Get ready to party everyone as 2025 is going to be a belter of a year music-wise, with big names from Robbie Williams to Kylie heading to Newcastle.
The coming months are shaping up to be something very special musically, with a variety of stand-out shows and events around the city. Among them is the new festival being billed as our biggest ever and it has already featured in a round-up by Time Out of the 25 best new things to do in the UK for 2025.
Other firsts are a celebration of the North East’s music traditions as well as the creation of new music as part of the big ambitions of Gateshead’s world-class venue The Glasshouse as 2025 sees it enters its third decade. The rest of our pick here of the year’s top shows centre around Newcastle but we’ll be following up with more across the wider region.
Keep an eye out too for our upcoming guides to the best North East theatre, comedy shows and exhibitions throughout 2025. There is much to look forward to so everyone can be guaranteed a happy new year.
Kanya King, founder of the MOBO Awards, during the official launch at Newcastle Civic Centre
(Image: Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle)
MOBO Awards
In what is a coup of Newcastle, the city will be hosting the MOBO Awards for the first time and February’s music celebration will help set the tone here for a year of great music. Following the announcement of the 2025 awards’ nominees, preparations are under way to welcome big names to the city for what is Europe’s biggest celebration of Black music and culture.
Tickets are up for grabs to the February 18 awards night at Utilita Arena and, as previously reported, there are some top-drawer nominees who include global star Beyonce and Brit Award-winning Raye who this year won six Brits including album of the year for her debut My 21st Century Blues.
Others include British R&B stars Sampha, Jorja Smith and Cleo Sol with three nominations apiece while Beyonce is in the running for best international act. Newcastle will be in full-on party mood and there will be a MOBO Fringe Festival running alongside the main event too: for tickets for the big night see here or book here.
Robbie Williams
(Image: AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Come Together Festival
The announcement of this huge new festival for Newcastle – its largest ever – caused huge excitement coming as it did alongside news that Robbie Williams will be its opening act – since followed by the reveal that rock legends Kings of Leon will close it.
The five-day music event on the Town Moor next June has also been named among Time Out’s guide to the 25 best new things to do in the UK for 2025. Citing the Town Moor’s 45,000 capacity, the hospitality company’s guide said: “It’s promising to be more than just music.
“Come Together will also celebrate the rich culture and community of the north-eastern city, featuring local food vendors and immersive art installations.” And we certainly are in for a treat.
It will see Robbie take to the stage for what will be his first performance in the city for more than 10 years. From Take That’s heyday to soaring solo success with the likes of Angels, Let Me Entertain You, Millennium and She’s The One, Robbie has stayed the course and then some.
He will be entertaining fans with a UK tour next summer too and says of his Newcastle show kicking off the June 4-8 mega event: “I am stoked to headline what is essentially my own one-day festival, and where better than Newcastle? Howay, it’s ganna be mint man.”
Others on the first day line-up include Kaiser Chiefs, Little Mix’s Perrie Edwards and Newcastle rising star Andrew Cushin while joining Kings of Leon on the June 8 bill will be The Courteeners. For ticket details see cometogetherfestival.co.uk – it’s going to be huge and we haven’t even heard the half of it yet.
Kylie
Pop princess Kylie will be bringing summer sparkle to Newcastle during her Tension tour which has the city as the second stop-off of the nine recently-announced dates. The Spinning Around and Can’t Get You Out of My Head hit-maker will be at Utilita Arena on May 17.
On the back of last year’s Tension album – which brought fans anthemic belter Padam Padam – Kylie announced the tour amid preparations to release the repackaged Tension II album which is set to get that summer party started. There are still tickets available although expect limited availability.
Kylie Minogue performing in 2008 at the arena in Newcastle – where she’ll be back this summer
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
Roger Daltrey and The Boomtown Rats at The Glasshouse
Blasts from the past will be rocking The Glasshouse International Centre for Music over the river in Gateshead which is itself going all-out with a new year focus on its musical future as it clocks up a milestone birthday. It always has a packed programme and among the artists on 2025’s bill are The Who frontman Roger Daltrey and The Boomtown Rats who also will be marking a big anniversary.
Rock fans will be delighted to hear Daltrey will stop off at The Glasshouse on May 1 – see here – on a solo tour while later in the year, on November 8, Sir Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats will play there on a special night to celebrate their 50 years in the music business.
Now, 20 years on from opening its doors, it intends to embrace the start of its third decade and 2025 is just the start of what’s to come.
Having announced a partnership with local music development agency Generator on plans to establish a Newcastle-Gateshead ‘music city’ – backed by the likes of North Shields star Sam Fender – to attract investment and create jobs, The Glasshouse has also teamed up with leading artists – local folk favourites The Unthanks; Polish violinist Maria Włoszczowska and R’n’B, soul and pop singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae – to create new work and opportunities over the next three years.
At the heart of plans is setting up a Music Academy, from family classes to nurturing artists, thanks to a £2m grant to boost its work with young people and its goal is to become the most affordable music centre in Europe, starting with a Music Pass giving free access to newborns and their families for 10 years.
Songs of the North East
A new stage show, steeped in the musical traditions of the region, will be touring in the spring and will tour to 10 venues in spring including Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle on April 6. And here a music journey through songs from the 1800s to the present day will be accompanied by a screening of a new film.
In the Veins chronicles the region’s coal mining history through more than a century of footage collected by the North East and Yorkshire Film and TV Archive. The show itself will be performed by opera stars Graeme Danby, who’s from County Durham, and Valerie Reid and the audience can expect traditional songs such as Joe Wilson’s Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny and Mark Knopfler’s Sailing to Philadelphia and stories behind them.
Writers Tom Kelly and Graeme Thompson describe it as a celebration of North East heritage and culture as revealed by generations of musicians and songwriters. And the whole event, celebrating the music of Tyneside and Northumberland, is set to make anyone from the region feel thoroughly proud.
The April-May tour, from the Tees Valley to the Scottish border, will include Northumberland dates at The Phoenix in Blyth on April 3; The Maltings, Berwick, on April 4 and Queens Hall, Hexham, on April 11 plus Consett’s Empire Saturday on April 5; The Customs House, South Shields, on May 8; The Exchange, North Shields, on May 9; Arts Centre Washington Wednesday on May 21 and Ponteland Methodist Church on May 23. More dates are to be announced.
Bryan Adams
Rock legend has made a summer date with Newcastle where he will launch the UK leg of his Roll With The Punches tour – named after his upcoming new album – in May. As previously reported, the Canadian singer-songwriter behind Summer of ’69 and the record-breaking (Everything I Do) I Do It For You has told how every time he plays over here ‘I remember why I fell in love with UK audiences’.
Local fans will be able to show they love him too when he takes to the stage at the city’s Utilita Arena on May 8. For tickets see here or visit the arena site .
Gary Barlow
Adding to our summer of love – and another music favourite celebrating a milestone – is Robbie’s old band-mate whose Newcastle date will just pip him to the post. Just a day before Williams’ Town Moor show, Barlow will be wrapping up his two dates at the O2 City Hall.
He will be performing solo shows there on June 2 and 4 on The Songbook Tour 2025 which is a celebration of a four-decade career – can you believe it – and fans can expect to back-track through both Take That hits such as Back For Good – the band’s biggest-seller of the nineties – and those he’s had on his tod.
He’s also co-written and produced music for the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey and Sir Elton John. For tickets see here.