Friday 6 June 2025

Hello! I hope you're loving the Now Hear This redesign as much as me - I felt like it needed a bit of a makeover. 

A very busy week this week, featuring Good Vibrations interviews with three very different guests - Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds, Welsh actor, Game of Thrones star and musician Iwan Rheon, and the Landlord himself, British rap legend Giggs. They'll all be shared in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out!

We're also gearing up for summer festival season, with Glastonbury just around the corner and so many fantastic European festivals to jet off to.

Which brings me to...

More competitions! Win a pair of tickets (flights and accommodation not included) to the amazing Bilbao BBK festival this summer, featuring an all-star lineup including Orbital, Sparks, English Teacher, Nathy Peluso, Wunderhorse and Japanese Breakfast. All you have to do is answer the following: 

Q: Who won the 2024 Mercury Prize?

To be in with a chance of winning send the correct answer to this question to competitions@independent.co.uk Good luck! Entrants must be 18 or over, a UK resident (no shipping of prizes overseas) and only one entry per person is permitted. Answers must be received by 23.59 Monday 9 June. The winner will be contacted via email by Friday 13 June and the winner will be the first valid entry picked at random. No cash alternative. Usual terms apply see: independent.co.uk/rules

Mighty Hoopla 2025 was an absolute blast. This was the second consecutive year The Independent, was partnered with the annual London festival, but they really knocked it out of the [Brockwell] Park this time. You can read my review here.

A lot of interviews this week, including Mark Beaumont's chat with Lottery Winners in Edinburgh, where they were supporting Robbie Williams on tour, plus Hannah's brilliant feature with Turnstile, and a typically frank, insightful conversation with Shirley Manson by Kate Hutchinson.

New music I'm loving this week includes Sabrina Carpenter's summer bop "Manchild", "Times Like These" from Addison Rae's debut album, Addison, GloRilla's "Typa", "Nettles" from Ethel Cain and the gorgeous "Incomprehensible" from Big Thief. I'm also obsessed with the new Little Simz album, Lotus, which I reviewed here, while Mark Beaumont was very taken with Pulp's first album in 24 years. 

And now for ANOTHER competition...

I know, I know, I'm so generous! But there's so much fun stuff happening at the moment, it seems a shame not to invite more of you to join in. So with that in mind... remember SpaceAcre, the brilliant band who opened for Skunk Anansie on The Independent's stage at The Great Escape Festival? Well, they're playing an important headline show at Camden Assembly in London on 12 July, and I have a pair of tickets to giveaway to one lucky winner. All you have to do is answer the following:

Q: What's the title of SpaceAcre's latest single? 

To be in with a chance of winning send the correct answer to this question to competitions@independent.co.uk Good luck! Entrants must be 18 or over, a UK resident (no shipping of prizes overseas) and only one entry per person is permitted. Answers must be received by 23.59 Monday 9 June. The winner will be contacted via email by Friday 13 June and the winner will be the first valid entry picked at random. No cash alternative. Usual terms apply see: independent.co.uk/rules

Now Read This

Written by Roisin O'Connor

More features...

The Lottery Winners’ Thom Rylance: ‘Robbie Williams said my biggest talent is bravery’

Written by Mark Beaumont

Pop, Pride, and pure chaos: Mighty Hoopla might be the UK’s most joyful festival

Written by Roisin O'Connor

ON THE RECORD

I’m trying to get better at trusting intuition and embracing the intangible and not needing to be so hard and critical of myself because I think that can be a never-ending cycle if you do that

Turnstile's Brendan Yates to The Independent. Read the full interview.