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State Champ Radio Mix

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Billboard UK

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Taylor Swift continues her reign over the Official U.K. Albums Chart with The Tortured Poets Department, as the record lands its 10th non-consecutive week at No. 1. Coinciding with the end of her 21-month long Eras Tour last weekend (Dec. 8), the album remains the songwriter’s longest-running chart-topper in the U.K., the Official Charts Company […]

Pozer has shared his psych-influenced new single “Aquatic,” following a year of major commercial and critical breakthroughs. The song (which you can hear below) arrives less than a month after the Croydon artist teamed up with AJ Tracey on collaborative track “Heaterz,” which sampled “Gunshot Riddim” by pioneering grime producer Ironsoul. The 22-year-old has also […]

In 2021, Sam Fender shared “Seventeen Going Under,” the title track to his then-upcoming second LP, a tale of youthful anger, regret, longing and of a British society in collapse. That was how he saw it from his upbringing in the Newcastle area, but it resonated with listeners on the isles and beyond, nearly notching […]

ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag), which acts as a key four-day showcase for emerging European music, has announced the lineup for its 2025 edition. You can see the expanded bill below.

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On Tuesday (Dec. 10), organizers shared the full lineup for next year’s festival, which features 19 newly added artists. Recent additions include Istanbul-Rotterdam pop artist Min Taka and Amsterdam trio Housepainters, plus Sudden Lights, an indie-rock band from Latvia. 

Delegate passes, tickets and timetable information are now all available via the official ESNS website. Three-day passes start at €100 ($104.98), while individual day tickets can be found for €55 ($57.74).

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Taking place at venues across the city of Groningen, the Netherlands, between Jan. 15-18, the event will host 271 acts from 36 European countries, alongside its innovation and sustainability-focused industry conferences. The festival’s positioning in January allows it to act as a springboard for new music for the year.

Other previously announced acts include the Billboard 100-charting Jordan Adetunji, alongside other key U.K. emerging artists including Alessi Rose, Antony Szmierek, and Jacob Alon. Further European names include Slovenian rockers Astrid & The Scandals and viral Finnish singer-songwriter Joalin.

As part of its European Talent Exchange program, ESNS annually invites festival bookers and promoters from across the continent to witness a slew of new talent, and start amassing their lineups for the following summer. Since its inception in 2003, the initiative has helped 2292 artists to earn major festival bookings across the continent. 

ESNS 2024 saw performances from the Mercury Prize-nominated CMAT, as well as Lynks, Clarissa Connelly, and Eddington Again. Previous iterations of the event have bore witness to early shows from global stars such as Dua Lipa and Fontaines D.C. to Sigrid.

Jack White has shared details of a new U.K. and European tour, set to kick off in Feb. 2025. Find a full list of dates below.
The run of shows follow the soloist and former White Stripes member’s surprise sixth studio LP No Name, which hit No. 33 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart and No. 108 on the Billboard 200 upon release in August.

The tour will commence at Paris’ La Cigale theatre on Feb. 21, before taking moving on to venues in Utrecht, London, Birmingham and Glasgow over the following two weeks. The dates will wrap up with a show at the latter’s Barrowland Ballroom on March 3.

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Details of a special fan presale will be shared with those signed up for White’s newsletter, while remaining tickets will go live at 10 a.m (GMT) on Thursday (Dec. 12). Further ticket sale information can be found via the 49-year-old’s official website.

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Shortly after No Name was unveiled, White played a string of surprise club and bar show in southern U.S. states. Taking to social media on Aug. 13, the songwriter and guitarist posted a statement about how these intimate shows were part of a wider unconventional campaign in support of the album. 

“People keep saying that these are ‘Pop up shows’ we’ve been playing, well, you can call them whatever you want, but we are on tour right now,” he said at the time. “Lots of love and rock and roll to you all and you are blessed for giving that love to others, we hope that we see you out on the road soon, if not let’s get coffee and a slice of pie sometime? Music is sacred.”

