With Oasis back on the road, and Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey heading for the stadiums, 2025 is set to be another great year for live music. The Mail’s music critic picks some dates for your new diary…
WONDERWALLERS
Just as Taylor Swift’s Eras tour was the must-see event of 2024, so the return of Oasis will be next year’s biggest live attraction.
‘The stars have aligned, the great wait is over,’ said the band when a series of UK stadium shows were announced in August — only for the news to be overshadowed by a row over ‘dynamic pricing’ as tickets went on sale.
The furore should have subsided by the time the group take to the stage at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff, on July 4.
Liam Gallagher is one of the most charismatic frontmen of his generation, and if he and his brother Noel can avoid any flare-ups, it promises to be a raucous few weeks for fans of Britpop.
All dates are already sold out, but there may be a few resales through official agents (oasisinet.com).
Liam Gallagher is one of the most charismatic frontmen of his generation
If he and his brother Noel can avoid any flare-ups, it promises to be a raucous few weeks for fans of Britpop
POP DIVAS
Stadium spectaculars were once the preserve of rock groups and boy bands. But with the Eras tour paving the way, younger female stars are getting in on the act. Bringing her Radical Optimism world tour to the UK, Dua Lipa plays two nights at Wembley Stadium, opening on June 20, before another two nights at Anfield in Liverpool.
Lana Del Rey is also hitting the biggest stages. After opening her tour at Cardiff’s Principality
Stadium on June 23, she visits Glasgow’s Hampden Park, Wembley and Anfield. Having covered You’ll Never Walk Alone as a seven-inch single in 2020, she could deliver a live rendition of the Liverpool FC anthem on Merseyside (both livenation.co.uk).
There are other big pop tours, too, with former Disney starlets Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo both visiting the UK in 2025. Having brought us one of the breeziest singles of 2024 in the chart-topping Espresso, Carpenter opens her Short n’ Sweet tour with two nights at Dublin’s 3Arena on March 3 and 4.
Rodrigo’s Guts tour also resumes, with the Californian star playing Marlay Park, Dublin, on June 24 before an appearance at BST Hyde Park, London, on June 27, and two gigs at Co-op Live, Manchester, on June 30 and July 1 (both ticketmaster.co.uk).
Billie Eilish is here, too, with her opening night at the OVO Hydro, Glasgow, on July 7, while Charli XCX will hope to launch another ‘Brat summer’ when she curates and headlines her own line-up at the Lido Festival in London’s
Victoria Park on June 14 (both ticketmaster.co.uk).
GLITTERBALLERS
Pop’s greatest showgirl Kylie Minogue is taking her energetic floor-fillers on the road with her biggest tour since 2011
Having anticipated the pop-country crossover craze on 2018’s Golden, Kylie Minogue went back to disco on 2023’s Tension and this year’s Tension II albums, enjoying a Top Ten single with Padam Padam.
Pop’s greatest showgirl is taking her energetic floor-fillers on the road with her biggest tour since 2011, opening at OVO Hydro, Glasgow, on May 16 (axs.com).
The same night also sees the return of Scissor Sisters — albeit without original co-lead singer Ana Matronic — who begin their reunion tour at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham (gigsand
tours.com). Sophie Ellis-Bextor is guaranteed to bring glamour and good cheer to the stage when she launches her tour at the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on May 22 (ticketmaster.co.uk).
BIG HITTERS
Bruce Springsteen brings his swashbuckling E Street Band
to the UK for a third year running, opening his latest tour with three gigs at Co-op Live, Manchester, starting on May 14, before two nights at Anfield in Liverpool in June (livenation.co.uk), while Robbie Williams is also back in the stadiums, opening what he’s calling his ‘boldest tour yet’ at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, on May 31 (axs.com).
Murrayfield is also the starting point for Billy Joel, who plays his first gig in the Scottish capital for 46 years on June 7 before visiting Anfield on June 21 (axs.com).
Jeff Lynne’s ELO begin their tour at Utilita Arena, Birmingham, on July 5 and 6 (livenation. co.uk), and Coldplay will perform two gigs at Craven Park in Hull, starting on August 18, before a record-breaking ten-night run at Wembley Stadium (coldplay.com).
