The Maccabees have announced the first support acts for their huge reunion show at All Points East 2025.
As confirmed earlier this week, the London band are set to take to stage in the capital’s Victoria Park on August 24 for their first gig together in eight years. The performance will coincide with the 10th anniversary of their fourth and final album, ‘Marks To Prove It’.
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It was also revealed that The Maccabees would be collaborating with All Points East to curate the full line-up for the day, including “artists that they love, both old and new”.
Now, the first wave of opening artists has been shared in the form of Bombay Bicycle Club, The Cribs, Dry Cleaning, Nilüfer Yanya, The Murder Capital, Divorce and Prima Queen.
Many more acts are to be announced in the coming months, organisers have promised. The Maccabees’ big comeback marks the first line-up announcement for next year’s edition of All Points East.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am GMT tomorrow (Thursday October 31) – you’ll be able to buy yours here. Alternatively, fans who have signed up for a pre-sale can access tickets from the same time today (Wednesday October 30).
The road to the band’s All Points East show dates back to Maccabees guitarist and founding member Hugo White’s wedding in early 2020, where he put together a live covers band as part of the celebrations.
Songs were shared out between close friends and musical peers including Adele, Florence Welch and Jamie T. It was suggested that The Maccabees could play their song ‘Pelican’ at the party, but White wasn’t sure if frontman Orlando Weeks would accept the invitation initially.
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, or even all been in the same room, since their last show at London’s Alexandra Palace in 2017.
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.”
Hinting at potential further performances and new music, a press release said: “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 on Monday (October 28).
During an interview with NME this summer, Felix was asked if there were any plans in the works to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the last Maccabees album.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone about it,” he replied. “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 shared their self-titled debut album and are scheduled to head out on a UK headline tour next month. Find any remaining tickets here.
Speaking to NME in 2023, Felix discussed the “perfect heartbreak” of The Maccabees never topping the bill at 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).
