The three sisters can't recall when or why they started playing, the music’s always just been there. In their late teens, the sisters joined forces with their dad, who for decades was a one man band playing old blues and country tunes for a living. This foundation of classic "roots music and Americana" settled in their hearts, but also awoke the urge of breaking the rules of traditional music. Baskery is a band built on what three people can do together and it's all about turning the music on its head, blending the straightforwardness of punk with the subtlety of singer/ songwriting. The first album, "Fall Among Thieves" (2008) was recorded in Stockholm, co-produced by Lasse Mårtén (Pink, 'Peter, Bjorn and John', Kelly Clarkson, Lykke Li, Primal Scream ). "New Friends" (2011) the follow up, the band referred to it as the "gypsy album" since it was mainly tracked on the road in various hotel rooms and band apartments, then mixed in Berlin by Blackpete (Depeche Mode, Joe Jackson, Peter Fox). As a contrast to the first two albums which took several months to make, the third one "Little Wild Life" (2013) was recorded during ten days in an old dance studio converted to a studio in former east Berlin, co-produced by Matt Wignall (Cold War Kids, J. Roddy Walston, Wargirl). All three albums received great acclaim by the press and are released in numerous countries. The releases in combination with relentless touring have given the band a reputation as one of the music scene's most noticeable live acts.

All the way from Canada, Dennis Ellsworth returns to the UK with his brilliant four piece band. One of Canada's most respected songwriters, he has collaborated with people including Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize (Skydiggers), Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip), Donovan Woods, Rose Cousins, Leeroy Stagger, John Smith, and David Barbe (Drive-by Truckers / Sugar). Signed to Tonic Records and Cymba Publishing his music has appeared in tv shows for Netflix, CBC, HBO and the award winning film, The New Romantic, and on stage he is absolutely magnetic. His recent albums Modern Hope and Hardcore Freewheelin' gained many accolades and have been nominated in the prestigious East Coast Music Awards.

The Cureheads & Siouxsie and the Budgees tour together for their joint 'Story of Goth' tour. Premier tributes to the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

This is an e-ticket! No physical ticket will be sent! Your name will be down on the door! Beyond the Grave and Rancid Offal Booking are pleased to present Czech gore grind legends Gutalax live at The Portland Arms on Wednesday 16th Sept. Joining them will be the UK's very own snuff grind merchants Basement Torture Killings as well as Slamchesters Coprocephalic Mutation. An additional support will be announced in due course

A bubbling swamp curse of unholy ass shake, Jim Jones All Stars is the latest project from garage godfather Jim Jones.

With a career now spanning six decades, Robyn Hitchcock remains a truly one-of-a-kind artist –surrealist rock ’n’ roller, iconic troubadour, guitarist, poet, painter, performer. An unparalleled, deeply individualistic songwriter and stylist, Hitchcock has traversed myriad genres with humor, intelligence, and originality over more than thirty albums and seemingly infinite live performances. From The Soft Boys’ proto-psych-punk and The Egyptians’ Dadaist pop to solo masterpieces like 1984’s milestone I Often Dream of Trains and 1990’s Eye, Hitchcock has crafted a strikingly original oeuvre rife with sagacious observation, astringent wit, recurring marine life, mechanized rail services, cheese, Clint Eastwood, and innumerable finely drawn characters real and imagined. Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. His most recent album The Man Upstairs is a bittersweet love letter to a vanishing world. Produced by legendary folk-rock svengali Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake) the album was critically acclaimed by MOJO, Uncut and The Quietus. This TalkingGigs event gives you a chance not only to hear Robyn perform and tell tales in his unique style but also to hear him talk about his music and career and even ask him the question that has always intrigued you.

Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders takes the freaked improvisation of Alexander's long-running instrumental band - DWLVS / Dire Wolves - into the world of song. Heady songwriting, ethereal jazz and krauty blues stomps are all featured. The Lidders include members of Elkhorn and Bardo Pond and are currently based in Philadelphia PA. Alexander has been frittering around the edges of the psychedelic underground for several decades, having played in a host of groups like Jackie-O Motherfucker, The Iditarod, and Black Forest/Black Sea. He has also been an arts venue programming director, booking agent, record label owner, FM radio disc jockey, tour manager, espresso bar cafe owner, and curator of several international music festivals such as Terrastock. He has worked in arts museums from Baltimore to Providence to Pittsburgh to San Francisco. Jeffrey also followed the Grateful Dead as a taper, coast to coast, for most of the 1980s. He is also a free-form radio DJ with current programs on both Camp Radio and NQRA.

