We’re excited to announce the line-up for this year’s #TeenageCancerGigs at the @RoyalAlbertHall!

Tickets on sale Friday 12 Jan at 9:00am https://t.co/e6jo2B8WzP pic.twitter.com/G6BQLZs2tx

— Teenage Cancer Trust (@TeenageCancer) January 8, 2024

The event will kick off on Monday, March 18, with The Who, backed by an orchestra, and special guests Squeeze. There will be a night of comedy on Tuesday, March 19, with the full line-up to be announced soon, and Wednesday, March 20 will see The Who and Squeeze welcomed back to the Royal Albert Hall for the second time. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will then perform on Thursday, March 21, along with indie rock special guests Blossoms.

Friday, March 22 will see Scottish progressive hip-hop group Young Fathers kick off the weekend, followed by a headline Saturday show from The Chemical Brothers, alongside DJ James Holroyd, on March 23. The week-long fundraising extravaganza will conclude on Sunday, March 24 with an Ovation, bringing together the likes of Roger Daltrey, Kelly Jones, Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Pete Townshend and Eddie Vedder to commemorate 24 successful years of performing live music for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The celebrations come with a hint of sadness, however, as this year’s event will see Roger Daltrey stepping down from his role as curator for the Teenage Cancer Trust annual concerts. Since starting in 2000, performing at the first live Teenage Cancer Trust gig with his band, The Who frontman Daltrey has been at the centre of every annual celebration. He has unceasingly inspired countless musicians to come together and perform for a very special cause year upon year, and he will now allow a series of guest curators to take up the task.

Noel Gallagher, on the positive impact the Teenage Cancer Trust has had, said, ‘The TCT continue to make a real difference to teenagers in what undoubtedly must be the most challenging years of their lives. Having performed at the very first event back in 2000 it is a charity very close to my heart.  24 years and counting is a triumph in itself. NGHFB will be there en masse. Together we will make the night unique. I’d buy a ticket if I were you.”

Tickets go on sale from 9am Friday January 12 and will be available to purchase here.

Donations to the Teenage Cancer Trust can be made here.

The festival orgainsers have released a statement saying: “New lineup additions include Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers, UK post-punk favourites Squid, beloved DJs Ben UFO and Helena Hauff, electronic pop legend Alice Glass, and Australian rockers C.O.F.F.I.N. to name a few, with yet more cutting-edge electronica and experimental pop artists still to be announced.”

“Expect leftfield Indie, Post Punk, Electronica, Techno and more across a line-up you won’t find anywhere in London. Our line-up has an equal gender split and 2023 saw us work further on our sustainable ‘Positive Policy’, which was set up to change the way live music events affect our planet. Environmentally conscious, socially aware and musical relevant, Wide Awake’s a party for people who care about music and more.”

Heavy hitters include, Young Fathers, an experimental Scottish hip hop who won a mercury prize award in 2014 for their album Dead. The group have gone on to make history by winning their third Scottish Album of the Year award with their latest album, Heavy, Heavy. They are the first artists to win the award three times. Furthermore, UK post punk band, Squid, from Brighton, have been announced for the lineup after they released their album, O Monolith, earlier in the year. The band released an audiobook to go alongside the album, written by Paul Ewan and narrated by Tim Key.

The other artists added to the lineup are Alice Glass, Charlotte Adigary & Bolis Pupil, Ben UFO, Crumb, Eartheater, Helena Hauff, The Babe Rainbow, Bodega, The Dare, David Holmes, Optimo, Al Lover, C.O.F.F.I.N, Decius, Etran Du L’air, Upchuck and Yhwh Nailgun.

A lot more artists should be announced for the day-festival in due course. Last years festival was headlined by Caroline Polacheck and hosted an eclectic batch of artists alongside the headliner, including Alex G, Black Country New Road, Viagra Boys, Jockstrap, Osees, Ty Segall, Joy Orbison and many more.

It is unknown when more artists will be announced for the festival, but more waves of announcements should be expected soon leading up closer to the date of the festival.

The day festival opens on May 25^th, 2024, and the current wave of tickets can be found here.

Arctic Monkeys claim their fifth nomination for the Mercury Prize for there 7th album The Car, making them joint most nominated artists in the award history along side Radiohead.

