With a new year now upon us, here’s what we’re chomping at the bit for that’s coming along in the next 12 months.
Becoming Led Zeppelin is on the way
Becoming Led Zeppelin, the feature-length documentary about the origins of the band, will finally be released on IMAX screens in the UK, US and Canada on February 7, with a general release to follow. With a run time of over two hours, it has a teaser trailer out now.
Iron Maiden kick off their Run For Your Lives tour
Few bands do anniversaries quite as brilliantly as Iron Maiden, and with them celebrating their half-century it’s no wonder they’re promising their “most spectacular and elaborate show” to date for a run of arena nights in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, plus outdoor shows in Dublin and London. The tour will be the first without drummer Nicko McBrain, who announced his retirement from the band after 42 years last month
Kate Bush is back... we think
Having released the enchanting animated short film Little Shrew (Snowflake), a lament for children impacted by war, made in collaboration with the charity War Child, Kate Bush has revealed plans to return to music, implying that a new album is on the cards. “I’ve got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space,” she told the Today programme, “it’s been a long time.” Bush’s most recent studio album, 50 Words For Snow, was released in 2011.
Download Festival looks to the future
With Green Day, Korn and Sleep Token confirmed as this year’s top dogs, Download is wisely keeping one eye on the future. Too many of our established headline acts are retiring. Of course, the festival continues to present old favourites, with more than 90 other acts confirmed for 2025 including Weezer, Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Airbourne, Steel Panther, Within Temptation, Eagles Of Death Metal, The Darkness and… er, McFly.
A summer of killer festival bills
As well as Download, there’s more varied and glorious festival entertainment to be had elsewhere. Mastodon, Machine Head and Gojira will rule the roost at Bloodstock, while Michael Schenker’s UFO Years and Black Stone Cherry are among the first names announced for Maid Of Stone. The Almighty, Sweet, D*A*D and Primal Fear are set for Stonedead, and W.A.S.P., The Wildhearts and Lita Ford will travel to Wales for Steelhouse. Along with those there’s Country 2 Country, Desertfest, Rebellion, ArcTanGent, Reading and Leeds, Firevolt and more, including…
Tool’s new ‘Tropical Getaway Festival’ with Primus, Mastodon, King’s X And More
The world of heavy, highbrow progressive music gets a new five-star event in March, with prog-metal godfathers Tool announcing the first edition of Tool Live In The Sand. Taking place in the Dominican Republic on March 7-9, the event is designed to “bring Tool diehards from around the world for the ultimate vacation”.
A-list reunions, plus the Temperance Movement return
Scott Gorham says he would love to put together an “absolute kick-ass [line-up of] Thin Lizzy” with a view to some summer touring. Considering that Gorham has previously tapped members of Def Leppard, GN’R, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Europe and Mastodon, it would be well worth checking out.
Rumours of a Twisted Sister reunion have circulated over the past year, with Dee Snider suggesting “it’s getting close”, and whispers of Rush getting back together continue to surface…
The Temperance Movement have announced their first tour (kicking off on March 17 in Bristol) since frontman Phil Campbell quit the band in January 2020 – and Phil Campbell is back at the mic. More as we hear it.
The Who will work together in 2025
Keith Moon and John Entwistle are long gone, but Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey will reunite as The Who in 2025 – although unless Townshend gets his way it’s unlikely they’ll record a new album. “We’re in good form. We love each other. We’re both getting a bit creaky, but we will definitely do something next year,” Townshend tells The Standard.
Meanwhile Daltrey has announced solo UK shows in April and May, where he’ll play a mix of Who classics and solo material.
Status Quo’s celebrated Live! album gets the expansion treatment
The Holy Grail for fans of Status Quo’s ‘Frantic Four’ line-up is released in April. Following the rediscovery of the tapes of the band’s run at Glasgow Apollo on the Blue For You tour in 1976, a new boxed set, Status Quo Live – Super Deluxe Edition, will present the full performances on all three nights.
