A few months back we reached out to Been Stellar, knowing they’d be playing with Fontaines D.C. in London, to see if they’d like to join us at our favourite pub for a secret show. They were up for it and asked if theeir friends, and faves of ours, Hank could join them. Hank were up for it too. After a week or so of teasing the show, we all dropped the news on Sunday morning – Been Stellar and Hank will play The Elephants Head, Camden for free. Capacity is sixty so you’d had to move fast. The pub was full before soundcheck had finished and those who couldnt make it inside, listened and watched from the street. Its was a special night. Here it is in photos.

All photos by Daniel Lincoln.

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Opening the Park Stage on Friday morning is equally a privilege and a challenge. Chicago’s Horsegirl stepped up for the 11.30am slot, charming a modest crowd navigating the festival’s unrelenting early heat with a set of minimalist indie rock that boasts some of the finest, most smile-inducing dual vocals around. ‘2468’ from the band’s most recent record, ‘Phonetics On and On’ was a highlight of the weekend, and a track that visibly perked up the festival’s early risers.

An hour of finding bearings, and a quick visit to the Pyramid Stage to kick off my Brit Pop summer for Supergrass, was followed by what felt like Glastonbury 2025’s first big moment. Fat Dog arrived at the Woodsies Stage with the reputation of one the UK’s most important live bands and walked on to a crowd that reflected that. For those that have seen the band, it comes as no surprise that frontman, Joe Love was relentless in his rousing leadership of the audience, nor would an eyebrow be raised when Morgan Wallace and Chris Hughes break off from their multi-instrumentalist duties to perform synchronised dance moves- an act which underlines their primary appeal, joy with intensity. Across this 45 minute set, Fat Dog, with additional live violin and a second drummer in their arsenal, treated the Woodsies stage audience to cuts from their debut album ‘WOOF.’ as well as recent single ‘Peace Song’,  landing a performance that captured the imagination of the festival whilst running riot in the process. 

After hopping in and out of performances from English Teacher at The Park and Wet Leg on The Other Stage, it was Gurriers who next stuck my feet to the drying grass. The Dublin punk band are as barbed and brash as you’d expect in their live performance, but they want you along for the journey. Where ‘Top of the Bill’ and its opening riff rang out as an obvious crowd favourite, their clear ‘pop song’, it was within their Gilla Band washed, sun stroke prodding, noisier tracks that the band truly excelled. 

Wunderhorse could headline festivals. Since their last Glastonbury performance on the Woodsies in 2023, the band have experienced sizable growth and released their second full length album, ‘Midas’. Walking onto The Park stage to an audience that kept on going up the hill, this was a set that had palpable anticipation. Wunderhorse have taken active steps to unpolish their beginnings on debut ‘Cub’ with ‘Midas’ hammering home the band’s grittier, noisier preferences- but what was clear to see was that great songs are great songs and passionate, intense and unifying performances are exactly what they are too. If you see Wunderhorse as two acts, Glastonbury 2025 proved they live together symbiotically. With a set that included crowd pleasers ‘Purple’, ‘Teal’, ‘Midas’ and recent post album single, ‘The Rope’, the band had every word sung back to them with every ounce of rock n roll bite remaining intact. In a world where we are all looking to our left and to our right for who may well be the next new band at the top of a festival poster, it may not be this festival (yet), but it may well be Wunderhorse.

Saturday began with Sorry on the Woodsies stage. Sorry are a special group, where some of the most interesting individuals in alternative songwriting form the sounds of a band who refuse to rest on the sounds of the past, nor the sounds of their past. In Asha Lorenz, Sorry have a star. With endearing confidence, and the movements of a living glitch, she jumps from rap to held high notes – avoiding all eye contact but beaming with gratitude towards those in attendance. Sorry’s accomplished set included favourites ‘Cigarette Packet’, ‘Starstruck’ and recent single ‘Jive’ but what struck hardest were the new ones. ‘Today Might be The Hit’, an assumed title, captures exactly what might be possible from this Glastonbury performance onwards- songs that are open to big things and open the weird, undeniable and unmatched world of Sorry to a deservingly bigger audience. We can only hope!