Get ready to lose your voice and relive the golden era of pop-punk as this high-octane, dual-headline show is a full-throttle tribute to blink-182 and Green Day, delivering wall-to-wall anthems, nonstop energy, and pure nostalgic chaos. Expect two full sets packed with the songs that defined a generation from blinks cheeky, fast-paced punk hooks to Green Days rebellious, fist-in-the-air classics.

Get ready for REPEAT's Cambridge summer shindig! Exact details TBC but expect sounds new and old, hip, happening and maybe hapless too. Hurrah. Proudly supporting Love Music Hate Racism

British singer-songwriter Tom Mcrae, along with his regular touring musicians ‘The Standing Band’, has been quietly moving up the ranks of the most respected songwriters in the world today after releasing 7 critically acclaimed studio albums over the last 15 years and writing for a variety of artists and singers. Mcrae’s eponymous debut album in 2000 was nominated for a The Mercury Prize, a Q Magazine Award, and a Brit, and the subsequent two years of touring cemented his reputation as one the most entertaining and powerful artists touring today. Mcrae’s second album, Just Like Blood, released to wide acclaim, with every track being licensed for TV and film use, his style of music fitting perfectly the darker output of LA’s film studios. Since then, Essex-born Mcrae has released five more albums, relocated internationally three times and set up his own label Buzztree Studios in Cornwall- and there’s no sign that he’s going to be slowing down anytime soon. Mcrae and his tour mates, The Standing Band, a collection of incredible musicians and loyal friends, released their latest record ‘Did I Sleep and Miss The Boarder’ this Autumn. The album and its accompanying tour have further added to the cult that is rapidly springing up around this talented and dedicated artist and his ragtag band. For an artist working in a genre often considered by the music press to be ‘sensitive and self-indulgent’, Mcrae possesses the talent to blow the roof off a venue with his passionate performances, as well as the innate ability forge a strong humorous bond with his audience.

Britains only MORRISSEY tribute act

Throwing Muses’ lynchpin, Kristin Hersh’s prolific career has seen her heralded queen of the alternative release. Her tenth studio album, Possible Dust Clouds is a highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din.

Brown Horse make twangy and thoughtful indie rock, delicately arranged, but unafraid of building a yowling wall of guitars, accordion, banjo and pedal steel. Distorted, teary-eyed and country-tinged, this is music for long lonely drives and late, late nights in strange places.

Dirty, sweet, rock n' roll from London, UK. New album 'Promised Land' out now.

E-Ticket for the Oxidised Razor gig at the Portland Arms on the 30th July. THIS IS AN E-TICKET! NO PHYSICAL TICKET IS SENT! YOUR NAME WILL BE DOWN ON THE DOOR!

The Rabbitts craft music that blurs the lines between folk, alternative, and atmospheric pop. Known for their delicate harmonies, immersive arrangements, and a sound described as “ethereal and understated” (BBC Radio 6), they create songs that feel both intimate and cinematic. Critics have called their work “hypnotic... crafting a meditative spell” (Obscure Sound) and “intricately lush and completely captivating” (Podcart). The Norwich-based band began 2026 with an immersive and isolated creative retreat in the mountains. They now have a new album set for release on November 13th 2026. This show is part of their UK album release tour, where songs from the new album will be performed for the first time alongside a few old favourites. This tour follows on from their 2025 tour which sold out multiple shows around the UK, and the release of ‘Orbital Collection’, a series of four EPs the band released over the course of 12 months. The Rabbitts are an ever-evolving group who are constantly creating and rarely staying still. Presented by Silver Birch Sound. All ages. Under 16's must be accompanied by a parent or guardian

Call it prairie noir or Canadiana desert rock: Toronto's Abigail Lapell sings haunting, gorgeous modern folk songs. She's won three Canadian Folk Music Awards, including English Songwriter of the Year and Contemporary Album of the Year, reaching #1 on Canadian folk radio and over 48 million streams across digital platforms. Lapell tours widely across North America and Europe, performing on vocals, piano, harmonica and finger style guitar. Her JUNO-nominated album, Anniversary, was released May 2024 on Outside Music. Last year, Lapell released Anniversary & More Songs About Love, an extended companion to Anniversary. Presented by Folklore Sessions This is an 18+ event

Francis of Delirium is a Luxembourg-based indie rock duo formed by Canadian-born singer-songwriter Jana Bahrich and drummer/producer Chris Hewett.

