frontman Matt Bellamy’s breathy falsetto vocals. Continuing the neon red aesthetic of the previous media, the trippy music video depicts an alien phenomenon at an American diner in the desert, where the attendants are drawn to a UFO by a tornado.

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With impending plans to visit North America in July and August, Muse announced the new tour dates on the 12th of June, scheduling a large arena run across the UK and Europe in November and December this year. It opens with two nights apiece at Manchester’s Co-op Live and The O2 in London, before nights in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The full tour dates are here:

November:
• 12 – Manchester, Co-op Live
• 13 – Manchester, Co-op Live
• 15 – London, The O2
• 16 – London, The O2
• 18 – Berlin, Uber Arena
• 20 – Milan, Unipol Dome
• 21 – Milan, Unipol Dome
• 24 – Dusseldorf, PSD Bank Dome
• 25 – Dusseldorf, PSD Bank Dome
• 27 – Paris, La Defense Arena
• 29 – Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome
• 30 – Amsterdam, Ziggo Dome

December:
• 03 – Montpellier, Sud de France Arena
• 04 – Montpellier, Sud de France Arena
• 07 – Zurich, AG Hallenstadion
• 08 – Zurich, AG Hallenstadion

The pre-sale begins at 10am on Wednesday the 17th of June and is accessible with a pre-order for ‘The Wow! Signal’ before 3pm on Tuesday the 16th, and general sale opens at 10am on Friday the 19th. ‘The Wow! Signal’ releases on the 26th of June through Muse’s label Helium 3 and Warner Media Group. Check the full track list below:
 
1. The Dark Forest
2. Nightshift Superstar
3. Shimmering Scars
4. Cryogen
5. Be With You
6. Hexagons
7. The Sickness In You & I
8. Unravelling
9. Hush
10. Space Debris

Birmingham pop rock superstars Duran Duran were one of the biggest acts in the UK’s New Romantic movement through the ‘80s, scoring UK Number One singles with ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’ and ‘The Reflex’, the latter of which was with a remix by Nile Rogers. They were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, have sold over 100 million records, and their classic 80s music videos saw them win two Grammy awards in 1984.

Duran Duran are still in fine form in 2026, releasing their 50th single ‘Free To Love’ in partnership with funk legend Nile Rogers back in April. The single was a complete throw-back to the heyday of Top Of The Pops with its disco-inspired sound and music video, which frontman Simon Le Bon described as “disco for the 2020s.” It was BBC Radio 2’s Record of the Week in May, and the band were invited to perform it on US late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the past few weeks, the group have shared official remixes of the track by Horse Meat Disco and DJ White Shadow.

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With three versions of ‘Free To Love’ now out, the band have elected to announce a run of five UK arena shows for this October, sandwiched between several European gigs. After opening in Oslo, they’ll visit Stockholm, Hamburg and Cologne. Next, it’s back to the UK for Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds, before wrapping the tour with shows in Brussels and Paris. Support on all UK shows comes from Margate group Pigeon, who Duran Duran promise will bring their “post-punk, afro disco groove”. The full dates for the UK are below:

OCTOBER:

• 15 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
• 18 – SSE Arena, Belfast
• 20 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
• 23 – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
• 24 – First Bank Arena, Leeds

The band are already due to tour Europe this summer, starting with shows in Denmark, The Netherlands and more in June, before their massive summer headline at BST Hyde Park in London on the 5th of July. So far, the main support for that show comes from Scissor Sisters, but there are more to be announced.

Tickets for the UK October dates go on an exclusive pre-sale to Duran Duran’s VIP members at 8am on Wednesday the 3rd of June, with general sale opening at 10am on Friday the 5th – more information is available here.

Since forming in Southend-On-Sea in 2012, Nothing But Thieves have released 4 studio albums, all of which have landed in the top 10 of the Official UK Album Charts. The band’s last LP, 2023’s ‘Dead Club City’ was their first UK Number One, with energetic dance-pop lead single ‘Welcome to the DCC’ earning itself BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record of the Year. The band’s sound is a lively mix of indie rock with a heft of hard rock influence, often dipping into pop and electronic styles with ease.

After wiping their Instagram feed at the start of May, the band posted several teasingly ambiguous uploads and planted cryptic posters around UK cities before releasing ‘Evolution’ last Wednesday. The track is a bright, thumping indie rock anthem packed with themes of self-improvement and progression, sounding much in the same vein as the music of Sam Fender. Nothing But Thieves have said that Evolution is a “song that’s not too concerned about finality. I think imperfection and authenticity is becoming ever more valuable and it’s definitely something we’re drawn to. We’ve spent some time trying to work out what’s real and tangible about who we are and how we use our time. The people we travel the world with, the human moments on stage, the connection we make with those who come to our shows. That’s real… It’s a bit of a love letter to the people in our world in that way.”

The group played an intimate release set for ‘Evolution’ at The Dome in London last week, and then played it at Radio 1’s Big Weekend before a secret show at Newcastle’s Think Tank venue under the pseudonym ‘Stray Dogs’ last Saturday. The album ‘Stray Dogs’ was announced this morning alongside the tour, with the band reporting that they had returned to Angelic Studios in Oxfordshire where they recorded debut album ‘Nothing But Thieves’.

As for the tour, it kicks off in Paris next January, and following the European leg comes to the UK and Ireland in February. After arena shows in Dublin, Nottingham, London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham, it’s off to Canada and the US over March and April. The band have also let fans in South America and Australia know that dates for them will be out soon. Find all the info on the poster below:

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‘Stray Dogs’ is out on the 25th of September via RCA/Sony Music, with pre-orders granting access to the gig pre-sale. Tickets for the tour go on pre-sale at 10am on Tuesday the 2nd of June, before general sale opens at 10 am on Friday the 5th. You can catch Nothing But Thieves at their only scheduled gig for 2026 supporting Biffy Clyro, live in London’s Finsbury Park on Friday the 3rd of July.