Without moving a muscle, NYC’s Fcukers appear for what may be the Woodsies strongest one-two of the weekend. We hosted Fcukers’ debut London headline in the Blue Basement some time ago – that crowd of 60 has quickly swelled to a capacity Woodsies off the back of one EP. If ever reduced to a ‘trend band’ or more specifically indie sleaze revival, Fcukers stick two large fingers up to that when playing live. Led by two founding members Shanny Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis, the four piece tear through ‘Homie Don’t Shake’ to get Saturday’s first proper party started. You can’t help but feel that Fcukers have unified the festivals eclectic taste here – serving the alternative kids as emphatically as the dance heads. Every member of the band has that special quality of being watchable. Scan the stage for the live scratch DJ to the live drums and you’ll be entertained- cue Shanny and Jackson to steal your attention and demand your energy in return. It’s very cool, it’s a lot of fun and it’s ready to be massive. 

Where Fcukers unified a tent, Kneecap unified a festival. To have the West Holts stage in your sight, let alone the band,  required an hour of being cooked by a beating sun – the festival closed the stage due to being over capacity 30 minutes before stage time. Fortunately we made the call early, arriving 60 minutes before stage we were still reduced a tight squeeze 100 meters from the stage next to the Venezuelan food truck. The sea of Palestinian flags warmed the heart to match our skin, and everyone there knew they were about to witness history and support the right side of it. Mo Chara’s freedom was celebrated, the government’s disastrous leadership and support for Palestine was called out, and the celebrity fall out that surrounded the rap group mocked- all within the first 5 minutes of their time on stage. This show was at the centre of the earth, and within that hour-long set Kneecap committed to speaking for those who couldn’t, and wouldn’t, alongside a blistering live performance.

It’s something of a pleasure to see an artist who’s been on the cover of So Young grace one of Glastonbury’s big stages. Amyl and the Sniffers are one of these bands and their performance on The Other Stage can be summed up by bassist Gus Romer’s warm welcome of “what’s up cunts?”. A middle finger with a smile. The band are in fine form, and Amy Taylor a pop star. Her warmth and realness shines through the spike and spit of the punk songs and it lands like no other. The set list served everything from ‘Hertz’ to ‘Chewing Gum’, ‘Balaclava Lover Boogie’ to ‘Big Dreams’- capping it off with a wonderful off the cuff speech on the current political climate, using the platform as we wish many more would have. 

Who is Patchwork?  We all knew, the field was packed for them, and we were all glad to have the heads up that Pulp were back on the Pyramid, wherever it came from. As charli xcx once projected behind her, it’s a Pulp summer – and Jarvis a tank of charisma as full as the Other Stage headliner too. During a set that told the bands 1995 headliner story, where Pulp filled in last minute for The Stone Roses, Jarvis commanded the stage and charmed a crowd with all his usual pointing, pointy joints and “ooo’s”.  ‘Spike Island’ was amongst a host of tracks from the bands recent number one album, ‘More’, which didn’t disengage in a way many heritage artists can when playing the new ones, but set up the euphoria of the hits. ‘Common People’ closed the show and welcomed the Red Arrows overhead. A special moment.

Saturday was rounded off with a singalong set from Father John Misty, an awkwardly thin crowd for Neil Young, whose voice was in fine form, and a swollen capacity crowd for a celebration of charli xcx- a celebration of which she also partook. 

Upon inspection prior to arrival, Sunday presented itself as THE DAY. Buzzy new bands, returning indie icons and big stage moments from regular favourites. 11.30am welcomed winners of the Emerging Talent Competition, Westside Cowboy to the Woodsies stage. They’d played prior sets, but this one their biggest- confirmed by guitarist/vocalist Reuben Haycock’s claim that this show was by far the most people they’ve ever played to. This isn’t my first time seeing this band and it’s true there’s a lot of hype, but with each performance they prove their worth. Westside Cowboy are a substance first band. Substance that will naturally be refined, but whether they turn to folk, country, or punchy indie rock, they get it right. With all four members having vocal roles within the band, granted, drummer Paddy Murphy’s core role is to give the now famous shout of “Westiiiiiide Coowwwbooooy” ahead of debut single ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’, the talent stretches far and thick. Westside Cowboy at Glastonbury showed their collective power, and it’s the collective you buy into from out front. Their welcome was warm and their exit warmer – this set won them fans and cemented those already in touch with the group.