A popular fan favourite single from the album The Car by Arctic Monkeys “There better be a mirror ball.”  along with singles such as “Perfect sense” and “Hello you” could see a second time win for the band.

Mercury Prize Awards celebrates its 32nd year, although last years show was cancelled out of respect, for Queen Elizabeth’s II death.

This years show will go ahead in all its glory on September 7th at 9pm and will be played on BBC 4 and on iPlayer, along with full coverage, from BBC Radio 6, as well as all BBC online and social media outlets. Showcasing some amazing artists, and their latest albums, viewers and listeners will have a whole host of talent to look forward to.

London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, will hold this years award show and tickets are available to purchase. Hosting this years Mercury Awards is DJ and Television presenter Lauren Laverne. There is no further announcement as to whether she will have a guest presenter along side her.

Each performer announced will feature 10 live and two pre-recorded performances at the award show; however, both Arctic Monkeys and Fred Again will be touring in September and unable to attend this years show. Instead, a special film will be shown, to celebrate both of their award nominated albums.

Mercury awards see’s four nominations for the second time, from acts Jhus, Loyle Carner, Young Father and Jessie Ware.

Jessie Ware on release of her album That! Feels Good! which is the title track to the first song, wrote on her official Instagram page to say, “This album is no longer mine, its all yours!”

Jessie Ware in an interview with NME, commented on how she felt to be nominated for her album That! Feels Good!, a decade on since her last Mercury nomination. She said, “It’s nice to see brilliant artists and lovely to be amongst them. It’s amazing to be up for my second Mercury a decade on, and I feel proud of myself.”

This highly sort after award has previously been won by the likes of Portishead in 1995 with their album Dummy, Badly Drawn Boy in 2000 with album The Hour of Bewilderbeast and Arctic Monkeys in 2006 with album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

Mercury Prize Award has no categories, and is open to all musical genres, with 12 shortlisted ‘Album of the Year’ with 1 winner. The artist to win the award will take home, not only the ‘Album of the Year’ trophy, but also a cash prize of £25,000 pounds. Not to mention blow up their social media and public awareness.

Californian dark wave artist Cold Cave will start as the support act for the duo followed by the Scottish avant-pop band Young Fathers who will be supporting them for their London show. French singer Jehnny Beth (formally of the British punk band Savages) will support the band in late June and early July. Berlin-based band Hope and British trip-hop band HÆLOS will also be supporting.

Prior to the announcement, Martin Gore praised Young Fathers to NME: “I’ve been having to listen to a lot of stuff for remixes and support artists lately. A band I thought were very unique were Young Fathers. I’ve been listening to their albums and watching live performances, and they’re just so different to everything else”.

Depeche Mode has already commenced their Memento Mori world tour, their first tour in five years, which started in Sacramento on the 23rd March. Playing a mix of their classics and new songs around the globe until mid-December, the band is set to play more than 80 dates with shows in total across North America and Europe.

The European leg will be comprised of 34 dates and will kick off in the Netherlands next month. The band will be performing in London on the 17th June at Twickenham Stadium. They are also playing Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona and Madrid this Summer. For tickets see here.

Depeche Mode released their fifteenth studio album Memento Mori on the 24th March through Columbia and Mut. The brooding electro-industrial album is the band’s first record since the passing of keyboard player and founding member Andy “Fletch” Fletcher.

The fate of the iconic group from Basildon was uncertain following Fletcher’s passing in May last year. The remaining members Martin Gore and Dave Gahan were unsure whether they could continue. Gahan told the NME that he was sure “Fletch was going to outlive all of us” and his death “still doesn’t feel real”. The band decided to continue despite their apprehensions as Gore told Live Nation Entertainment, “We’re sure this is what he would have wanted, and that has really given the project an extra level of meaning”.

