The best UK music concerts in 2025

'Living legend' Stevie Wonder will be touring this summer

(Image credit: Alamy / Francesca Moore)

last updated 20 June 2025

Last year was a memorable one for live music, with Taylor Swift's "historic" Eras tour concluding, said Radio Times, and the 2025 calendar is just as exciting with some of the "biggest stars" in the industry – from Stevie Wonder to Lana del Ray – coming to the UK. There are also "plenty of rumours circulating" about music legends yet to announce their tour dates. In the meantime, here are some of the top shows to catch this year.

Busted vs Mcfly

The old noughties rivalry is being brought back for a "reunion tour with a twist" as Busted and Mcfly team up for a "battle of the bands style show", said Metro. It's the first time in over a decade that all seven members of Mcfly will be on stage at the same time and ready to face their biggest competitors for the "ultimate face-off". The bands will be touring the UK from September through to November with stops in several cities including Glasgow, Liverpool and Sheffield.

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It's "time to roll back the years" as "old-school indie favourite" "The Pigeon Detectives" are stopping off in Manchester as part of their "Best of Tour", said The Manc. The "Yorkshire lads" will be travelling around the UK this autumn to support the release of their new album "Still Not Sorry". So far, half a dozen dates have been announced, with shows scheduled in Leeds, Nottingham and London alongside Manchester.

Just one year ago, Kendrick Lamar sent his rival Drake's reputation up in "flames", and the rap world is still feeling the heat from the "embers", said Andre Gee in Rolling Stone. His tour partner, SZA, has also not been idle. Her buddy comedy film "One of Them Days" was released at the start of the year to a warm reception. The pair's "Grand National" world tour has SZA in "full starlet mode", with visuals of "serene landscapes" accompanying her "dreamy catalogue". Lamar, on the other hand, "has fireballs going off" while he rolls out his generation-defining hits, especially during the infamous diss tracks. These two "high demand" stars have performances scheduled in multiple UK cities until late July.

Fans were "sent into a frenzy" last summer when Noel and Liam Gallagher announced they would be putting their differences aside for a "long-awaited 2025 reunion tour", said the Daily Mail. It will be the first time the brothers take the stage together since going their separate ways following a "backstage brawl" at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in 2009. The tour has been "shrouded in mystery" with the set list yet to be revealed. Tickets, as you'd expect, are notoriously difficult to get hold of.

Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.