Following a quick stop for the hits from The Libertines at the Pyramid, Mên An Tol performed their first of two Sunday sets at the BBC Introducing stage. Welcomed on with some kind words from 6Music’s Steve Lamacq, the London based band rattled through a set that boasted the big chorus’ of 90’s britpop and the deep story telling of your folk favourites. Debut single ‘NW1’ was a natural highlight, but new ones ‘Lucky’ and ‘Not Ideal’ presented frontman, Bill Jefferson as the next exciting voice in indie.

Via the West Holts for a lay on the grass amongst a big crowd for Brian Jonestown Massacre, it was to the Other Stage once again, for a band that had been on our cover, again. Wolf Alice are very much back and you can feel it in the way they carry themselves that this set could well be the important trigger moment for some genuine mainstream success. They enter like excitable kids throwing fists in the air to almost celebrate how many people had come to see them, before frontwoman Ellie Rowsell took a breath, took to the podium and entered pop star mode with back to the audience and one arm aloft-surrounded only by her silhouette. Wolf Alice have some catalogue to play with now, each set of 3 songs feeling like a chapter in the set. Ellie’s voice travelling inexplicably between riotous punk roars to delicate balladry and theatrical power- wildly all on show at once in recent single ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’. ‘Bros’ united the audience for a proper festival singalong, ‘Silk’ satisfied a personal favourite and ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ capped a special set that asked a big question of where they could sit on the bill when Glastonbury returns in two years. 

And then to The Park. The Park stage for return of The Maccabees- a set which judging by a crowd that went all the way up the hill, was marked as a must see moment of the festival for many. The band enter to a huge roar and you sense that whilst The Maccabees have done this many times and performed these songs to larger crowds, the ten year break had them checking themselves, balancing that buzz to be back and that nervousness to achieve all that came before. From the jangly art-school indie that broke the band, to soft, intricate tracks like ‘Feel to Follow’, to rock songs ‘Marks To Prove It’ and ‘Spit It Out’, they can still do it all and the crowd want it all. Every song sung back to them and when you thought they were safe to catch a breath, Orlando and Felix ensured you stayed with them to create those big song moments. After a brief tease, The Maccabees deliver an encore that welcomed special guest Florence Welch to join them to finish ‘Love You Better’ before The Maccebees became her machine for ‘Dog Days Are Over’. One of the festival’s biggest singalongs. Once untangling herself from Hugo White’s guitar Florence left and the band performed their final song, ‘Pelican’. A joyous finale to a set from a band that has a clear and permanent place in many hearts. 

Glastonbury 2025 has been described as one for the pop stars, but alternative music was alive and as in demand as ever. It will be two years until the next one, which is both exciting for my feet (30k steps a day is a lot), and for what could be in store for 2027 with many staking a rightful claim to their next step on the Glastonbury pyramid. Pun intended.

All imagery by Josh Whettingsteel

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The Cork-based four-piece are back with a new track that builds sounds on top of one another like seams of sediment in the earth. Layers of gauzy indie rock give way to each other, cresting and breaking as waves upon the shore. Borne onward by singer Fionnbharr Hickey’s gentle vocals, there’s a forward movement throughout the entire song that forces the gaze forward. Although the song is ostensibly about anxiety, sonically it’s more freeing than suffocating. Hickey’s vocals pair beautifully with co-vocalist Asha Egan McCutcheon’s, the two providing shades which melt into one another, oscillating between being both unhurried and urgent.

Making a name for themselves as a dynamic live act, too, Pebbledash have a stretch of live dates ahead of them in 2025, including seven nights on the So Young tour in September. With a catalogue that contains notes of shoegaze, folk, rock, and a host of other sounds, you’ll be straining to pick out the different tastes welded into their music.

Photo by Emily Cardona

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Coated in the dressing of discomfort that we’ve come to expect from Humour, ‘In the Paddies’ explores a reflective narrative of dead characters examining their now lived life. Rich with the dynamic Post-Rock instrumentation that Humour have perfected since their debut EP three years ago, ‘In the Paddies’ is fronted by a chaotic and alien-esque vocal performance from Andreas Christodolidis. ‘In the Paddies’ doesn’t rip through you like previous hits ‘Yeah, Mud!’ or lead single ‘Neighbours’, but Humour prove their versatility here packing ‘In the Paddies’ with the same level of technical ability and punch while also toning things down.

