Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will return to Australia in February and March 2026 for a second run of their Woodland tour following a completely sold-out stretch earlier this year. After packing the Sydney Opera House across three nights and filling Hamer Hall in Melbourne across five performances, the Americana folk icons will once again bring their acclaimed two-guitar, two-voice format to Australian audiences.

Chicago rapper G Herbo has returned to where it all began, expanding his acclaimed 2025 album Lil Herb with a new Extended Version that digs deeper into the raw hunger and honesty that established him as one of modern hip-hop's most compelling voices. Released via Machine Entertainment Group and Republic Records, Lil Herb (Extended Version) features three new songs, This N That, Hold My Hand God, and No Bap, rounding out a project already rich in reflection and resilience.

Mark Hoppus will bring his personal and musical journey to Australia in March, presenting An Evening Of Storytelling and opening the pages of his life and memoir Fahrenheit-182 for fans in Melbourne and Sydney.

Brisbane's riverfront is set to become Australia's newest major live music destination when On The Banks, a fresh outdoor concert series, launches in March 2026. The Cultural Forecourt at South Bank will transform into a riverside music hub for three weeks from 1 March to 22 March, presenting a lineup of international heavyweights and Australian icons across hip-hop, alternative, pop, garage, folk, R&B and more.

Melbourne's summer soundtrack is locked in, with Palace Foreshore returning to St Kilda in 2026 for its biggest season to date. The open-air seaside precinct, set between the Palais Theatre and St Kilda Sea Baths, will once again turn the foreshore into a music-lover's haven with headliners spanning hip hop, pop, electronic and cutting-edge indie, running from 26 February through to 15 March.

New York hardcore trailblazers Agnostic Front have unleashed Sunday Matinee, the latest video from their brand-new album Echoes In Eternity, out today via Reigning Phoenix Music. The track pays tribute to the iconic CBGB Sunday shows that helped shape the band's musical and cultural DNA, as well as the global hardcore movement that followed.

With Soundgarden officially inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame on 8 November 2025, alternative rock collective King Ultramega have released a striking new interpretation of The Day I Tried To Live to honour the moment and pay tribute to Chris Cornell. The recording brings together a rare assembly of heavy music's most respected players, including Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, Metal Allegiance bassist and King Ultramega founder Mark Menghi, and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante.

Two cornerstones of the nu-metal movement, (HED) P.E. and Nonpoint, will storm Australia in February 2026 for a tour promising a ferocious celebration of rebellion, rhythm and riffs. For (HED) P.E., these shows mark the 25th anniversary of their breakthrough album Broke and Australia will be one of the first territories to experience the milestone live.

Tom Waits once said his songs were “stories that never happened to people who never lived in a place that does not exist”. That smoky back-alley world will step into St Kilda when Melbourne musician and producer Victor Stranges debuts Blue Valentines, The Tom Waits Songbook.

Melbourne singer-songwriter Peter Freebairn returns with Sweet Emotion, the first taste of his post-Silhouettes & Cigarettes era and a bright burst of guitar-driven optimism that sees him stepping further into the power pop world he grew up loving. Following the acclaimed 2024 release of Silhouettes & Cigarettes, Sweet Emotion arrives Friday 7 November 2025 through Pop Preservation Society, marking a new chapter for an artist who has navigated indie bands, radio rotation success and a continual evolution of sound.

Sugar Mountain will return to the centre of Naarm in 2026, reclaiming its roots as an independent festival and bringing its celebrated 360-degree stage back to Melbourne's CBD on Saturday, 21 February 2026. The festival will take over The Paddock, an urban oasis tucked between Federation Square's car park, Birrarung Marr and the city's train line, marking a homecoming for one of Melbourne's most forward-thinking music events.

Alexandra Kay's rise from social media favourite to one of Nashville's most talked-about new voices has reached another milestone, with her debut country radio single Straight For The Heart hitting stations today. The track, powered by fierce conviction and emotional punch, launches just as her sophomore album Second Wind enters the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and tops iTunes Country.

This week might be the most musically diverse I've ever experienced - David Gray sandwiched between Metallica and Cliff Richard on one side, and AC/DC on the other. That's a pretty wild musical buffet.

Split Enz will reunite in 2026 for their first national tour in almost two decades, with Tim Finn, Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner and Noel Crombie returning to the stage for the Forever Enz Tour. The highly anticipated comeback will take place across Australia in May 2026, marking the band's first full-scale run since the late 2000s and following their 2009 appearance at Melbourne's Sound Relief.

