The newly released I.T offers the first substantial introduction to the world of In Transit. Driven by hard-hitting drums, emotionally resonant melodies and crisp flows, the track moves between vulnerability and confidence as Ogundipe reflects on his experiences and the ambitions that have shaped his creative journey.

Theo Ogundipe

Theo Ogundipe (Kiera Smith)

The title track also establishes the wider philosophy behind the EP, which Ogundipe describes as both a personal memoir and a declaration of intent. Rather than approaching music through the perspective of a character, as he often does in his acting work, the project gives him an opportunity to strip away those layers and speak directly about his own life.

Entirely self-produced, In Transit represents a significant creative undertaking for Ogundipe, who taught himself the production skills required to realise the project independently. The resulting record brings together raw R&B textures, Afrofuturistic hip-hop and electronic production to create a sound that reflects both his personal history and his perspective on the world around him.

Born in Nigeria and raised in the UK, Ogundipe places his experience as a Black man at the centre of the project while also looking beyond the personal, using his music to consider wider questions around identity, society and belonging.

Across the seven tracks, that approach takes shape through Plato Freestyle, I.T, OFB, L.A, AFY, ROCA and PIF, with the EP presenting a snapshot of where Ogundipe is creatively at this point in his life.

The project arrives at a particularly busy moment for the multidisciplinary artist. Ogundipe has established himself as an actor across screen and stage, with roles including Ruben in Top Boy, alongside appearances in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Pompeii: Out Of Time, Mickey 17 and Playing Nice.

His theatre work has included productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Old Vic, Sheffield Crucible and Manchester Royal Exchange, including roles in Cymbeline and Troilus and Cressida.

He is also set to appear as Cinna in The Hunger Games: On Stage at the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre, opening this autumn.

With In Transit, Ogundipe brings those different creative disciplines together while establishing a musical voice that is entirely his own. The result is an introduction to an artist using music not simply as another medium, but as a more direct way of documenting his experiences.

Pool Kids Turn Troxy Into Their Own Playground

The Lemonheads @ Roadmender

The Lemonheads @ Roadmender (Henry Finnegan / @finneganfoto)

With Evan Dando, this was never likely to be a slick, carefully choreographed nostalgia tour. On paper, though, the ingredients are everything you could want from a The Lemonheads set: plenty from It’s a Shame About Ray and Come on Feel the Lemonheads, alongside the covers and musical detours that have always been part of Dando’s musical DNA. Ramones, Elvis Costello, Michael Nesmith and Edwyn Collins all find their way into the evening, alongside a perhaps slightly over-generous helping of Smudge.

And when the songs click, they really click. Big Gay Heart, Rudderless, Confetti and Divan are particular highlights, while Different Drum remains one of those songs capable of instantly transporting a listener somewhere else.

What strikes me most is just how instinctive Dando remains as a musician. There are moments when a song begins and decades of muscle memory seem to take over. The melodies are there. The guitar playing is there. That unmistakably loose The Lemonheads sound is still there.

For a few minutes at a time, everything else disappears and you are reminded exactly why these songs, and the man who wrote so many of them, still mean so much to people.

Around halfway through, the show changes shape completely. Dando moves into a more acoustic setting, taking centre stage with just his guitar and the songs.

In some ways, it plays directly to his strengths. Stripped of everything else, you can hear just how naturally these songs still live within him. There is nowhere for the songs to hide and, equally, nowhere for Dando to hide either. The second half feels more intimate and unpredictable, but also considerably more exposed.

Having seen Dando perform many times over the years, this feels different. The dry wit and slightly chaotic charm that once filled the gaps between songs are noticeably quieter. Comments sometimes become mumbled fragments that disappear before they have really begun. At times he seems distant, only for another song to start and that extraordinary musical instinct to suddenly switch back on.

That contrast becomes one of the more striking elements of the night. There is a vulnerability to Dando’s performance that feels more noticeable than on previous occasions I have seen him. Between songs he can seem distant or lost in thought, but once the guitar kicks in, those familiar instincts return and the music seems to pull everything back into focus.