Baba Yaga's Hut Presents: Smote SMOTE, once a solo endeavor by Daniel Foggin, now expanded to a fuller ensemble blends traditional instrumentation - creaking strings, funeral drums, somber winds - with thunderous synth work and desolate guitar to craft drone and dirge. The new album “A Grand Stream” (Rocket Recordings 2024) is a full-scale psychic voyage into the ether and a drone-and-repetition-fuelled series of incantations that takes simple, primal ingredients and utilises them for the purposes of aural sorcery, summoning spectres and revelations aplenty in its wake. Smote’s austerity is one that refreshingly escapes the usual trappings of avant-garde music, simply by the force of its elemental vitality and its grounding of negative aural space. Its overpowering wall of sound still holds enough natural grace that it escapes the oppressive abusiveness of, say, Swans, and yet it is relentless in its forward thrust. “A Grand Stream” takes the band - one who’ve always eschewed the cliches and stumbling blocks of all contemporary psych rock in favour of their own unique and wyrd vision - into a realm in which they transcend through willpower and skill alike into something preternaturally thrilling and intimidating, mapping out their own crepuscular new territory in the paranormal. This is an 18+ event

Mr B invented chap-Hop in the summer of 2007, having drunk too much sherry and inadvertently created a new culture. Since then, he has travelled the world, spreading his beats, rhymes and manners. He has recorded 13 albums and has rapped for Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight and for Rob Da Bank, Steve Lamacq, Claudia Winkleman, Tom Robinson, Shaun Keaveny on the radio and for Zoe Ball on Sky TV. He has been described as ‘a cross between the home service and Run DMC’ by Evening Standard. ‘Too funny and dope’ (Nile Rodgers).

Harvs Le Toad is bringing his Between Lilypads Tour to The Portland Arms in celebration of his new album Between Lilypads, released via Vinyl Digital.

We've finally managed to get Esther Manito booked and we can't ruddy wait. She will be supported by Sarah Johnson, Alex Freimuller and Chris Ford. Ali Warwood will host the show and there's all the drinks and Pizza you could possibly need (for a price). See you there

Ticket for the Cambridge leg of the Isles of Suffering UK tour. Plesae note that this is an e-ticket! No physical ticket is sent! Your name will be down on the door!

E-TICKET for the Fossilization/Phobocosm Cambridge gig at the Portland Arms on the 23rd August NO PHYSICAL TICKET IS SENT OUT! YOUR NAME WILL BE DOWN ON THE DOOR!

Formed in York in 2013, King No-One introduced themselves busking original material in the cold, rain drenched streets across the UK. As word spread they built their live reputation with blistering shows across the nations favourite small venues before exploding as one of the biggest live emerging guitar bands in the country.

Eels Eels Eels + Snowdeer + Lara Price Eels Eels Eels - Desert rock from the heart of the fens. FFO Queens of the Stone Age. Snowdeer - Upcoming Alt Rock band from Cambridgeshire. Lara Price - Upcoming Alt Rock band from Norfolk.

The Frank and Walters are an alternative rock band from Cork city in Ireland. The band was founded in 1990 by Paul Linehan (vocalist/bassist), his brother Niall Linehan (guitarist), who was replaced by Kevin Pedreschi in 2004, and Ashley Keating (drums). They took the band name in honour of two eccentric Cork characters. Cian Corbett joined on keyboard duties in 2005. Price includes a 50p venue levy

John Otway and his hard hitting band attack his favourite set list with gusto, leaving plenty of room for anarchy, fun and acrobatics that are his trademark. The Big Band are Richard Holgarth (lead guitar), Seymour (bass guitar), Murray Torkildsen (guitar, songwriter), Adam Batterbee (drums).