On the track the band add, “‘In the Paddies’ is from the point of view of a character who summons various members of the dead throughout history to rise in a muddy field and asks them what it would take to allow their souls to rest peacefully”.

Photo by Rosie Sco

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It felt strange walking into Sebright Arms knowing I’d seen Man/Woman/Chainsaw tear Scala apart just a few months back, 800 bodies packed and bouncing around like a sea of bodies crashing together, in full, ecstatic tide. Now here they were, where the ceiling drips with sweat, the front row might as well be on stage, and it felt like a perfect space to revisit this up close, tight squeeze that chaos into a 150-cap basement.

Opening duties fell to Brighton’s AtticOMattic, a genre-blurring five-piece with a spell of skittering drums, airy keys and restless guitar loops. Their tight, rhythmic grooves moved with an easy fluidity. The band’s subtle shifts in tempo and volume never felt forced. And the vocals added an ethereal layer that echoed around the small room, wrapping the audience in a dreamy haze. When they slipped into a final burst, you could feel the crowd soften, drifting with them. A perfect, dreamy primer for the storm to come.

Between sets, the room filled, and the AC did its best to hold back the heat. MGMT drifted out the speakers, and the walls started sweating long before anyone else did. Man/Woman/Chainsaw walked out to their entrance song, ‘In Da Club’. They slipped into ‘The Boss’ first, a colossal rock tirade that flipped from a wall of noise to a single, creeping violin line before detonating again in glorious unison chants. The heaviest track from their debut EP ‘Easy Peazy’, it’s a song that grips its anger tightly. Watching Vera Leppänen (vocals, bass), Billy Ward (vocals, guitars), and Emmie-Mae Avery (vocals, keys/synths) in perfect sync was something else. By the time ‘Adam & Steve’ landed, the crowd were swaying in that soft push-pull, a controlled chaos humming quietly.

Perhaps one of my favourite parts of Man/Woman/Chainsaw is the way they wield dynamics, from moments of crashing stabs to when the chaos pulls back and you hear how locked in they are. Each tiny part slots into place into some of the softest, most beautiful sounds. ‘MadDog’ was a case in point: it started teeth-bared and snarling, Vera’s voice cracking with frustration, until halfway through the anger melted into something mournful, Clio Starwood’s violin weeping over twinkling piano keys. 

When they hit ‘Ode To Clio’, the room felt like it was holding its breath. The first five seconds, a tight flurry that vanishes as quickly as it came, leaving you chasing it through the rest of the song. What starts as gentle, searching strings and hushed harmonies slowly swells until it can’t hold itself together any longer, the calm crumples, Lola Cherry’s drums and the guitars splinter apart, and for a moment the room is just pure, glorious chaos before those strings cut through again, carrying everyone with them.

Nights like this are why these shows matter. A band like Man/Woman/Chainsaw in a basement like Sebright Arms turns a branded event into a reason to gather, pint in hand, shoulder to shoulder, to lose yourself for an hour or so in something loud and messy. If SON Estrella Galicia keeps backing independent bands and the small venues that give them space to roar, the beer will taste better for it. SON Estrella Galicia brings small rooms, big sounds, and the sense that sometimes the best gigs still happen just below street level in your local independent venue.

All photos by Anna Delf

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And debut single ‘D’Artagnan’ – named after Dumas’ Musketeer (because why not, I guess?) feels like the kind of all-or-nothing, cards-on-the-table statement that maybe all debut singles should aspire to. A cerebrum-collapsing post-hardcore waltz of zinging riffs, muddy spoken word, tantalising post-rock breakdowns and all-out, ‘get fucked’ abrasions, the world might end tomorrow but at least paper hats could say they gave it all.