It would be easy to view the evening through the prism of the headlines that have surrounded Dando, but doing so would also risk missing what is actually happening on stage. This is neither spectacle nor car crash. There are simply moments that feel fragile, sitting alongside others that remind you what a naturally gifted songwriter and musician he remains.

And perhaps, as an audience, that is as far as we should take it. Nobody standing in that room really knows what is happening in somebody else’s life, and it is not our place to diagnose or speculate. What we can judge is the music. People have bought tickets because these songs mean something to them. I have too.

And there is genuine joy in hearing them again. Forty years into The Lemonheads story, Rudderless can still fill a room. Confetti can still make you grin from its opening chords. Big Gay Heart remains gloriously bruised and beautiful. And when Different Drum arrives, it is difficult not to be swept along with everyone else.

Maybe that is the strange contradiction at the heart of this show. This is not necessarily the strongest performance I have seen from Evan Dando, but there are flashes that remind me exactly why I have kept coming back. Underneath the rough edges remains an instinctive musician and a catalogue of truly brilliant songs.

Perhaps that is what an anniversary tour should ultimately do. Not pretend that nothing has changed, but remind you why the music mattered in the first place. For all the concern I feel watching him, there are still moments, particularly when it is just Dando, a guitar and a room full of people who know every word, when he disappears into those songs and everything else falls away.

Forty years on, that music clearly still means an enormous amount to the people standing in front of him. You just hope the person who created so much of it is looking after himself, too.

Live review & photography of The Lemonheads @ Roadmender, Northampton, by Henry Finnegan on 3rd October 2026. Instagram: @finneganfoto | Facebook: @finneganfoto

Moseley Folk & Arts Festival At 20 – Twenty Years Young And Still Full Of Surprises

That might sound like a fairly obvious statement, but in 2026 it increasingly isn’t. His latest project, Niles City Sessions, was recorded almost entirely live, largely in a single day, with mistakes, breaths and imperfections deliberately left in. The aim was never to create something pristine. It was to create something human. “I didn’t want people to hear the drums,” he tells me. “I wanted people to hear the drummer.”

Josh Weathers

Josh Weathers (Press)

It’s a line that probably explains Josh Weathers better than any genre label ever could.

That label, for the record, is Texas Country Soul. Weathers admits he isn’t entirely sure who first coined it, but it fits. He grew up with country music coming from one side of the family car and classic soul from the other. His mum played the country radio staples of the ’80s and ’90s, alongside huge voices like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, while his dad leaned towards Marvin Gaye, Anita Baker and The Gap Band. “I couldn’t help but be influenced by both things,” he says.

For Weathers, there has never been much of a dividing line between them. Traditional country, George Jones, Merle Haggard and George Strait all sit comfortably alongside Muscle Shoals and classic Southern soul. “In my head and in my heart, all those things sort of fit together because that was my world.”

That explains why Niles City Sessions feels less like someone deliberately trying to fuse genres and more like an artist simply playing the music that naturally comes out of him. Sometimes it sounds like country. Sometimes it sounds like soul. Sometimes it lands somewhere right in the middle.

For many people, their introduction to Weathers came through his enormous rendition of I Will Always Love You. Initially, that level of attention wasn’t entirely comfortable. “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m going to have to sing this every night for the rest of my life.’”

His relationship with the song changed over time. “Now I sort of view it as, I get to sing it every night.”

In a music industry where simply getting noticed can sometimes feel harder than making the music itself, Weathers now sees being associated with one extraordinary performance as a gift rather than a burden. “Just to be known for something is a great thing.”

The performance ultimately became much bigger than a viral clip. It also helped pull him back towards a music career he had deliberately stepped away from.

Weathers and his wife had travelled to India during the process of adopting their first daughter, an experience he describes as life-changing. The couple would eventually adopt three girls from India and establish the nonprofit Love Like You Mean It International. For several years, humanitarian work became his primary focus, and music initially returned simply as a way of helping raise money for those projects.

Then I Will Always Love You exploded online for a second time. This time, on Facebook. Around 40 million views later, Weathers realised music might have other ideas for him. “I was like, well, I guess I’m playing music again.”