The newly announced U.K. and European gigs will form part of a larger world tour through spring 2025 that includes more U.S. dates as well as concerts in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Jack White U.K. and European 2025 tour dates:Feb. 21 – Paris, France @ La CigaleFeb. 22 – Paris, France @ Le TrianonFeb. 23 – Paris, France @ Le TrianonFeb. 25 – Utrecht, the Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg (Ronda)Feb. 26 – Utrecht, the Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg (Ronda)Feb. 28 – London, England @ TroxyMarch 1 – London, England @ TroxyMarch 2 – Birmingham, England @ O2 AcademyMarch 3 – Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland Ballroom

Limitless Live has announced its return to London’s Roundhouse for its fourth consecutive year on May 4, 2025.
The event — billed as the U.K.’s largest free live music show with social purpose at its core — seeks to inspire young people from underrepresented backgrounds across the capital. All tickets will be free of charge and will be distributed through youth charities and community organizations. Further details can be found via the Roundhouse website.

Limitless Live 2025 will be headlined by grime MC and rapper Ghetts, who released his fourth studio album On Purpose, With Purpose, through Warner Records in February. The record peaked at No. 29 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, and went on to receive a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Prize in September. 

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Also on the line-up are hip-hop duo Young T & Bugsey, and singer/songwriter Nafe Smallz, with further acts to be announced next year. Limitless Live will partner with KFC and Viagogo to provide free transport for young attendees wishing to travel to the event from other cities across the U.K., including Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds.

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Previous iterations of Limitless Live have included six-time BRIT Award winner RAYE, as well as Stefflon Don, Krept & Konan, Unknown T, and Ms Banks. Over the years, its founder, Tolu Farinto, has offered 12-month internships to a portion of attendees, alongside helping other ticket-holders to secure work placements at Universal Music’s London office.Speaking in a press release earlier this year, Farinto said: “Limitless Live continues to be a beacon of light representing a continued commitment to supporting the aspirations and wellbeing of young people, ensuring that as we navigate a cost of living crisis, underrepresented young people still have access to live music and the best acts in the U.K.”

LONDON — ASM Global and the Music Venues Trust (MVT) are expanding their partnership and support to grassroots music venues and scenes in the U.K.
Starting in December, ASM Global, the venues and live entertainment giant, will strengthen its ties with the MVT through a number of new initiatives to help raise awareness and funds for the grassroots music scene where future stars start their live journeys. 

Part of the new initiative will encourage music fans to learn more about the work the MVT does for the independent and emerging music scene, as well as opportunities to donate directly to the MVT both inside of the venues, or during the ticket onsale process.

In the U.K., ASM Global operates a number of large arenas, including London’s OVO Arena Wembley, the AO Arena in Manchester, Leeds’ First Direct Arena, the Utilita Arena in Newcastle and more. 

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The two companies have collaborated previously across a number of topics, including training opportunities across health and safety, mental health and wellbeing and marketing. In 2023, Enter Shikari pledged £1 from every ticket sold on their U.K. arena tour to the MVT’s Lifelife fund, which included a show at the OVO Wembley. Next year, Katy Perry’s Lifetimes tour will hit the AO Arena in Manchester, with £1 from every ticket being donated to the MVT to distribute amongst their members.

This is the latest step by the entertainment and live industry to help tackle the growing problem of venue and nightclub closure. In 2023, the MVT reported that the number of grassroots music venues declined from 960 to 835, a fall of 13% and resulted in a loss of as many as 30,000 shows and 4,000 jobs. 

Last month the British Government called upon the live music industry to introduce a voluntary levy on all tickets sold for stadium and arena concerts in the market to help support smaller venues. “We believe this would be the quickest and most effective mechanism for a small portion of revenues from the biggest shows to be invested in a sustainable grassroots sector,” the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said in a report on Nov. 14.