Fitting alongside howling Crewe-based racket-mongers UNIVERSITY, it’s hard not to recall here too the furious dramas of early black midi too, in the tight tempestuous vibe-switches and acute sense of theatre, where you can’t help but pin your whole future on whatever the song might take you next

Photo by Richard Mukuze

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If ‘Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)’ and its predecessor ‘Elderberry Wine’ are anything to go by, Wednesday’s upcoming album ‘Bleeds’ will be another masterclass in what the band calls “Creek Rock”. Due in September of this year, the record follows their critically acclaimed 2023 album ‘Rat Saw God’, of which they’ve named ‘Bleeds’ a “spiritual successor”.

Frontwoman and primary writer Karly Hartzman shared that the titular line “I wound up here by holdin on” was pulled from her friend Evan Gray’s poetry book Thickets Swamped in a Fence-Coated Briars. Considering the line “pure genius”, Hartzman built an entire song around the phrase, borrowing stories and lived experiences from some of her closest friends to do so. The result stays true to her typical songwriting style, it zooms into the smallest and often grimiest details to convey entire scenes or feelings, whether that be a “pitbull puppy pissin’ off the balcony” or the “puffy” face of a recently drowned man – the imagery is exposing and lived-in.

‘Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)’ harks back to the dynamic instrumentation Wednesday are known for. It moves between catchy country-pop hooks and heavy alt rock, hitting you with sudden moments of noise, distortion, and time signature changes. It’s a balance they have perfected across their records and live dates, and a line they will undoubtedly continue to walk.

Photo by Graham Tolbert

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‘POLLYANNA’ continues where they left off, though, continuing their excellent form. And whilst their industrial shoegaze sound remains, it seems as if they’ve done some growing, sonically speaking, in those intervening years. The track takes inspiration from its relentlessly positive namesake, but its somewhat lighter sound hides a darker underbelly, one drawing on the toxic side of happiness.

Katie Ball’s ethereal vocals float above the swirling world of noise below, continuing ‘POLLYANNA’ as a track of contrast; playing off between the noise and the beauty, happiness and what else lingers on. It’s a brilliant return, and with a number of intimate shows having also been announced, hopefully there’s more to come.

Photo by Kate Lawlor

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Issue Fifty-Six arrives as we all take a big deep breath before stepping into festival season. June has also seen us announce the very first So Young Tour and it’s our headliners, Cardinals who are on the cover.

Ahead of big support dates with Fontaines D.C. and Wunderhorse, the Cork five-piece, Cardinals, have shared new single ‘Big Empty Heart’. The band talk to us about their debut album, which we’re told we can expect in 2026, as well as the disheartening fetishization of Irish culture.

We’ve been speaking with Squid for years and it’s a pleasure to chat again. Ahead of their upcoming return to End of the Road Festival, an event close to Ollie Judge’s heart, we catch up on their latest record, ‘Cowards’ and their recent tour of the US. Another band heading to Dorset for End of the Road is LA’s The Sophs. The shiny new signing to Rough Trade Records are proud of bucking the Tik Tok discovery trend and they tell us of howsome cold emails, not exclusive to their new label home, sparked a whole new future for the band.

Now signed with Domino, These New Puritans have a new album out titled ‘Crooked Wing’. Our conversation delves into the long process behind this record, working with Caroline Polachek and their obsession with field recordings.

One of our favourite new bands is Silver Gore. After blowing us away at The Great Escape and with new music on the horizon, we caught up with duo Ava Gore and Ethan P. Flynn to dig into their love for each other and their “resources war” origin story. Chicago’s Lifeguard have finally released their debut album. According to them, ‘Ripped and Torn’ isn’t meant to be overanalysed, its just another album. But they hope you like it.

Three new artists on our pages for the first time are noisy welsh band, MORN, Iceland’s great hopes, Spacestation and Third Man’s new singings, Die Spitz. And on the theme of Third Man, it’s with pleasure that we welcome back Hotline TNT. Ahead of the new record, on which they are now formally ‘a band’, we discuss the change from a solo project, the sacrifices swallowed in that process, and their rejection of the shoegaze label.

We are pleased to bring back the Who Are You? section of So Young. Across two pages you’ll find quick fire questions with some of our most recent discoveries. This time around we introduce pollyfromthedirt, Spanish Horses, Uncle Junior, bathing suits, SLAG, Restlesstaxis and wing!.

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