That journey makes the philosophy behind Niles City Sessions feel particularly fitting. Weathers recorded it with musicians he has played alongside for around a decade. There was no need to manufacture chemistry because the chemistry was already there. “We really cut that whole thing in a day.”

Most of the vocals are live, and rather than repairing every slight imperfection, Weathers wanted them preserved. “Let’s track these songs a few times and just leave all the warts in there.”

That attitude feels increasingly deliberate, particularly now. “AI has become this buzzword and this crazy thing where robots are charting. Those songs are always perfect because they can’t be anything but perfect.”

For Weathers, perfection isn’t necessarily the goal. “I miss music being imperfect.”

And that is exactly what makes Niles City Sessions work. It doesn’t sound unfinished or under-produced. Quite the opposite. It sounds huge when it needs to and intimate when it should, but crucially it sounds like people. You can almost feel the musicians responding to each other in the room.

That live mentality also explains the inclusion of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. It might initially look like a bold cover choice, but for Weathers it is hardly a new song at all. He has been playing it live for close to twenty years. “It’s become sort of a staple of our live show.”

Josh Weathers

Josh Weathers (Press)

When the band entered the studio, it was one of the obvious songs to start with because everybody already knew it inside out. Over the years they had slowed it down, added steel guitar and almost turned it into a Texas two-step. Weathers didn’t fully appreciate how far their version had drifted from the original until he listened back afterwards. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re dragging!’”

But that is precisely why it works. It no longer feels like a Fleetwood Mac song being covered by Josh Weathers. It feels like a Josh Weathers song that just happens to have been written by Fleetwood Mac.

Ask him for the one track on Niles City Sessions that best introduces Josh Weathers and he goes straight to the final song, You Either Love Me or You Don’t. “It’s sort of like a good blend of the country and soul that I tend to represent.”

He’s right. It also feels like the perfect closer, the kind of song that doesn’t gently finish a record so much as kick the chair back, walk out and leave the door swinging behind it. It is, as I tell him, how you leave the room.

If Niles City Sessions represents where Josh Weathers is musically, his Grand Ole Opry debut represented something rather more symbolic. Strangely, he says the magnitude of it didn’t initially sink in. He was excited, but not particularly nervous. Then he walked out for soundcheck and saw the circle. “That circle on the floor represents so much because so many people have stood in that circle and played there.”

Suddenly the history became very real. Elvis. George Jones. George Strait. Merle Haggard. Heroes who had occupied the exact same patch of stage. “That was when I was like, ‘Whoa. This is a very big deal.’”

And somehow, that moment is only one part of what has been an extraordinary year. Around 150 days on the road, multiple projects released, a Grand Ole Opry debut and a European tour. When I list it back to him, there’s a pause. “I genuinely have not stopped long enough to think about it.”

Then he laughs. “So thanks for putting that in perspective and making me feel overwhelmed.” Sorry, Josh.

That European run will bring Weathers to the UK alongside Drake Milligan, arriving at an interesting time for country music over here. British audiences have embraced country and Americana on a scale that would have felt unlikely even a few years ago.

For Weathers, authenticity might be part of the reason. “It’s real musicians playing real instruments.” It connects directly back to everything he wanted Niles City Sessions to represent. People increasingly want to know what they’re hearing is real.

Weathers is also hoping the relationship with UK audiences goes beyond one tour. “I’m hoping that it becomes a second home for me really, just all over the UK and Europe.”

Then comes another line that feels very Josh Weathers. “Go where you’re celebrated, not where you’re tolerated.” British audiences, of course, can behave a little differently. They listen. Sometimes very quietly. Which can occasionally leave visiting American artists wondering whether anyone is enjoying themselves at all.

Weathers isn’t worried. He has performed all over the world and understands that crowds behave differently from place to place, but he also has something planned. Rather than simply dropping the same cover into every show, he wants to acknowledge each city with a song connected to that area.

Bristol gets something. Birmingham gets something. Manchester gets Rick Astley. “I’m going to Rickroll everybody in Manchester.” Apparently Oasis has already been ruled out. Probably wisely.