For the full list of Depeche Mode’s European dates see below:

16/05/23 – Ziggo Dome – Amsterdam
20/05 – Sportspalein – Antwerpen
23/05 – Friends Arena – Stockholm
26/05 – Leipziger Festwiese – Leipzig
28/05 – Národný Futbalový Štadión – Bratislava
31/05 – F Matmut Atlantique – Bordeaux
02/06 – Primavera Sound Festival – Barcelona
04/06 – Merkur Spiel-Arena – Dusseldorf
06/06 – Merkur Spiel-Arena – Dusseldorf
09/06 – Primavera Sound Festival – Madrid
11/06 – Stadion Wankdorf – Bern
14/06 – Malahide Castle – Dublin
17/06 – Twickenham Stadium – London
20/06 – Olympiastadion – Munich
22/06 – Stade Pierre Mauroy – Lille
24/06 – Stade de France – Paris
27/06 – Parken – Copenhagen
29/06 – Deutsche Bank Park – Frankfurt
04/07 – Groupama Stadium – Lyon
07/07 – Olympiastadion – Berlin
12/07 – Stadio Olympico – Rome
14/07 – San Siro – Milan
16/07 –Stadio Renato Dall’Ara – Bologna
21/07 –Wörthersee Stadion – Klagenfurt
23/07 –Arena Zagreb – Zagreb
26/07 –Arena Națională – Bucharest
28/07 – Puskás Aréna – Budapest
30/07 – Letňany Airport – Prague
02/08 – PGE Narodowy – Warsaw
06/08 – Tallinna Lauluväljak – Tallinna
08/08 – Kaisaniemen Puisto – Helsinki
11/08 – Telenor Arena – Oslo

The Edinburgh native- Mercury Prize holders love to cut songs that cut listeners. Dealing in highly evocative textures and imagery that seems viscerally present to some distant lobe in the back of your brain. Here we see Young Fathers jump back into this head-on, with a sensory overload of timbral inflections that seems both haphazardly disjointed and yet flows majestically from each section to the next. Primal vocal chants and screams lead the song into a celestial territory of raw, unbridled emotion. Check out the song in the video below:

The band said of their latest work; “A good time trying. That’s what Ma said, she was smiling, but it was meant as a warning, it’s a track about contrast, because life is contrast – pushing through, giving up, all at the same time. Wanting everything and then wanting nothing, then wanting everything again. It’s kind of reflective of where we are at the moment, trying to remember how to do this again. 

“Trying to make music and all of the other stuff that comes along with it. Trying to forget all the bad bits, just trying to get somewhere. And that’s where we are right now, trying to get somewhere. 

“It’s the tenderness in toil, we had expelled a bunch of stuff with a lot of drive and wilder energy beforehand but this one had focus. It widened the scope again for us personally, that’s where the real high comes from. We grew another arm. We surprised ourselves. 

“So coming back with a track called ‘Geronimo’ feels quite fitting. Just the 3 of us again, but still in a fucking basement.”

Looking back at 2018s Cocoa Sugar, one review broke down the seminal album, saying; “Young Fathers shouldn’t need to simmer down or spoon-feed what they do to gain popularity or make a better living. They’ve made it this far by being unlike any other band in the country, equally motivated by writing great pop songs and sounding completely alien.”

To which the band’s own Alloysious Massaquoi later mused: “We don’t know if it has connected, but we know that it’s a great album. Every time we go into the studio we do something better than what we’ve done before.”

This will be the first new releases of music from Massive Attack since album ‘Heligoland’ was released in 2010.

Also exciting news for Trip Hop fans is that it seems pioneer of the genre ‘Tricky’ who has previously collaborated with Massive Attack looks to make a return in the new album, the first time the trio will have worked together since 1994. Robert del Naja had this to say on the matter in an interview with The Metro:

“The idea is to put a record out next year’, he says. ‘We actually get on really well at the moment because we don’t spend time in the studio together’, he says with a wry grin. ‘Me and Tricky wrote some new tracks in Paris last year, which haven’t seen the light of day yet – but that was fun. They should be on the next album.”

A full list of their tour dates and locations is given below:

January 19 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin
January 22 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
January 25 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester
January 27 – Leeds, O2 Academy
January 28 – Manchester, Apollo
January 30 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
January 31 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
February 1 – Brighton, Dome
February 3 – Brixton, O2 Academy
February 4 – Brixton, O2 Academy

Massive Attack have also announced that 2014 Mercury Prize winners Young Fathers will be joining them on tour. Since winning the 2014 Mercury Prize for their debut album ‘Dead’ Young Fathers have enjoyed a significant increase in both popularity and critical acclaim; touring with Massive Attack will be another huge step forward in the music industry.

Tickets for the tour will be available here on October 9th at 9am.

Get back into the Trip Hop mood by enjoying one of Massive Attack’s biggest hits, ‘Teardrop':