London music

London music

London-based producer Bailey Ibbs returns after a year with announcing 'Notice The Silence', his fourth EP on his own imprint Night Service, out Friday 19th December. Marking a clear evolution in sound and intention, the release sees Bailey step away from the purely club-driven intensity he's become known for, instead embracing a more introspective, emotion-led approach built on tension and sincere self-expression.

Our transport is always being upgraded to make travel smoother, our neighbourhoods are always getting new homes and community spaces, and fresh cultural offerings like restaurants and theatre shows are always popping up. So naturally, 2026 will be full of new openings. We've put together a list of all of the most exciting new projects set to alter London over the next 12 months.

Originally, the two-hour shows mixed big names from major ballet companies with young hopefuls performing classical and contemporary pieces, each number preceded by a useful little spiel by Devernay-Laurence in the role of compere and each half of the evening opened with a piano piece played by Ballet Nights' resident pianist Viktor Erik Emanuel. However, as the name indicates, musical performance formed a large chunk of the New Year's Day Concert, and two operatic voices were among the highlights of a slightly up-and-down show.

"I believe in supporting the very best. Students need the best teachers, and they also need the finest spaces in which to explore and extend their musical potential. I am proud to support this outstanding organisation and to contribute to the life and prospects of its students. I feel so lucky that my late husband Kristian Gerhard's extraordinary business life enables me to make this gift."

As a child he was acting opposite Beverley Knight in The Bodyguard in the West End and toured the production around China. He had a main role in four seasons of CBBC football drama Jamie Johnson and appeared on Casualty. You can see him dancing in the video to Stormzy's 2017 single Vossi Bop, a baby-faced scamp swinging a baseball bat into the camera lens.

Cirque du Soleil has performed annually at the Royal Albert Hall since 1996 and for 2026, the circus troupe is bringing OVO back to London, with a reimagined set design, reinvented music and new acrobatic acts. OVO, meaning 'egg' in Portuguese, is a celebration of the insect world, with a love story between a quirky fly and a spirited ladybug and a mysterious egg that sparks transformation at its heart.

"It's a huge, huge cultural loss for not just the current musicians, but the musicians of the future, especially working-class ones that used to have this as one of the few possibilities of getting inside the craft," she said.

In March 2025, the UK experimental music scene was pleasantly surprised when London venue Cafe Oto got a mention at the Oscars. Daniel Blumberg, who won an Oscar for the score for The Brutalist, used his acceptance speech to pay tribute to the East London venue and its community of "hard working, radical musicians, who've been making uncompromising music for many years" (the soundtrack features the likes of Seymour Wright, Evan Parker and Steve Noble).

Their debut album Anywhere was originally conceived in and around Des Moines, Iowa: a land where AOR rock and country blast out of car speakers on drives across desolate Rust Belt towns and vast Corn Belt farmlands. Jess Mai Walker and Joseph Ware's artistic and geographic origins seem like a far cry from this distinctly American form of vast nothingness.

this is the first actual proper major Sondheim revival to be staged in this country since the great man's passing. And the main thing worth saying about 1986's Into the Woods is that it's the work of a genius at the peak of his powers: a clever send up of fairytales that pushes familiar stories into absurd, existential, eventually very moving territory. It's both playful and profound, mischievous and sincere, cleverly meta but also a ripping yarn.

We deeply regret that these highly offensive images were presented on our stage and unequivocally apologise to anyone who attended the gig, and to the wider Jewish community. The content, which was used entirely without our knowledge, stands against all of our values.

13. Lily Allen - 'West End Girl' 12. Amaarae - 'Black Star' 11. Wolf Alice - 'The Clearing' 10. PinkPantheress - 'Fancy That' 9. Hayley Williams - 'Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party' 8. Turnstile - 'Never Enough' 7. Rosalía - 'Lux' 6. Oklou - 'Choke Enough' 5. Bad Bunny - 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' 4. CMAT - 'Euro-Country' 3. FKA Twigs - 'Eusexua' 2. Addison Rae - 'Addison' 1. Geese - 'Getting Killed'

Workplace pressure is no stranger to London professionals. Targets rise. Expectations shift. Schedules tighten. Every sector feels it. Finance moves fast. Tech races forward. Health care strains each day. Creative industries chase constant deadlines. This pace often leaves people drained and searching for something that restores energy and motivation. Music-based activities are filling that gap. They offer relief, structure, and a genuine lift in mood.

Paddington The Musical bursts onto the West End with all the warmth of a freshly toasted marmalade sandwich, transforming Michael Bond's beloved stowaway into a joyous, big-hearted stage star. What could have been a nostalgia-soaked cash-in instead arrives as a genuinely charming, sharply crafted family spectacle, witty enough for the grown-ups, fizzy enough for the kids, and sweet without ever turning sticky.

Non-parents may only be hazily aware of Dav Pilkey's long-running series of graphic novels devoted to the adventures of Dog Man, a police officer with the head - and brain - of a dog. If this sounds stupid, it's meant to be (in a further meta move, the books are supposed to be written by George and Harold, the goofy tween protagonists of Pilkey's older Captain Underpants books). Anyway, you either know this already or it's completely irrelevant to you, but long story short, there was an off-Broadway musical made in 2019 that got good reviews, and now it's headed to London.

Kneecap's meteoric rise continues apace. After a year in which the hip-hop trio has played Glastonbury, headlined Green Man and Wide Awake, and supported the mighty Fontaines DC at Finsbury Park, Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí have more planned for 2026. Today (November 24) Kneecap have announced they'll be playing their biggest ever headline show in London next summer.

Now in his mid-40s, Nico Muhly is a prolific and much in-demand composer of works for a wide range of settings from orchestral to choral music, with scores for the stage and sacred compositions. His music wouldn't be considered 'easy', but when tackled by the brilliantly inventive Irish dance-theatre maker Michael Keegan-Dolan, it makes for a superb spectacle. Keegan-Dolan's The Only Tune, which brings Marking Time to a thrilling end,

The book's designers, Alflie Allen and Max Marshall, brought grime's fashion legacy to the tactile experience. James says: "I said I didn't want to make a coffee table book as I thought that didn't feel right for grime." In consideration of how best to encapsulate the genre's feel, James, Alfie, and Max came up with the idea of condensing the photo book into a poster; each page folds out into A2, creating a storybook that unfurls alongside the narrative.