Anyone who has watched Josh Weathers perform will know there isn’t much restraint involved. He sings like someone who has absolutely no intention of saving his voice for tomorrow. With around 150 days on the road this year alone, that seems slightly insane. His reasoning is simple. “People paid to come and see you. You owe it to those people, no matter how many there are there, to give it everything that you have.”

There is another thought that drives him too. What if this were the last show? He points to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s final performance at Alpine Valley and the mythology that now surrounds it. “I always think, I’m gonna leave it all out there because if it’s the last time, I want it to be epic.”

It doesn’t come from morbidity. It comes from urgency. That same philosophy appears in the Niles City Sessions track One. The chorus carries a simple idea that Weathers says has become something of a mantra. “Give life all you got because you only get one.”

Before we finish, I ask Weathers perhaps the most important question of the conversation. If I had one night in Texas and he had to convince me nowhere else did it better, where would we go? Straight to the north side of Fort Worth. Exchange Street. A show at Billy Bob’s Texas, the enormous honky-tonk where national acts share a building with actual bull riding. Then across the street to the much smaller White Elephant Saloon.

Josh Weathers

Josh Weathers (Press)

Barbecue follows. Then Mexican food. By the end of the evening, Weathers promises I’ll be wondering why anybody would ever leave Texas. There is only one warning. “The British palate is not ready for enchiladas.” His advice? Bring antacids.

Maybe that is the thing with Josh Weathers. Whether he is talking about family, humanitarian work, playing the Grand Ole Opry, singing until there is nothing left in the tank or simply taking a British journalist for Mexican food in Fort Worth, there doesn’t appear to be much interest in doing things halfway.

And when he arrives in the UK, that may be exactly what makes him stand out. The imperfections will stay, the band will sound like a band, the drummer will sound like a drummer, and Josh Weathers will leave absolutely everything he has on the stage.

Josh Weathers tours the UK with Drake Milligan in November 2026.

Interview with Josh Weathers by Henry Finnegan on 5th October 2026. Instagram: @finneganfoto | Facebook: @finneganfoto.

Ryan & Rory: From A Cold Call To The Long Road — ‘All Gas, No Brakes’

Louise Wener of Sleeper

Louise Wener of Sleeper (Alex Lake / Two Short Days)

The ten-date End Of The World Tour will see Sleeper joined by South London four-piece Turin Brakes as special guests, with the run including a major London date at the Roundhouse on 27 March.

The tour follows the release of End Of The World, the explosive title track and latest single from the forthcoming album, which arrives on 12 February 2027. The record marks a new chapter for the band and for frontwoman Louise Wener, bringing together the huge melodies and anthemic choruses associated with Sleeper with a more emotionally direct approach to songwriting.

Written and recorded between Paris and Manchester, End Of The World is produced by Joe Cross, whose credits include work with The Courteeners, Hurts, Louis Tomlinson and The Slow Readers Club. Across ten tracks, the album explores grief, regret, loneliness, heartbreak and renewal, ultimately becoming a record about letting go and reclaiming yourself.

Despite the weight of its subject matter, the album is described as sonically bold and euphoric, with Wener’s trademark hooks and instantly memorable choruses remaining central to the band’s sound.

For Sleeper, the album follows The Modern Age, their 2019 comeback record and first studio album in more than two decades. That release marked the band’s return to recording following their 1998 split, reaching the UK Top 20 and leading to a new run of sold-out UK shows and major festival appearances.

Sleeper - Star Shaped Festival @ The Forum

Louise Wener of Sleeper - Star Shaped Festival @ The Forum (Kalpesh Patel)

The forthcoming tour will give fans the opportunity to hear material from End Of The World alongside the songs that established Sleeper as one of Britain’s defining guitar bands of the 1990s.

Joining them throughout the tour will be Turin Brakes, the South London alternative band founded by childhood friends Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian. The group released their tenth studio album Spacehopper in 2025, adding to a catalogue that includes the Mercury Prize-nominated and Gold-certified The Optimist LP, as well as the 2003 Top Five album Ether Song.

The latter featured the Top Five single Pain Killer (Summer Rain), while the band’s wider catalogue has produced seven Top 40 singles and six Top 40 albums, with more than one million records sold worldwide.

