After a decade of steadily expanding their reach across the UK and Europe, Manchester's self-proclaimed intergalactic travellers HENGE are preparing for their biggest Earth mission to date. The band have announced a 75-date world tour spanning 17 countries – with more still to come – marking not only their most ambitious run yet but also their long-awaited first shows across North America.

I spilt my drink and screamed in horror when a deafening shotgun blast reverberated from a screen with silhouettes immersed in smoke and engaged in conflict. An explosive opening set the pace for a high-octane musical - a fusion of genres creatively integrating gripping cinematic effects with a pop concert bursting with pizazz.

Over the course of more than three decades, Shawn Colvin has established herself as one of America's most captivating performers and revered storytellers.

Dicks There was little on which we did not draw a dick, compassing grey paint off lockers, etching desks, but mostly inking each other’s files or textbooks, apostles casting cocks across the Sea of Galilee, Tybalt shaking terrible showers onto poor Juliet, dark colossi swung over relief maps of Gallipoli, some veiny and ridged, some rushed as signatures.

Fresh from a morning of interviews and still buzzing between events, this year's Festival Programming Chair, Lisa Jewell, talks to Andrew Palmer at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival about omissions, instinct, and the coercive-control novel taking shape for 2027. The deckchairs are out on the lawn of the Old Swan Hotel, the sun is doing exactly wha…

Perhaps the biggest surprise arrives with Faded Blue Jeans, featuring Josh Homme. It's an unlikely pairing that somehow makes complete sense, with Homme's gravelly vocals adding a rugged edge to a song that blurs the boundaries between country, blues and rock. Their chemistry is effortless, and the result is one of the album's most memorable collaborations

Sussex novelist Elly Griffiths has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 — the most coveted prize in British and Irish crime writing — for The Frozen People, a genre-bending mystery that sends a modern-day cold case detective back to the ice-bound streets of Victorian London.

There is a particular pleasure in returning to a recording again and again as a reviewer and finding that it yields something new each time, while one thing remains constant. With this latest Chandos disc from Elena Urioste and Tom Poster, that constant is the sheer beauty of the playing: the balance between soloist and accompanist is judged to perfection, and the engineers have done what Chandos so often manages, capturing the sound with such transparency that the listener seems to be eavesdropping on the duo rather than hearing a recording at all. It is sublime, moving and endlessly captivating.

After the amazing response to the recent children's art competition, I didn't envy the judges’ job of picking a few winners and runners-up. There was an array of styles and mediums from ages four to eighteen. I wanted to show the world all the talented artists, but it would take a whole newspaper to include everyone.

Theatre by the Lake has announced the cast for the world premiere of The Farmer's Wife, a new play by Hannah Khalil inspired by Helen Rebanks' Sunday Times bestselling memoir of the same name.

A blue plaque has been unveiled at Liverpool ONE to mark the spot where piano star Brad Kella first performed at the centre more than 10 years ago.

As families prepare for the summer holidays, The Hepworth Wakefield is encouraging parents to press pause on screen time and rediscover the joy of making, exploring and playing together – with all family activities free for kids.

Few artists capture vulnerability with the grace and honesty of Bongeziwe Mabandla. Across his acclaimed catalogue, the South African singer-songwriter has built a reputation for crafting intimate songs that blend folk, electronic textures and Xhosa storytelling into something deeply personal yet universally resonant.

All of which is background; what matters here is the music, and it is a delight. Her own chapel choir of Selwyn College sings with a polish that belies the demands of undergraduate life, recorded in the radiant, spacious acoustic of Ely Cathedral, where MacDonald is also the director of the girl choristers. The ensemble's diction, intonation, and balance are all delectably precise, and the phrasing, dynamic shading, and rhythmic vitality throughout the performance are genuinely impressive.

Welser-Möst and his orchestra match her at every step, the scoring tracking each swerve of feeling with unusual sensitivity: a trilling xylophone stands in for the ringing telephone with real wit, and the string textures underneath give the whole thing an unexpected warmth even at its bleakest.

With the release of their moving duet version of Real Man, MORGXN and JB Somers have transformed a deeply personal song into a powerful conversation about masculinity, vulnerability, faith, and identity. Originally written from Somers' experience growing up as a pastor's kid in Alabama, the track takes on new resonance with MORGXN's soaring vocals and shared perspective.

While there is no denying that there is amazing kudos in having a Primark range already raising their profile, the lack of single success means December 10 has notches both for and against their enduring success. However, their debut EP speaks volumes about what should be their destiny. Slick production, a strong balance of bops and ballads and, most importantly, striking vocals and an awareness of how to play to each band member's strengths – this is a solid introduction to a group that wishes to be taken credibly as the next big boy band.

The 2026 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s largest and most prestigious celebration of crime fiction, returns to the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate 23-26 July with an all-star line-up of bestselling authors and crime fiction names.

Part witch, part wood nymph, wholly herself – Firth's Batty! turns midlife and menopause into a riotous, tender celebration of women who refuse to be tamed.