Going live in 2025? From Oasis and ELO to Kylie and Coldplay…ADRIAN THRILLS picks out which gigs YOU should be flocking to next year

With Oasis back on the road and Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey heading to the stadiums, 2025 will be another great year for live music. The Mail’s music critic chooses some dates for your new diary…

WONDERWALLERS

Just as Taylor Swift’s Eras tour was the must-see event of 2024, Oasis’ return will be the biggest live attraction next year.

“The stars are aligned, the great wait is over,” the band said when a series of UK stadium shows were announced in August – only for the news to be overshadowed by a row over ‘dynamic pricing’ when tickets went on sale .

The fuss should have subsided by the time the group takes to the stage at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on July 4.

Liam Gallagher is one of the most charismatic frontmen of his generation, and if he and his brother Noel can avoid any flare-ups, it promises to be a rough few weeks for Britpop fans.

All dates are already sold out, but some resales may still take place through official agents (oasisinet.com).

POP DIVAS

Stadium spectacles were once the domain of rock groups and boy bands. But now that the Eras tour is paving the way, younger female stars are also joining in. Dua Lipa brings her Radical Optimism world tour to Britain, playing two nights at Wembley Stadium, opening on June 20, before playing a further two nights at Anfield in Liverpool.

Lana Del Rey also performs on the biggest stages. After opening her tour at Cardiff’s Principality

Stadium on June 23 she visits Glasgow’s Hampden Park, Wembley and Anfield. After covering You’ll Never Walk Alone as a seven-inch single in 2020, she was able to deliver a live rendition of the Liverpool FC anthem on Merseyside (both livenation.co.uk).

There are other major pop tours too, with former Disney starlets Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo both visiting Britain in 2025. After bringing us one of the lightest singles of 2024 on the Espresso charts, Carpenter opens her Short n’ Sweet tour. with two nights at Dublin’s 3Arena on March 3 and 4.

Rodrigo’s Guts tour will also resume, with the Californian star playing Marlay Park, Dublin, on June 24, followed by a gig at BST Hyde Park, London, on June 27, and two gigs at Co-op Live, Manchester, on 30 June and July 1. (both ticketmaster.co.uk).

Billie Eilish is also there, with her opening night at the OVO Hydro, Glasgow, on July 7, while Charli London.

Victoria Park on June 14 (both ticketmaster.co.uk).

GLITTERBALLERS

Anticipating the pop-country crossover craze on 2018’s Golden, Kylie Minogue returned to disco on 2023’s Tension and this year’s Tension II albums, and enjoyed a Top Ten single with Padam Padam.

Pop’s biggest showgirl takes her energetic floorfillers on the road with her biggest tour since 2011, opening at OVO Hydro, Glasgow (axs.com) on May 16.

The same evening also sees the return of Scissor Sisters – albeit without original co-lead singer Ana Matronic – who begin their reunion tour at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham (performances and

tours.com). Sophie Ellis-Bextor is guaranteed to bring glamor and cheer to the stage when she launches her tour at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theater on May 22 (ticketmaster.co.uk).

BIG HITTERS

Bruce Springsteen brings his cool E Street Band

to Britain for the third year in a row, opening his final tour with three performances at Co-op Live, Manchester, starting on May 14, before two nights at Anfield in Liverpool in June (livenation.co.uk), while Robbie Williams is also back in the stadiums, opening what he calls his ‘naughtiest tour yet’ at Murrayfield, Edinburgh on May 31 (axs.com).

Murrayfield is also the starting point for Billy Joel, who will make his first appearance in the Scottish capital for 46 years on June 7 before visiting Anfield on June 21 (axs.com).

Jeff Lynne’s ELO kick off their tour at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham, on July 5 and 6 (livenation.co.uk), and Coldplay will play two gigs at Craven Park in Hull from August 18, before a record-breaking ten-day run at Wembley Stadium (coldplay.com).

PARTY PLEASERS

Apart from announcing Rod Stewart as its Sunday tea time legend, Glastonbury has yet to show its hand. However, other festivals are more forthcoming and major crowd-pullers have already been confirmed.

The pick of the bunch is Chappell Roan, the ‘femininomenon’ pop from Missouri, who will be at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August (readingandleeds festival.com).

Elsewhere, Sting, Fatboy Slim and Snow Patrol head to Latitude in Suffolk in July (latitudefestival.com), while The Prodigy and Courteeners visit Kendal Calling, held in the Lake District between July 31 and August 3 (kendalcalling.co.uk). .

BST also returns to London’s Hyde Park in June and July, with Sabrina Carpenter, Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan among the headliners (bst-hydepark.com).

SOUL LEGENDS

Two soul greats are on their way. Lionel Richie, a Glastonbury legend in 2015, starts his Say Hello To The Hits tour at the SSE Arena, Belfast, on May 31 (ticketmaster.co.uk), while Smokey Robinson is here for the first time in 15 years. Motown icon Smokey opens at the SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, on July 3, and plays the Love Supreme festival in East Sussex on July 5 (axs.com).

ROCK GODS

There’s plenty to offer for those who like guitars turned up to 11. Led by singer Axl Rose and British-born guitarist Slash, Guns N’ Roses added originality to the hard rock genre with hits like Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City in the 1980s, and their tour includes stops at Villa Park, Birmingham, on June 23 and Wembley Stadium three days later.

There is also a Wembley date in the diary for Linkin Park. With new singer Emily Armstrong sharing vocals with Mike Shinoda, the rap rockers visit the stadium on June 28.

Combining rock, soul and funk, Lenny Kravitz will play a one-off show at Wembley Arena on February 28, while Judas Priest and Alice Cooper will co-headline at The O2, London on July 25 (all livenation.co.uk).

Classic Albums of the Year

SEMYON BYCHKOV: Dvorak Symphonies Nos. 7, 8, 9 (Pentatone, two CDs)

It seems that Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra can do no wrong, and this two-CD set of Dvorák’s last three symphonies is typical of their refined work.

The Seventh Symphony was written for London and was a great success, perhaps because it contains lingering influences from Brahms, Dvorák’s sponsor and encourager. The Eighth is the most Dvorakian, and the winds of the Czech Philharmonic are reminiscent of the forests and fields of Bohemia. The Ninth, From The New World distills spirituality, the pangs of homesickness and the call of Dvorak’s beloved pigeons.

VINCENZO BELLINI: I Puritani (EuroArts, three CDs)

The last opera Vincenzo Bellini wrote before his untimely death at the age of 33 was previously hacked, but this new recording has been completed. We are in England during the Civil War, and a cavalier, Arturo, has fallen in love with Elvira, the daughter of a Roundhead. Lisette Oropesa has the right vulnerability for Elvira; and the brilliant American tenor Lawrence Brownlee (as Arturo) can even handle the infamous high F. With a strong cast, the excellent Dresden Philharmonic and Leipzig Radio Chorus, good conducting by Riccardo Frizza and a happy ending, what more could you want?

YUNCHAN LIM: Chopin Etudes (Decca)

Piano lovers are fired up by these recordings, the debut album by Korean Yunchan Lim. In 2022 he was the youngest winner of America’s Van Cliburn Competition and was 19 when these sessions took place a year ago at Henry Wood Hall, London. His playing shines in the faster Studies, but he also enchants in well-thought-out pieces such as the E major,

On. 10 No. 3. Lim believes that the heart of the Etudes is in the C-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7, and he finds a special mood for that.