The Maccabees announce huge reunion show for All Point East 2025
The Maccabees have announced a huge reunion show for All Point East 2025 – you can find all the details below.
The London band are due to play their first show in eight years in Victoria Park on Sunday August 24 – marking the 10th anniversary of their fourth and final album, ‘Marks To Prove It’.
It has also been confirmed that The Maccabees are collaborating with All Points East to curate the full line-up for the day, which will boast “artists that they love, both old and new”. Further details on this are expected soon.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am GMT this Thursday (October 31) – you’ll be able to buy yours here. Alternatively, fans can sign up to access a pre-sale at the same time on Wednesday (30).
The first turning point on the road to All Points East dates back to guitarist and founding member Hugo White’s wedding in early 2020, according to a press release. He wanted to put together a live covers band as part of the celebrations.
Guest spots were divided out between close friends and musical peers including Adele, Florence + The Machine and Jamie T. It was suggested that The Maccabees could play ‘Pelican’ at the party, but White wasn’t sure if frontman Orlando Weeks would accept the invitation.
Weeks recalled: “I didn’t go because it was The Maccabees playing together again, but because it was a beautiful gesture to be invited and to contribute to the spirit of the day. What I wanted, band aside, was to find a way to be in each other’s lives in some way.’’
The Maccabees hadn’t performed together since their last show at Alexandra Palace in 2017. They hadn’t all been in the same room, on or off stage, since that final performance in London.
Although there was no talk of an official reunion following White’s wedding, the event provided a “catalyst for them to each rekindle their relationships gradually”. Their desire to reconnect then grew throughout lockdown.
Felix White, who performs in 86TVs alongside brother Hugo, explained: “In the intervening years we’ve been to All Points East a lot, separately. It’s become a bit of a landmark festival for us, always checking who’s on the line-up.
“I’d go and have a great time throughout the day, but there was always this pinch of regret watching headliners that we could’ve done it ourselves one day too. I thought that moment had passed, and it was something I was prepared to come to terms with that I was always going to miss.
“I think we’re all kind of shocked and excited that we get to do it together again.”
Hugo, meanwhile, was partly inspired by watching The Strokes headline last year’s edition of All Points East. “I could see that they were enjoying it, realising how great what they had created together was,” he said.
“Being a band, you are usually in a mindset of, ‘We can do better’ and you’re always chasing something else. This is an opportunity to realise that whatever we had in that moment was pretty special and get to enjoy it again.
“It’s a chance to appreciate everything, and especially how it impacts other people and created a community.”
Hinting at potential further shows and music, a press release states: “The Maccabees are back: for friendship, for celebration, for community. Will there be more chapters in their future? Maybe, maybe not.
“For now, they’re happy to keep their minds open and see where these shows take them next.”
The Maccabees began teasing their upcoming return last week, later confirming that an announcement would be coming today (October 28).
During an interview with NME in July, Felix White was asked if there were any plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the last Maccabees album.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone about it,” he responded. “Sometimes someone from Fiction, the label that put our records out, says, ‘This is an anniversary for that’. But no one’s got in touch with me about [the 10th anniversary].
“I like the classic album tours that people do – I’m really into that. So it’s a weird one with The Maccabees, yeah. We’re not doing any of that. We’re sort of just doing our own lives, which feels pretty good. Where we left it at Ally Pally… it’d be so difficult to replicate.”
86TVs have since released their self-titled debut album and will embark on a UK headline tour next month. Find any remaining tickets here.
Speaking to NME in 2023, White discussed the “perfect heartbreak” of The Maccabees never headlining Reading & Leeds. “We were so close to it, man,” Hugo added. “We headlined Latitude [in 2016] and that was our first step into that thing. Reading was always on the list.”
Since The Maccabees’ split, Orlando Weeks has made three solo records: ‘A Quickening’ (2020), ‘Hop Up’ (2022) and ‘Loja’ (2024).
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Tom Skinner
NME
