WORTH A LOOK? ****
Southampton 5-piece Welly approach their difficult 2nd album – or is it technically their 3rd? – without fear on this 145-second tale of being rebuffed romantically that feels more New Order than their previous Britpop-inspired efforts.
By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum
WHEN?: Saturday 26 September 2026
Ally Pally, we swore we’d never return due to the walk and public transport … obviously we did, because, well PBS!
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN?: Thursday 17 September, tour runs through 24 September 2026
Setlist: Remedy; Waiting On Nina; Fault Lines; The Thread; I Don’t Need Light; From Here To Nowhere; Three Moon Trail; Removed; Matter; Early Promise; DLR
Family Stereo ‘folkish rockery’ frontman Blake Watt is reflecting on this, his band’s 1st sell-out London show, and tells an amusing story about ‘survivors’ guilt’.
You, dear reader, are given the chance to vote in 17 categories from October this year to tell us your favourite theatre, music, TV, film and podcast of 2026.
By Aline Mahrud
WORTH A LOOK?: ***
WHEN? Friday 28 August, opens 3 September and runs through 24 October 2026 RUNTIME: 150 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
The best thing about this revival of a 2003 US play inspired by a 1981 scandal in which a journalist won a Pulitzer Prize for writing about an inner city child only to later admit the story was fraudulent is the promising performance of Letitia Wright (pictured centre above) at its heart.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****
WHEN? Monday 24 August, opens 2 September and runs through 3 October 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)
Sophie Okonedo (Medea, @SohoPlace) is the beating heart of this revival of Brian Friel’s (Dancing At Lughnasa, National) take on this very Chekhovian tale of an 1840s Russian landowner’s wife’s infatuation with her son’s young tutor.
You, dear reader, are given the chance to vote in 17 categories from October this year to tell us your favourite theatre, music, TV, film and podcast of 2026.
We last saw Anderson resplendent on a revolving London stage at the Young Vic in A Streetcar Named Desire and here she stars in the classic Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? opposite Billy Crudup (High Noon, Harold Pinter Theatre) at the intimate @SohoPlace. Directed by Marianne Elliott (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, National Theatre) runs 21 September through 19 December 2026. Tickets Our review
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
Tracklist: Hey Saint Jude; Intruder; Oh No You Don’t; Lost Time; Jump In; Giddy In A Good Way; Cut Me Dead; Cast A Stone; Pretenders; Paper Planes; Leaving The Scene; Pollyanna Says
Same Sun/Same Sky is the 1st new album for 34 years by The Darling Buds and it draws on the best of the many styles of the band’s 1st trio of LPs to underline why they were so underrated.
By Neil Durham
WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2
WHEN? Thursday 9 July, runs through Saturday 11 July 2026
Festival organisers are giving away free sombreros as temperatures surpass 40 degrees – the highest recorded for 112 years – and Suede compliment this vast crowd on their enthusiastic singing along.
