The first headliners of next year’s Lytham Festival have been announced this morning, with Justin Timberlake and Alanis Morissette both heading up north.
The massive live music event will return to the Lytham St Anne’s seafront – just a stone’s throw from Blackpool – in July 2025.
The outdoor gig series has attracted massive names over the years, from Kylie to The Strokes to Shania Twain to Rod Stewart to Lionel Richie.
And next year looks set to be no different, with Lytham Festival today announcing the line-up for three nights of its five-night festival.
As well as Alanis Morissette and Justin Timberlake, there’ll be a joint headline performance from Simple Minds at Texas at the TK Maxx presents Lytham Festival 2025.
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Details of the two remaining headliners will be revealed soon, with the festival taking place between 2 and 6 July.
The iconic and influential Alanis Morisette will be headlining on Friday 4 July, performing her hits like Ironic, You Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket and Thank U.
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Justin Timberlake has been announced as a headliner of Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: SuppliedAlanis Morisette will also headline Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: Supplied
The seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician performed a sold-out world tour back in 2021, celebrating 25 years of her landmark album Jagged Little Pill.
On Saturday 5 July the Lytham Festival stage will be graced by Justin Timberlake, as he brings his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Lytham Green.
The former NSYNC star has won 10 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, and even earned an Oscar nomination, with six studio albums and 54 million album sales under his belt.
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The closing night will be headlined by global rock icons and Scottish legends Simple Minds and Texas.
One of the most successful bands to ever come from the UK, Simple Minds have sold more than 60 million records worldwide and enjoyed number one singles on both sides of the Atlantic.
Simple MindsTexasSimple Minds and Texas have announced a joint headline show at Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: Supplied
And Texas have a four-decade-long career with 10 studio albums, five compilation albums and 45 singles, including their iconic debut I Don’t Want A Lover.
Details of who will be headlining on Wednesday July 2 and Thursday July 3 along with all support acts and special guests will be announced soon.
Lytham Festival co-founder Peter Taylor said: “It’s that time of year again and what a line up we have planned. Everyone we are announcing today is an absolute music icon and we can’t wait to welcome them to Lytham.
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“Alanis Morissette is quite simply a cultural phenomenon and an artist with incredible integrity and acclaim who is celebrated globally. To then have the huge superstar that is Justin Timberlake headlining the following night is a booking we are very excited about and one we are confident will be a huge hit.
“Then we have a brilliant double headlining set with two amazing Scottish artists, in the form of Simple Minds and Texas, to close the festival. These are two bands that I know will be very popular with our Lytham audience.
“And we’ve not finished there. Watch this space as we still have our Wednesday and Thursday headliners plus a lot of special guests to announce in the coming weeks. It’s only September but already Lytham Festival 2025 is shaping up to be another incredible week of live music.”
Individual tickets for Friday to Sunday go on sale at 8am Friday from lythamfestival.com
The Wombats are set to return with a new album, a UK tour and an unreal pair of North West support acts
Danny Jones
British indie legend The Wombats are back with a new album and a limited UK tour – plus, they’re bringing two very good Northern bands along with them as the support acts.
Announcing their sixth studio album on Friday, 11 October, The Wombats are set to return with new music after two years since their first UK number one and will be hitting the road for a select few dates including London, Manchester and Leeds, but this tour looks to be all about the North.
Well, strictly our very specific part of the region, to be more precise – a.k.a. the best place for music on the entire planet. Yeah, you heard us…
We’re not ready for how good the lineup is going to be and neither are you.
As you can see, the all-North Western affair will see the veterans of the genre flanked by Manchester’s very own alternative four-piece, Everything Everything, who we’ve now seen so many times that we’re genuinely starting to lose count.
They’ve not dipped in all those years either – not even a little bit.
But to make things even better, the support roster is completed by none other than fellow Scousers and much-loved indie icons: the ever-rising Red Rum Club, who will be making their AO Arena debut after smashing their hometown arena earlier this year.
You can’t really call them warm-up acts when they’re all this good, can you?
Set to play here in Manchester on Saturday, 22 March, 2025 before wrapping up the small handful of gigs at the First Direct in Leeds a few days later, these are what we’d consider must-not-miss shows.
Tickets for the tour go on sale at 10am on Saturday, 19 October but you can access pre-sale by pre-ordering their latest record.
Speaking of the new album, Oh! The Ocean is the band’s sixth studio LP to date and is set to release on 21 February March, with the lead single ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come’ having just dropped.
Discussing a family trip that inspired the new album, frontman Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy says: “I’ve been to many beaches and seas and coasts over the years but, for some reason, it felt like the first time I had ever seen it and was truly present.
“There was this revelation that I had been living a life caught up in my own head […] It was really a potent experience. […] The album offers up some internal questions like: why are my head and body disconnected all the time? Why am I incapable at times of seeing any form of beauty in the world or in others? Why do I expect the world to conform to my will? Why do I never stop and smell the flowers?”
The single itself is a great taster of what’s to come and we can’t wait to hear the rest – nor can we wait to see The Wombats and two other North West favourites all in one night.
You can check out our chat with Everything Everything HERE or the Red Rum Club boys down below.
Liam Gallagher says Oasis reunion rehearsals have begun after blatant hints at tour support acts
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher has confirmed that rehearsals for the Oasis reunion are now underway and has been teasing the acts that could be supporting them on the tour.
The incomparable frontman has been very vocal on social media (more so than usual) ever since the talk of their comeback was actually confirmed to be real, though we’ll admit we’re still having to pinch ourselves every few days.
Nevertheless, the Oasis reunion IS happening, the tickets have gone and even a slate of North American dates have now sold out along with an Australian tour set to do exactly the same – though there has been some furore over price differences.
Although the gigs are still a little ways away, practice for summer 2025 has to start sometime and after a fan asked Gallagher a point-blank question online, he had a simple but exciting answer.
The idea of the two actually being back in the same room still feels so surreal but we’re SO glad they are.
After the pair were first snapped posing for the reunion press shots by photographer Simon Emmett, it sounds like the two are not just in each other company but now practising those songs they first played together some 20-30 years ago.
The Britpop icons and legendary rock band also announced a new special collection of the seven-inch Definitely Maybe single pressings to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’; there are only 4000 up for grabs and they come in the actual 1996 cigarette-style CD (vinyl) box.
After rehearsals are all said and done, one thing that we still don’t know for sure is who will be supporting Oasis on their reunion tour, but that hasn’t stopped the 52-year-old from having fun with some rather heavy hints.
We don’t know how blatant or serious any of these names are, or if this is just a clever red herring or two, but let’s just say we’d be happy with any of them.
Liam is very much enjoying the usual wind-up and toying with Oasis fans.
As well as Manic Street Preachers and Cast – the lattermost having already supported Liam on his Definitely Maybe anniversary tour – there seems to be a lot of debate around whether a potential Richard Ashcroft support would include the rest of The Verve, who haven’t played together since 2017.
That being said, Blossoms have been heavily linked with the tour since they were the band to break the first reunion teaser at their massive Wythenshawe Park gig; there have also been rumblings of Kasabian, The K’s, New Order, Gene Gallagher’s band Villanelle and many more.
Again, we’ve got nothing concrete yet so you’ll just have to take LG at his word – just do so with a big fistful of salt.
Right, we’ll give you three support slots: who would be your dream warm-up acts for the Oasis reunion?
Daisy Jackson -
23rd September 2024 
