London music

London music

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.

Not only is it where Nicer Tuesdays has called home for the past few years, but it's also home to London's music and cultural scene. Once a former Art Deco cinema in Dalston, EartH reopened in 2018 by the team behind Village Underground, keeping much of the original character alongside installing remarkable contemporary sound and lighting systems. Since the reopening, EartH has become a top spot for artists and audiences who want a bit more from their night out.

PA Media Lorde has been announced as one of the all-female headliners of the 2026 All Points East Festival. The New Zealander, who played her new album Virgin at a surprise set at Glastonbury on the day of its release this summer, will be joined by Pink Pantheress, Zara Larsson and 2Hollis in an all-female lineup. Launched in 2018, the four-day festival takes place on the last two weekends of August in Victoria Park in east London and attracts tens of thousands of people.

When visitors make their way into Peter Doig's House of Music show at the Serpentine, they're confronted with not one but two sound systems. The north gallery sports a vintage Western Electric and Bell Labs system that was used in cinemas in the 1920s and 30s, while Doig's own set of Klangfilm Euronor speakers (which he acquired from Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider) also pump music into the space.

Recorded at one blistering London live show in April 2024, Libertine collaborated with Chilean guitarist Eva Leblanc, reimagining tracks from Libertine's back catalogue including ones from her time singing with 1970s anarcho-punk pioneers Crass. Produced by Crass founder Penny Rimbaud, it treads a path between performance art, experimental music and earth ritual; with her strident operatic tones, Libertine sounds like a soothsayer foretelling an apocalypse.

This is not a good time to be an Andrew Lloyd Webber hater, with the musical theatre legend on track to be almost as popular as he was in the '80s. Jamie Lloyd's Rachel Zegler-starring revival was the year's most talked about show, a first ever UK revival of Cats was announced to much anticipation; over in New York Lloyd's Sunset Boulevard revival took the Tonys by storm and critics were wowed by hipster off-Broadway Cats revival The Jellicle Ball.

For me personally, queer nightlife has allowed me to find friends, family, and role models, people from whom I could learn. These experiences have given me a sense of not being alone and have emboldened me in many aspects of life. These encounters and experiences continue to influence my music. This song is intended as a love letter to visibility and pride. No one can take away the love you feel; it belongs to you.

"Sorry for fog, I feel self-conscious," Maria Manow of Bassvictim giggles in her slightly broken English, swirls of theatrical smoke obscuring her silvery blue hair, dark top, and thigh-high socks. Her bandmate, the producer Ike Clateman, is somewhere else onstage, cloaked in the haze. The galloping bass of the phonk tribute track "Canary Wharf Drift" kicks off, and a blitz of white lights flashes across hundreds of people jumping so hard the floor wobbles.

You can track the passage of time by the seasons, or the rise and fall of the sun, or Capital's summertime/winter balls. Twice every year, Capital FM takes over Wembley Stadium or the O2: once for the Summertime Ball, and another for the Jingle Bell Ball. We've officially reached Jingle Bell season, and earlier today (November 5) the first round of artists for this year's festive party were revealed live on air.

Just round the corner from the crossing sits the studio where the Fab Four recorded not just Abbey Road, but also the likes of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Arguably the most famous recording studio in the world, it was here that The Beatles pushed creative boundaries and changed the music world forever. It remains a recording studio to this day - as well as a cultural shrine to the band that made it world famous.

In the words of Mariah Carey: it's tiiiiime. Halloween is dead and gone, and now, it's finally an acceptable time for the Christmas countdown to get underway. Festive illuminations are already being turned on across London, Xmas markets are beginning to open and Yuletide tunes are starting to permeate every shop, cafe and bar. Of course, the city's annual Christmas makeover isn't complete without its trees - and one of its most beloved, the St Pancras Christmas tree, has just been unveiled.

Noughties boybands Busted and McFly have united for a tour that is so huge that, here in the capital, by the time it's through it will have straddle two venues and six nights, over a period of a month and a half. The two groups are facing off as part of the Busted vs McFly Tour, which was announced last autumn.

Missed out in seeing Rachel Zegler doing her for-the-people balcony performance in Evita? No worries, because the star is returning to the West End in 2026, for a very limited run. And she's going to be joined by the triple-threat Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winner Ben Platt. The musical superstars are coming to the Big Smoke for a limited run of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, which tells the story of couple Cathy and Jamie from first meeting to their inevitable breakup