The pairing brings together two long-established British acts for a substantial run of dates, with Sleeper returning to some of the UK’s most respected venues as they begin the next chapter of their career.

Tickets for the tour go on presale at 10am on Wednesday 14th October, with general sale opening at 10am on Friday 16th October.

Formed in the mid-1990s, Sleeper went on to score eight Top 40 singles across three Top 10 albums and sell more than one million records. Fronted by Wener, the band toured extensively across the UK, US and Japan, played the main stages at Reading and Glastonbury, toured with Blur, supported R.E.M. at Milton Keynes Bowl and toured America with Elvis Costello.

Louise Wener of Sleeper

Louise Wener of Sleeper (Alex Lake / Two Short Days)

After splitting in 1998, Sleeper returned in 2017 and began a new era with The Modern Age. Now, with End Of The World, the band are looking ahead once again, taking their new material and celebrated back catalogue to audiences across the country.

UK Tour Dates:

MARCH 2027
12th – Nottingham, Rock City
13th – Manchester, Albert Hall
18th – Sheffield, Electric
19th – Newcastle, Digital
20th – Glasgow, Barrowland
26th – Bristol, The Crane
27th – London, Roundhouse

APRIL 2027
1st – Brighton, Brighton Dome
2nd – Norwich, UEA
3rd – Birmingham, O2 Institute

Violet Grohl Brings Raw Intimacy To Camden’s Barfly For Second London Night

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026 (Kalpesh Patel)

The new tour begins in mainland Europe on 1st May, taking the band through a string of major cities before they cross to the UK for six headline shows between 18th and 26th May. The European run includes stops in Antwerp, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Munich, Milan, Zurich, Cologne, Amsterdam and Paris, before the band arrive in the UK for performances in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Cardiff and London.

The tour culminates at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town on 26 May, marking the band’s biggest UK headline show announced to date. Tickets for the new dates go on general sale at 10am local time on Friday 9 October.

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026 (Kalpesh Patel)

The shows follow an increasingly busy period for Florence Road, who have spent the past year building momentum on both sides of the Atlantic. The band have combined headline performances with an expanding festival schedule, international touring and a series of new releases, including sold-out headline dates across Ireland.

Their latest single, 7563, arrived in August via Warner Records, following the Hanging Out To Dry EP in June and Spring Forward EP in March. The releases have continued the band’s rapid development since their debut mixtape Fall Back, which emerged in late 2025.

The band have also continued to showcase their live and stripped-back sides, most recently delivering a special performance of No Better Woman for the COLORS platform.

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026 (Kalpesh Patel)

The forthcoming tour comes as Florence Road continue to establish themselves as one of Ireland’s most promising emerging indie acts. Their growing international audience has already taken them beyond Ireland, with the band recently completing a US tour and appearing at festivals across the UK and Europe.

Before next year’s European and UK dates, the band will also continue their Irish live schedule through the autumn and winter, including two nights at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre in December. Their expanding festival presence will also see Florence Road appear at Manchester’s Neighbourhood Festival on 17th October, adding another major UK appearance to an already packed schedule.

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026

Florence Road @ Latitude Festival 2026 (Kalpesh Patel)

The 2027 tour represents another significant step forward for the four-piece, bringing their increasingly ambitious live show to larger rooms across the UK and Europe.

Upcoming UK & Ireland Tour Dates:

OCTOBER
17th – Manchester, Neighbourhood Festival
29th – Wexford, Wexford Spiegeltent Festival

NOVEMBER
27th – Cork, City Hall
28th – Kilkenny, Set Theatre

DECEMBER
11th – Galway, Roisin Dubh
12th – Limerick, Spiegeltent Pavilion
14th – Belfast, Ulster Hall
15th – Dublin, 3Olympia Theatre
16th – Dublin, 3Olympia Theatre

MAY 2027
18th – Edinburgh, Queen’s Hall
19th – Liverpool, O2 Academy Liverpool
20th – Leeds, Leeds University Stylus
22nd – Nottingham, Palais
23rd – Cardiff, Tramshed
26th – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town

Latitude Festival 2026 Day One: David Byrne Delivers Joy As Florence Road Steal The Day