Jesse Malin returns to the UK following his stroke
Hardcore punk-turned-Americana storyteller Jesse Malin will play two shows in May (at London’s Islington Assembly Hall and The Garage), his first since suffering a rare spinal stroke in May 2023 that left him paralysed from the waist down. Proceeds will go towards his ongoing medical care.
Prog-metal kingpins Dream Theater are back
Dream Theater are back with their sixteenth studio album. Parasomnia, the first with returning drummer Mike Portnoy since 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings, is released on February 7.
Larkin Poe raise the stakes with new album and biggest UK shows yet
Getting 2025’s album output off to a flying start, on January 24 Grammy-winning blues-rock sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell (aka the duo behind Nashville-based outfit Larkin Poe) release their most commanding album to date. We’ve had a sneak preview of Bloom (co-produced with Rebecca’s husband Tyler Bryant), and for our money it’s their best yet, full of riffs, rootsy warmth and on-point harmonies. Plus they’re coming to the UK in October. Look out for a full feature on them in Classic Rock 337.
Steven Wilson’s eighth album and solo-catalogue-spanning shows
Given that the solo maverick and Porcupine Tree mastermind isn’t a fan of the word ‘progressive’, fans may be surprised to hear that his new album embraces the Pink Floyd-scale heights in his DNA. Comprising two long tracks and drawing on the idea of perspective (specifically Earth as seen from space) The Overview is a high-concept audiovisual epic, with a rockier streak than he’s had in a while, accompanied by an immersive film. Expect all that, plus songs from last album The Harmony Codex and across his solo career, on a massive UK/Europe tour starting in May.
More new albums
It’s three years since Def Leppard’s Diamond Star Halos, and there are whispers of new music from them. Elder statesmen Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Brian Wilson have all been busy, and new records are due from Blondie, Smith/Kotzen, Don Airey, Manic Street Preachers, The Wildhearts, Joe Bonamassa, The Darkness, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Garbage and Helloween, among many more.
Mammoth, Halestorm, Samantha Fish, Shinedown, The Inspector Cluzo, Orianthi, Hellacopters and Anthrax are also expected to release new studio records during the year, and in the world of melodic rock, look out for newies from Europe, Tyketto, the Dan Reed Network, H.e.a.t. and Glenn Hughes. Tasty live albums include Iggy Pop’s Montreux Live album, G3’s Reunion Live, and many more are in the works.
AC/DC hit the road again
After a wealth of rumour-mongering and a ‘leaked’ Instagram post, AC/DC have now confirmed that they will hit the road in the United States this summer. They couldn’t return to the UK so soon, could they? Could they?! Beyond that, in terms of tours we’d like to see, it would be great if a British promoter took a chance on Sammy Hagar’s top-grossing Best Of All Worlds tour with Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Kenny Aronoff. ZZ Top have extended their Elevation Tour, so one final lap of the UK, maybe? And how about an appearance from the reunited Slayer on these shores?
Ghost’s biggest ever world tour
Ghost’s quest to take over the globe continues in 2025 as the Grammy-winning Swedish theatrical rockers embark on a mammoth bout of touring that includes four arena shows in the UK and their first-ever show at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden.
More great tours
One of the joys of classic rock is the breadth of its appeal. In 2025 there’ll be something for just about everyone, including Joe Bonamassa playing his Rory Gallagher set, the return of Blue Öyster Cult, Uriah Heep’s ‘final’ tour, and tour dates for Saxon, Fish, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Daltrey, Bonnie Raitt, Hawkwind, Queensrÿche, Soul Asylum, Limp Bizkit, Toto, Robin Trower, Public Image Ltd, The Darkness, The Pogues, Levellers, Bryan Adams, Skunk Anansie and Phil Campbell’s 50th-anniversary celebration of Motörhead. Guns N’ Roses have also announced a summer European jaunt (including two UK dates with Rival Sons as support).
Albums we’d like to see – is 2025 the year for GN’R?
Dare we even mention Guns N’ Roses? Year after year we cross our fingers and hope for something. But with Slash having revealed that “Guns N’ Roses are trying to make a record”, the hope and expectation is beginning to escalate.
Following a rapturously received five-date UK tour by Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock plus singer Frank Carter, it’s tempting to consider the possibility of a new Sex Pistols-ish album.
