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.

Australia will be well represented at the 2026 Grammy Awards, with Perth's Tame Impala, Sydney's RÜFÜS DU SOL and Melbourne's Amyl & The Sniffers earning nominations across major contemporary categories. The awards will be announced on 1 February 2026.

Morrissey has again halted plans to return to the global stage, cancelling all remaining dates on his 2025 tour due to what has been described as “extreme exhaustion”. The former frontman of The Smiths has withdrawn from performances across South America and Europe, bringing an already turbulent touring year to an early end and raising renewed questions about whether his upcoming 2026 make-good shows in North America will proceed as intended.

Santa Cruz hardcore powerhouse Drain have unleashed their third full-length album …Is Your Friend, marking a razor-sharp new chapter for the Californian trio. Out now through Epitaph, …Is Your Friend aims to do two things, according to the band's mission statement: capture the unhinged power of their live show on record and create new material guaranteed to send crowds into a frenzy. Mission accomplished.

Scottish producer, DJ, singer, and songwriter Sam Gellaitry has officially entered a defining new chapter with the release of his long-awaited debut album Anywhere Here Is Perfect via Major Recordings / Warner Records. Already celebrated as one of electronic music's most inventive voices, Gellaitry now steps forward as a full-form artist, pairing his kaleidoscopic sound design with vulnerable lyricism and cinematic electronic production.

Radiohead are back. After seven long years without a tour, the influential English group stepped onto a stage once again, launching their 2025 European and UK dates in Madrid on 4 November with the first of four shows in the Spanish capital. For a band long associated with pushing forward, this return marks a rare moment of reflection, yet one that feels deeply energised by a renewed sense of purpose.

After more than five decades of shaping arena rock, Journey will take their final bow with a massive farewell trek, setting the stage for the end of one of the most successful touring legacies in rock history. The Final Frontier Tour, beginning 28 February 2026 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will deliver 60 arena shows across North America through to 2 July in Laredo, Texas, confirming that the group behind Don't Stop Believin' is preparing to close the touring chapter once and for all.

Eddie Izzard will return to Australia in June 2026 to present a daring one-person staging of The Tragedy Of Hamlet, an ambitious theatrical feat that sees the Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated performer embody all 23 characters in Shakespeare's most enduring drama. The production arrives following sold-out runs across the United States and United Kingdom and a wave of acclaim for Izzard's transformation of the classic tragedy into a modern, intimate showcase of performance craft.

Teen Jesus And The Jean Teasers have stepped into a bold new chapter with the release of their second album Glory, out now via Community Music / Mom + Pop. The Canberra-born, now Canberra and Melbourne-based punk-indie quartet have carved out an unmistakable presence in Australian music across the past few years, and Glory arrives as their most self-assured, emotionally charged and musically adventurous work to date.

British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone will arrive in Australia next week to begin her long-awaited headline tour, presented by Secret Sounds and triple j, bringing her deeply personal and atmospheric pop to local audiences. With Melbourne and Sydney already sold out and only limited tickets remaining for Brisbane and Fremantle, Humberstone has now added a brand-new date for Wollongong on Saturday 22 November at UOW Unibar.