The 02

AWARDS SHORTLIST: MONSTAS: Best Gig of 2025

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It’s been quite the year, it’s almost Christmas and what would the festive season be without some recognition of the best of 2025? Over the next 2 months we’ll shortlist five nominees in each of 17 categories for our Oscars, or monstas if you will, of 2025.

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PREVIEW: 9 reasons why we can’t wait for November 2025 starring All My Sons

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  1. All My Sons starring Paapa Essiedu, Bryan Cranston & Marianne Jean-Baptiste 

We last saw Sally Field in this Arthur Miller play at the Old Vic in 2019. Ivo Van Hove (Opening Night, Gielgud Theatre) is at the helm of this version at the Wyndham’s Theatre starring Paapa Essiedu, who won last year’s Best Theatre Actor monsta, Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Runs 14 November through 7 March 2026. Tickets Our review

  • Read on for reasons including Wicked 2, Everything But The Girl hits album and Noel Coward at the Menier
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SONG OF THE MONTH: Sound & Light by Alison Goldfrapp (July 2025)

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WORTH A LOOK?: ****

We’re writing this from a holiday in Iceland where we’re planning a visit to Norway to see the Northern Lights and this 1st track written for Alison Goldfrapp’s 2nd album Flux couldn’t be more pertinent.

  • Read on for reasons including why Flux is 1 of the most eagerly awaited albums of the summer
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GIG REVIEW: Pulp at The 02

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By Neil Durham

WHEN?: Friday 13 June 2025, tour runs through 26 September 2025

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

Setlist: Spike Island; Grown Ups; Slow Jam; Sorted For Es and Whizz; Disco 2000; F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E; Tina; Help The Aged; Farmers’ Market; This Is Hardcore; Sunrise; Something Changed; The Fear; O.U. (Gone Gone); Party Hard; Acrylic Afternoons; Do You Remember The First Time?; Mis-Shapes; Got To Have Love; Babies; Common People; A Sunset

Tonight Pulp discover shortly before taking the stage at this arena for the 1st time that More, their 1st new album for 24 years, is their 3rd UK charttopper, their 1st since 1998’s This Is Hardcore.

  • Read on for reasons including how this is pop’s greatest resurrection of the year
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ALBUM OF THE MONTH: More by Pulp (June 2025)

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WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Tracklist: Spike Island; Tina; Grown Ups; Slow Jam; Farmers Market; My Sex; Got To Have Love; Background Noise; Partial Eclipse; The Hymn Of The North; A Sunset

30 years ago we watched Pulp headline Glastonbury and never dreamed that 28 years later at their Eventim Apollo gig we’d be yearning for new material from them.

  • Read on for reasons including where to see them on tour this year including The 02
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GIG REVIEW: Kylie Minogue at The 02

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Monday 26 May 2025, tour runs through 26 August 2025

Setlist: Lights Camera Action; In Your Eyes; Get Outta My Way; What Do I Have To Do?; Come Into My World; Good As Gone; Spinning Around; On A Night Like This; Last Night I Dreamt I Fell In Love; Better The Devil You Know; Shocked; Things We Do For Love; Dancing; The Locomotion; Hold On To Now; Never Too Late; What Kind Of Fool?; I Should Be So Lucky; Where The Wild Roses Grow; Say Something; Supernova/Real Groove/Magic/Where Does The DJ Go?; Confide In Me; Slow; Timebomb; Edge Of Saturday Night; Tension; Can’t Get You Out Of My Head; All The Lovers; Padam Padam; Love At First Sight

Kylie has been releasing music for almost as long as we’ve been listening to pop and tonight we marvel at the consistency of her hits over 5 decades as well as the showgirl pizzazz with which she performs them.

  • Read on for reasons including how Kylie radiates warmth and is as captivating as she ever was
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GIG REVIEW: Scissor Sisters and Alison Goldfrapp at The 02

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By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Friday 23 May 2025, tour runs through 15 August 2025

AG Setlist: Ride A White Horse; Number 1; Dreaming; Believer; Find Xanadu; Reverberotic; Rocket; Ooh La La; Strict Machine; Fever

SS Setlist: Laura; Better Luck; She’s My Man; Tits On The Radio; I Can’t Decide; Lovers In The Back Seat; Running Out; Take Your Mama; Paul McCartney; Fire With Fire; Mary; It Can’t Come Quickly Enough; Sex And Violence; Any Which Way; Comfortably Numb; Invisible Light; Let’s Have A Kiki; I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’; Return To Oz; Filthy Gorgeous; Music Is The Victim

It’s the Friday night of a bank holiday weekend and we arrive at our seats early to see an extraordinary greatest hits support set from 1 of our favourite pop stars.

  • Read on for reasons including special guests Self Esteem and Sir Ian McKellen
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9 reasons why we can’t wait for June 2025 starring Rachel Zegler as Jamie Lloyd’s Evita

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

  1. Jamie Lloyd’s Evita at the Palladium

Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre hosted Lloyd’s Evita in 2019 but we’re imagining this Palladium incarnation will be different starring as it does West Side Story‘s Zegler. We’re hoping it will be more Romeo And Juliet than Sunset Boulevard. Runs at the Palladium 14 June through 6 September 2025. Tickets Our review

  • Read on for reasons including Omari Douglas, new Pulp LP and Ruth Wilson onstage
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SONG OF THE MONTH: Spike Island by Pulp (May 2025)

Posted on by mrmonstagigz

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

We last saw Pulp live at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo in July 2023 and wrote: ‘We absolutely yearn for new material as good as those songs like Common People which soundtracked and shaped our adulthood’.

  • Read on for reasons including how to see Pulp live at London’s The 02 this summer
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