With the liaison between the four going from strength to strength, there has to be a possibility. Ricky Warwick has always batted away questions about a new album from The Almighty with the trusted response ‘never say never’. By the time you read this, the band will have completed a second reunion tour, and with summer festivals to be announced, the thought of a new record from the classic line-up (their first since 1991’s Soul Destruction) can’t be written off.
New and up-and-coming bands
Following some mega shows in 2024, Welsh heroes Those Damn Crows will release their next album, God Shaped Hole, in April. Rising powerpop/punk stars Bad Nerves head out on tour with Green Day and Weezer, while psychedelic maverick Rosalie Cunningham tours her latest LP To Shoot Another Day, and Shaman’s Harvest and Blacktop Mojo play their first UK shows.
The Cold Stares’ frontman Chris Tapp has a solo album, Green, on the way, Aussie NWOBHM-esque oddballs Battlesnake have hinted at a new record (they’re confirmed for Download), and The Damn Truth, Troy Redfern and Robert Jon & The Wreck all have new albums coming.
Plus we’ve got our eye on fresh faces including Gyasi, Himalayas, Last Train, the Zac Schulze Gang, Dirty Blonde, Matted, Jonathan Hultén, Morganway and Split Dogs, to name a few.
Clutch celebrate their 30th anniversary
At the end of the year, celebrating 30 years since the release of their self-titled second album, Clutch will be playing it in its entirety on a five-date tour that ends on December 20 in London. Look out also for a rather sexy reissue of the record on 180-gram vinyl.
Other landmark anniversaries
Anniversaries are a great excuse for putting out appetising reissues and box sets and doing special tours, and there are some big milestones being hit in 2025. Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Jefferson Starship and Steel Pulse all have 50th-anniversary events planned, and others also hitting the 50-year mark (without any plans announced as we went to press) include Saxon, Boston, Sex Pistols, The Runaways, Krokus and Talking Heads.
Rockers celebrating 40 years include Guns N’ Roses, Dream Theater, Mike + The Mechanics, Simply Red, Helloween, Extreme, Crowded House and more. New Model Army celebrate their 45th birthday as a band with LIVE SO36 (a live record captured in Berlin in 2023), and in the world of 21st-century stars Alter Bridge will release a 20th-anniversary edition of their debut One Day Remains.
Hitting the big 60, though? That’ll include some of Classic Rock’s ultimate 60s-spawned pioneers, among them Pink Floyd, The Doors, Scorpions, Canned Heat, Love, The Seeds and Grateful Dead. Sixty years? When the hell did that happen?!
ELO’s last ever show, at London’s Hyde Park in July
Jeff Lynne will be hoping for the real Mr Blue Sky when his latest incarnation of the Electric Light Orchestra play for the final time, in London’s Hyde Park on July 13. Demand for tickets was such that shows in Birmingham and Manchester were added to the itinerary. Give that Lynne’s return to touring took place at Hyde Park in 2014, “it seems like the perfect place to do our final show”, he says.
Bob Dylan and Keith Moon biopics
We’re not sure whether to be excited or deeply suspicious of this (Timothée Chalamet in the titular role? Really?), and either way it’s an interesting prospect for Bob Dylan fans. Centred on the pioneering folk troubadour’s move to amplified electric instrumentation, A Complete Unknown is in cinemas now, and the early reviews are stunning. And could this year see the release of the Keith Moon biopic, tentatively titled The Real Me, which has been in the works since 2022? Again, watch this space.
‘Official’ Fleetwood Mac documentary coming
An officially sanctioned Fleetwood Mac film, as yet untitled, is due out this year. The documentary is being directed by Frank Marshall, whose previous credits include similar projects on the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys and Carole King & James Taylor, and will include previously unseen footage as well as new interviews with the surviving band members.
And finally, "this one goes to eleven"
Four decades after its original release, the classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap finally gets a long-awaited sequel in the spring. The original band – lead singer David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) – will be joined by a cast that includes Paul McCartney, Elton John and Garth Brooks. And yes, it’s in bloody Dobly.