Some artists have taken it upon themselves to lead the conversation. In September, Coldplay announced that they would be donating 10% of all proceeds from their 10-night run at Wembley Stadium next August to the MVT and grassroots scene. Tickets for Sam Fender’s current run at arenas in the U.K. and Ireland – including ASM’s First Direct Arena in Leeds – include a similar £1 donation to the MVT.

Speaking to Billboard in September, Mark Davyd, CEO of the MVT, said that their door is very open to any artist or company on this topic. “I want this to become the new normal – I don’t think that’s stupidly ambitious. There are lots and lots of examples of industries – all properly functioning industries – to reinvest to get future gains. As soon as you start talking about it as an investment program into research and development, I don’t think companies should be resistant to that but should be thinking, ‘that makes perfect sense.’”

It’s peculiar to hear Jacob Slater talk so effusively about “the quiet life” when he is renowned for one of the most intense, rib-shakingly loud live sets on the indie circuit. He’s the sort of artist, it seems, who is striving to find meaning in life’s simpler moments.

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“I haven’t had a break in a long while,” he says, eyes narrowing as he lights a cigarette. The smoke plumes drift towards a large Bob Dylan poster spread across the ceiling. “The sea is cold and there’s been waves here the past few days, so it’s been good to get back out there. I’m a little bit rusty, though, as I now spend so much time out of the water.”

The Wunderhorse frontman has been readjusting to the natural rhythms of life in his adopted locale of Newquay, Cornwall. It’s here where the 27-year-old trained as a surf instructor a few years ago, a solo venture that helped to relight his creative fire after burning bright and crashing out in the much-hyped but short-lived London punk band Dead Pretties. Recently, he has spent his time sleeping in, listening to records, and catching up with friends over coffee. Best of all, Slater says in a blissed-out tone, there is little to no mobile phone signal. The temptation to go off-grid clearly looms large.

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Returning to the coast has become an outlet for Slater’s newfound sense of lightness. Rarely at home, he’s spent much of 2024 insulated inside a touring bubble, playing shows across Europe with Fontaines D.C. and racking up huge British festival appearances at the likes of Reading & Leeds and TRNSMT. In August, Wunderhorse’s second LP, Midas (Communion Records), hit No.6 on the Official U.K. Charts upon release; a major feat, given that 2022 debut Cub failed to crack the Top 40.

On his birthday, Slater got a call from his manager saying they had booked a gig at London’s 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace next spring. In November, the group supported Fontaines D.C. throughout Europe, and now, through December, the band are opening for Sam Fender at arenas across the U.K. and Ireland, capping off an extraordinary year.

Though often mired in themes of self-destruction and volatility, the music of Wunderhorse is uplifting, cathartic, and compassionate. The four-piece are cult stars at the threshold of mainstream crossover, a reality that they are now encountering on the road. Each night, they come eye-to -eye with a predominantly young fanbase that has recently ballooned in size as a result of “unexpected” TikTok popularity. “Not to sound like an old man, but I really don’t know how that whole ‘online thing’ works. Yet it seems to be a real beast,” says Slater, speaking over video call.

It was after a headline show at Glasgow’s Barrowlands venue last month that Slater realized the band’s profile was changing. Combating a disrupted sleep schedule that had left him feeling like “a nocturnal creature,” he ventured out, alone, to walk off all the adrenaline he had worked up on stage. What he found was a city gradually revealing itself through characterful people, foggy images of bars shuttering up for the night, and the distant expanse of the M8 motorway. 

Only an hour earlier, with sweat beads lining his forehead, he had been growling into the mic, stomping as each song reached its soaring climax. Video footage of the performance circulated on social media the following day, with clips of gig-goers crying and barking doing the rounds. Wunderhorse may have already inspired fan tattoos and custom trainers, but this felt like a new level of visibility altogether.