Australian DJ and producer Mark James has released I Don't Know, the fourth single from his debut album Love Triangle, arriving 14 November 2025 via Two Tribes Records. The track builds on the album's Beatport Top 10 success and comes bundled with an expansive remix pack featuring Mark Maxwell, Pipi Le Oui and a deep tech rework from James himself.

Australia's most provocative masked collective will step into one of the nation's most prestigious rooms next year, with TISM announcing a one-night-only performance of their landmark album Machiavelli And The Four Seasons at the Sydney Opera House on Friday 10 April, 2026.

Japan's genre-bending heavy force BABYMETAL will return to Australia in 2026 for a full headline arena tour, storming across five major cities in March with India's globally rising metal crew Bloodywood in tow.

Scottish rock heavyweights Biffy Clyro will return to Australia in April 2026, marking their first visit in eight years. The trio, who last toured here in 2018, will bring a career-spanning set to theatres in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, performing highlights from their multi-platinum catalogue as well as material from their latest album Futique.

Byron Bay Bluesfest will roar into its 37th edition in 2026 with one of the most important reunions in Australasian music history. Split Enz, in their first Australian appearance in two decades, will headline the Easter weekend event from 2 to 5 April 2026, confirming a landmark moment for the festival and for generations of fans who witnessed the band rewrite the rules of art-pop and new wave.

Jelly Roll's long-awaited debut tour of Australia and New Zealand came to a sudden halt in Auckland, with the US genre-bending star forced to cancel the final show due to illness, moments before he was due to take the stage.

Australia has farewelled one of its most influential and distinctive voices with the passing of John Laws, who died peacefully at home in Sydney's Woolloomooloo at age 90. Known nationally as the “Golden Tonsils”, Laws transformed Australian talkback radio across a career that spanned 71 years, shaping political debate, public conversation and broadcasting standards for generations.

Fifty years after it first washed up from the surf at Point Dume, Neil Young's Zuma remains one of his most quietly volatile records, a bruised and beautiful return to Crazy Horse that mixed pastoral reflection with jagged electric bursts, and gave the world the towering epic Cortez The Killer.

When Patti Smith walked into Electric Lady Studios in New York in September 1975, she was not trying to chase radio hits or craft a commercial product. She was trying to breathe life back into rock, fuse it with poetry and performance art, and speak directly to outsiders who felt like music had stopped speaking to them. On 10 November 2025, her debut album Horses reaches its 50th anniversary, standing tall as one of the most influential recordings in modern music.

Metallica continued their tradition of performing a local classic at each show on their Australian tour. For Melbourne, they paid tribute to hometown heroes The Living End with a cover of Prisoner of Society.

Four decades have passed since The Power Station rewired the mid-80s pop landscape with a blast of rock, funk and high-gloss glamour. Now, the short-lived yet explosive supergroup will be honoured with deluxe reissues of their self-titled 1985 debut. Rhino Records will release a 4 CD box set and a 2 LP edition on 23 January, delivering a comprehensive look back at one of the decade's most electrifying collaborations.

Influential Washington D.C. post-hardcore innovators Shudder To Think have re-emerged with their first new material in close to three decades, unleashing the new tracks Thirst Walk and Playback as they resume their long-awaited reunion tour across the United States.

Hayley Williams has unveiled the complete physical edition of her third solo album, Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party, marking a milestone moment in the Paramore frontwoman's post-major label era. The album lands today in stores globally and features 20 tracks in total, including two songs arriving physically for the first time, Good Ol' Days and Showbiz.

Melbourne hard rockers Greystone Canyon have reignited the flame of classic rock with their new single, a thunderous and heartfelt rendition of Thin Lizzy's Suicide, released today, 7 November 2025. The track previews their forthcoming album Something Borrowed…Something New, arriving 5 December 2025 through Rockshots Records, and marks a powerful new era for the band as they embrace a fully live, organic recording approach.

New video has surfaced of AC/DC's elusive drummer Phil Rudd returning to the stage in New Zealand, performing with the Full Metal Orchestra in July in a rare public appearance. Rudd, who has largely stayed out of live performance in recent years, joined the ensemble for powerhouse renditions of Back In Black and Thunderstruck, backed by the might of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

More than three decades after carving their name into Australian pub rock folklore, Nick Barker And The Reptiles have reignited the amps with Blood Nose, the band's first new music in over ten years.