BBC Radio Young Folk Awards Nominee, UKE Magazine Best Newcomer winner and now English Folk Expo Mentor Scheme participant, Amelia Coburn is a truly stunning solo performer who bears comparisons to Kate Bush and Nick Drake with beguiling original folk and jazz influenced songs. Amelia has performed at Cambridge Folk Festival, Costa Del Folk in Ibiza and numerous other national and international events including sell out solo shows in her native North East and elsewhere as well as supporting a diverse range of artists including The Wedding Present, Steve Harley and the late folk legend Vin Garbutt.

Billy Salisbury aka The Undercover Hippy has been performing at festivals since 2008, working his way up from being a solo singer-songwriter playing in small marquee stages, to now having a full band of incredible musicians and playing main-stages at some of the UK’s best independent festivals. The band have been regulars at Glastonbury, Boomtown, Electric Picnic, Eden Festival in Scotland and Beautiful Days, plus many more around the UK and Europe. The music is best described as politically driven acoustic roots reggae folk-hop, with feel good vibes and a sly sense of humour. The live show is high energy, interactive, and always leaves the crowd begging for more. Devoted fans travel the length of the UK for shows, audibly singing along with every chorus.

Back in 2020, former Auteurs frontman Luke Haines and former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck teamed for the excellent Beat Poetry for Survivalists, and now they've announced a follow-up. The awesomely titled All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out is a double album, out October 28 via Cherry Red.

The Belair Lip Bombs are an Australian indie rock band formed in Frankston, Victoria. They are known for their debut album, "Lush Life," which showcases their songwriting and indie arrangements. The band has gained attention for their unique sound, blending elements of punk, post-punk, jangle pop, and new wave.

90s Grunge Tribute, Ghosts of Seattle bring the best of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and more. Every song is a banger no filler, no fluff, just 2 hours of the grunge anthems you know and love. Plus, well even throw in a deep cut or two for the true fans. Expect Energy. Nostalgia. Pure Grunge Vibes. Weve packed venues across London, the Midlands, and the South Coast with our professional, note-for-note performances of the genres greatest hits. This isnt just a gig its a celebration of an era. Dont miss this unforgettable night grab your tickets now and join us for a grunge-fuelled trip back to the 90s! Ghosts of Seattle A Tribute to a Genre, Not Just a Band.

A Cambridge-based quintet formed in 2022, crafting a hypnotic blend of shoegaze, dreampop, synth-pop, psychedelic and new wave, often described as "shoe-synth-dream." Drawing influence from Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine and New Order, they balance nostalgia and intensity with a modern edge, creating expansive soundscapes that sit somewhere between dream and distortion.

Amsterdam-based collective Personal Trainer sound like your favorite indie-rock tracks mashed with big-hearted pop. Joining them are playful pop-punkers Pom Poko, whose sugary, experimental, math-rock-influenced songcraft has received nominations for both the Nordic Music Prize & Norwegian Grammys. This is an 18+ event.

The MIDNIGHT COWGIRLS are a powerhouse feminine collective poised to revolutionise the music scene with their electrifying blend of country, rock, metal, post-punk, and rockabilly. Country grit and rock 'n' roll swagger, blazing trails through uncharted terrain. From Los Angeles, California ... on their first UK tour.

Chloe Slater is an English singer-songwriter from Bournemouth. She's known for her indie rock music with "sprinkles of pop and punk," infused with social commentary and personal reflection.

The Wave Pictures return to play songs from their new album, 'Look Inside Your Heart' - a warm, joyous record celebrating friendship, happiness and drunken party times. Expect all of that and more when The Wave Pictures rock into town!

One of only three exclusive UK shows in 2026! The Cloverhearts are one of the newest and fastest growing bands in the punk and celtic punk scenes today. From sharing the stage with genre giants such as Flogging Molly and Zebrahead at festivals like Punk Rock Holiday and Mighty Sounds, to racking up millions of streams online, things keep going from strength to strength for the Australian-American hybrids. Their new album “Germanic!” Is out via SBÄM Records - join us to celebrate the release on the upcoming European tour. Presented by Dead Ferret Productions. This is an 18+ event