Coldplay will perform two gigs at Craven Park in Hull, starting on August 18
FESTIVAL PLEASERS
Apart from announcing Rod Stewart as its Sunday tea-time Legend, Glastonbury has yet to show its hand. Other festivals have been more forthcoming, however, with huge crowd-pullers already confirmed.
Pick of the bunch is Chappell Roan, the pop ‘femininomenon’ from Missouri, who will play the Reading and Leeds Festival in August (readingandleeds festival.com).
Elsewhere, Sting, Fatboy Slim and Snow Patrol are heading to Latitude in Suffolk in July (latitudefestival.com), while The Prodigy and Courteeners visit Kendal Calling, held in the Lake District between July 31 and August 3 (kendalcalling.co.uk).
BST also returns to London’s Hyde Park in June and July, with Sabrina Carpenter, Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan among the headliners (bst-hydepark.com).
Pick of the bunch is Chappell Roan, the pop ‘femininomenon’ from Missouri, who will play the Reading and Leeds Festival in August
SOUL LEGENDS
Two soul greats are on the road. A Glastonbury Legend back in 2015, Lionel Richie begins his Say Hello To The Hits tour at SSE Arena, Belfast, on May 31 (ticketmaster.co.uk), while Smokey Robinson is here for the first time in 15 years. Motown icon Smokey opens at the SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, on July 3, and plays the Love Supreme festival in East Sussex on July 5 (axs.com).
ROCK GODS
There’s plenty on offer for those who like the guitars cranked up to 11. Led by singer Axl Rose and British-born guitarist Slash, Guns N’ Roses added originality to the hard rock genre with hits such as Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City in the Eighties, and their tour includes stops at Villa Park, Birmingham, on June 23 and Wembley Stadium three days later.
There’s also a Wembley date in the diary for Linkin Park. With new singer Emily Armstrong sharing vocals with Mike Shinoda, the rap-rockers visit the stadium on June 28.
Blending rock, soul and funk, Lenny Kravitz plays a one-off show at Wembley Arena on February 28, while Judas Priest and Alice Cooper will jointly headline The O2, London, on July 25 (all livenation.co.uk).
Classical albums of the year
SEMYON BYCHKOV: Dvorak Symphonies Nos. 7, 8, 9 (Pentatone, two CDs)
It seems Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic can do no wrong, and this two-CD set of Dvorak’s last three symphonies is typical of their finely wrought work.
The Seventh Symphony was written for London and had great success, perhaps because it contains lingering influences of Brahms, Dvorak’s sponsor and encourager. The Eighth is the most Dvorakian, and the Czech Philharmonic’s winds conjure Bohemia’s woods and fields. The Ninth, From The New World, distils spirituals, pangs of homesickness and the calls of Dvorak’s beloved doves.
VINCENZO BELLINI: I Puritani (EuroArts, three CDs)
The last opera Vincenzo Bellini wrote before his untimely death aged 33 used to get hacked about, but this new recording is complete. We are in England during the Civil War, and a Cavalier, Arturo, has fallen in love with Elvira, the daughter of a Roundhead. Lisette Oropesa has the right fragility for Elvira; and the brilliant American tenor Lawrence Brownlee (as Arturo) can handle even the infamous high F. With a strong cast, the excellent Dresden Philharmonic and Leipzig Radio Chorus, good conducting by Riccardo Frizza and a happy ending, what more can you ask for?
YUNCHAN LIM: Chopin Etudes (Decca)
Piano enthusiasts have been set alight by these recordings, the debut album of Korea’s Yunchan Lim. In 2022 he was the youngest winner of America’s Van Cliburn Competition and was 19 when these sessions took place at Henry Wood Hall, London, a year ago. His playing sparkles in the faster Studies, but he also casts a spell in thoughtful pieces such as the E major,
Op. 10 No. 3. Lim feels that the heart of the Etudes comes in the C sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7, and he finds a special mood for that one.
By Tully Potter