“Recently, the audience has solidified a bit more in its demographic,” Slater explains. “At first, I didn’t quite know how to take it when people were telling us that we had young fans. But I remember when I was younger, music meant so much to me. It still does, of course, but music has a particular potency when you’re a teenager. If people are connecting with us at that age, then that’s amazing.”

Initially a one-man endeavour, the first seismic shift in Wunderhorse’s trajectory took place when Slater decided to expand the project to a full band in the early days of creating Midas. He brought Harry Tristan Fowler (guitar), Peter Woodin (bass) and Jamie Staples (drums) into the fold, having met each of them at gigs in London and their native Hertfordshire. Slater figured out early that the best way to approach music was to build his own world and invite people in; he and his bandmates soon honed their bluesy, expansive, emotionally-weathered sound after bonding over seminal records from Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

The release of Cub, meanwhile, had left Slater feeling as though he was treading water as a lyricist. Much of the album’s writing resonated because of its unvarnished frankness about a dark personal history, traversing selfishness (“Purple”), nihilism, and traumatic teenage experiences (“Butterflies,” “Teal”). For its author, however – who was in recovery from addiction issues at the time – having to accept the circumstances of his previous life for what they were became too much of a mental burden to bear.

“This is probably not the stuff you’re meant to say in interviews, but I think every artist has songs they wrote when they were younger and now struggle with,” Slater says, grinning beneath a big, raggedy scarf. “You start to realize that, whatever you write, you’re going to have to live with it for a long time. If people are singing songs back to you and you don’t like the words that you’ve written, then you end up standing on stage feeling like you’ve deceived yourself.”

Wunderhorse

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Slater notes how his record contract stated that Cub was meant to see him “deliver 18 songs at a minimum.” Only 11 tracks made the final cut, and he put “any leftovers that didn’t fit into the Wunderhorse world” onto 2023 solo LP Pinky, I Love You. Curiously, eagle-eyed fans noticed that, a few weeks back, the earliest Wunderhorse music videos had been removed from YouTube; they responded by creating a Google Drive folder with all the newly missing clips. Today, Slater admits this was his doing: “If I had it my way, there would be no promo, there’d be no videos. I find it all really difficult because it’s not the way that my brain works.” 

Releasing Midas didn’t banish Slater’s feelings of alienation towards the music industry entirely, but it did explore a more peaceful coexistence within it. It seems as though the search for salvation he sings of on “Silver” is starting to bear fruit. Despite it all, Slater thinks that aspects of his life today would astound his younger self: he is thoughtful yet steadfast in describing how publications describing Wunderhorse as “generational,” only two albums in, can be disorienting for a musician still coming to terms with his changing stature. 

“Worrying whether you’re going to become this ‘grand thing’ that people are saying you are will only cause you to get in the way of yourself. Nobody even knows what such titles mean,” he says. “Any songwriter who has stood the test of time has managed to stay true to who they are. Like, did Bob Dylan wake up one day and go, ‘I’m gonna be generational?’ No.”

It’s clear that Slater sees a gap between his intentions and the public’s reaction to his musical output. He’ll later mention how Midas’ “Superman” was “completely misunderstood” by listeners, but he’s also trying to let go of these things which are out of his control. “Nobody’s ever going to feel what you felt when you wrote the song as everyone is at the center of their own universe,” he says. “And that’s part of the magic.” True self-acceptance: Slater is steadily getting there, inch-by-inch, wave-by-wave, song-by-song.

Despite stiff competition from a pair of festive classics, Gracie Abrams’ breakout single “That’s So True” has landed a fifth week at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart. Earlier this week, Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” – which was recently remixed for its 40th anniversary – was on course to take […]

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has notched its ninth non-consecutive week at No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart (Dec. 6). The achievement comes following the release of Swift’s Anthology edition on Nov. 29, which includes all 31 songs and acoustic versions on physical formats and streaming. The Official Charts Company reports that 79% […]