After 17 delightful years of Northern Pride, Curious Arts has adopted our beloved Pride and nurtured it into something very shiny and new. Brace yourself for Newcastle Pride 2026. Bring your friends, your family, your partner or just yourself to the ci…

Sunderland-based duo Trivia are launching their debut EP with a gig at Independent this July, and if you like your melodic alt-rock to come fitted with thrills as standard, then you’re going to want to be there. I suppose any article about Trivia is go…

Attention sludge metal fans! You have a new band name to etch onto your heart. The Larches only formed in Middlesbrough in 2023, but they’ve swiftly moved through the gears with a series of incendiary releases that have blown up like a whole firework-f…

A six-piece signposting all kinds of exciting new directions on Newcastle’s “weird-folk” scene? Yes, please! The region’s folk scene hasn’t been in a healthier state for many a year – particularly if you like your folk to be slightly bent out of shape,…

Just how is Durham Fringe going to squeeze 140+ performances into five days this July/August? Those 11 venues will probably help. I’ll not waffle on about how amazing this year’s Durham Fringe is (but it really is) because I’d like to dive in with some…

Yep! That is a unique, bespoke, Les Paul guitar, and the wonderful Curvy Sounds are raffling it for an incredible cause. This jaw-dropping Les Paul guitar is being crafted by Curvy Sounds founder Andrew Mills. The design—based on natural patterns that …

There’s oodles going on at the Lit & Phil over the next month or two, including this lot. A lot of places wind down a bit over the summer months. Not so the Lit & Phil. For a kick-off they have some fab and free lunchtime recitals including the Da Vinc…

GemArts is celebrating the 10th anniversary of their magnificent Masala Festival this July with a week-long programme of the very finest South Asian arts and culture that’s set to bring the heat. Now firmly established as one of the real cultural highl…

Avant-garde shenanigans will be in the offing when Marcia Bassett and Victoria Keddie (pictured) fill The Lubber Fiend in Newcastle with a strange kind of magic this July. In the landscape of American experimental music, Marcia Bassett stands as a titan …

Self-described “circus rock” outfit Papa Shango are less a traditional rock and roll band and more a full-throttle assault on the senses. They’re romping into The Cluny in Newcastle this July. Formed with the explicit goal of redefining the boundaries …

The awesome Pale Waves are playing Sunderland on the first day of August, which is kinda thrilling whichever way you look at it. Since emerging from Manchester’s fertile indie scene, Pale Waves have carved out a sonic identity that feels like a neon-so…

Oh, my! The undoubtedly out-there and absolutely incredible Ho99o9 (pronounced “Horror”) will be hitting Think Tank? in Newcastle this July with all the force of something not right. I’ve been lucky enough to catch Ho99o9 live once before, and it was l…

Ghost Dance don’t mind a drop of the dark stuff, and they’ll be drinking deep from the well of all things goth when they visit The Georgian Theatre in Stockton this July. Ghost Dance has always carried a pedigree that most gothic rock bands would die f…

One of the region’s finest and most idiosyncratic artists, Faithful Johannes, returns in July with a splendid new album, ‘Durham, Come Save Me’, and he’s launching it with a gig in Durham too. ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ sees Faithful Johannes delving back …

The Durham Brass Festival returns this July – for their 20th anniversary – and among the headliners this year are the awesome ELVANA (pictured) who are teaming up with Oompah Brass XXL. Talk about a match made in heaven. I’ve been lucky enough to catch…

Newcastle’s abundantly talented Melanie Baker has just signed to Tambourhinoceros, news which gets a hearty “Woo hoo!” from me. And the first fruits of Melanie Baker’s dalliance with Tambourhinoceros is her latest single ‘Sad Clown’, which is a blister…

Dolder are Dani and Zara Dolder, twin sisters from Newcastle who have been turning plenty of heads recently with their harmony-dunked alt-pop. And one of the heads that Dolder has been turning is that of Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards, who, on hearing a t…