Ash

WEDNESDAY 5TH MARCH

The John Peel Centre is celebrating local indie record label Fierce Panda turning 31, presenting Northern Irish noiseniks and old Peelie faves ASH live in Stowmarket on the 5th March!

Support from Desperate Journalist

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £30

Home Cooked Blues

FRIDAY 7TH MARCH

Causing a stir on the Blues Music Scene are Suffolk’s very own Home Cooked Blues.

Drawing on many years of experience and musical influences, the band has all the ingredients to cook up a unique and quirky sound of raw, authentic, dirty, swampy blues. Home Cooked Blues have been building a following of loyal “Homies” at local gigs and festivals and are ready to launch their first album to the world!

So, get ready to be entertained by the foot -stomping riffs of the homemade 3-string guitars, the smooth female vocals and blues harp, all driven and underpinned by the bass and cajon drum.

Bon Appetit, Blues Lovers!!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £10 Adv.

Soul Scene

SATURDAY 8TH MARCH

70s/80s Soul & Disco with a little bit of northern soul, motown and 80s Soulful House!

Sights ‘n’ Sounds Disco was founded in 1976 at the peak of the Disco era, and with the release of ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at the end of 1977 work flooded in with everyone wanting a disco party to celebrate everything from a birthday or wedding, to floor-filled public discos in halls and community centres throughout East Anglia.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £8.50

Grace Calver

@11 Market Place

FRIDAY 14TH MARCH

After many requests, Grace Calver is back at the JPC as a headliner! Grace is a singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist from Suffolk who writes tongue-in-cheek indie pop songs with a hint of rock. The lyrics are not to be taken too seriously and include dealing with social media, unrequited love and failed relationships.

Music: 8pm

Tickets: £8 Adv.

Let's Bop!

WEDNESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY

Do you love to dance but no longer get a chance? Get your mojo back on the dance floor with Let’s Bop! For women 18 to 80!

Simply turn up & dance, on your own or with friends!

Event start: 19:30

Tickets: £7 Adv.

The Celtic Social Club

THURSDAY 20TH MARCH

The Celtic Social Club is celebrating their 10th Anniversary Tour!

During those ten years, they have succeeded in asserting a sound, a style, and a name. With four studio albums and three live albums on the counter; travelling across stages, festivals, and continents, the seven Franco-Irish musicians continue to refine their elegant and daring re-reading of the Celtic music tradition, shaken with great blows of rock energy, pop melody and folk magic.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £16 Adv.

eXTC (18)

XTCs Terry Chambers and friends take you on a journey through time as they work their way through the XTC back catalogue including the hits, Senses Working Overtime, Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock, Life Begins at the Hop, Dear God, Mayor of Simpleton, and many more!

eXTC–XTCs Terry Chambers and Friends capture all the raw energy and hype of XTC’s heyday, with their sensational energetic live performances.

eXTC honors the legacy of XTC’s past, as it shapes its own future, with new material already in the works.

Alongside Terry, eXTC features frontman Steve Hampton (lead vocal & guitar – Joe Jackson, The Vapors and Dead Crow Road) and Terry Lines (bass & vocals – The Rams and Dead Crow Road).

Doors at 19:30, show starts at 20:00

BIG NIGHT OUT - 80s, 90s & 00s (18)

FRIDAY 28TH MARCH

Never Forget are here once again with another fun-filled Big Night Out! These events have been a huge success in the past with nostalgia-inducing live DJ & host, dance battles, mass singalongs, lip-sync battles, competitions, and more!

Event start: 20:00

Tickets: from £16.50

John Crace: What The Hell Just Happened?

SATURDAY 29TH MARCH

The last 10 years of British politics has been one long psychodrama. The Scottish referendum. David Cameron’s surprise election win. Brexit. Theresa May. Boris Johnson. Liz Truss. Rishi Sunak. Each prime minister worse than the last. Covid. Partygate. The UK’s politicians had rarely looked so clueless. Even with the new Labour government we are still rushing through several news cycles each day.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £18 Adv.

Mark Chadwick (18)

THURSDAY 3RD APRIL

One of the UK’s most successful songwriters, Mark Chadwick, has co-written 20 chart singles and 6 Top 40 albums (including a Number 1) as part of the Levellers, the band he has fronted for over 25 years. Still going strong, the Levellers are festival favourites and have cemented their cherished status with headline performances  at Glastonbury, Isle Of Wight, Cambridge Folk Festival, Bestival and Boomtown and many European and UK events and in 2003 they successfully created their own annual Beautiful Days  Festival which takes place in August at Escot Park in Devon.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £22 Adv.

Zion Train

FRIDAY 4TH APRIL

One of the most unique and enjoyable live dub acts on the planet, their use of dynamic onstage dub mixing whilst

performing alongside acoustic instruments and exceptional vocalists, make Zion Train one of a kind.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £17 Adv.

Thomas Heppell

SATURDAY 5TH APRIL

From the vibrant South Coast of the UK to stages across the nation, join Thomas as he crafts the next chapter in UK blues. With a style encapsulating the heart of Blues, the energy of Rock & Roll, and the sophistication of Jazz, if you enjoyed Alice Armstrong, you'll love Thomas Heppell!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £14

Northern Soul & Motown Night

SATURDAY 12TH APRIL

4 hours of non stop Northern Soul and Motown from vinyl DJs Mark Purdy, Martin Topley, Alan Monsey, and Neil Randall. Join us, dance, enjoy the music and open bar!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £8 Adv.

Félix Rabin

WEDNESDAY 16TH APRIL

Marked by the influence of the likes of Gary Clark Jr. or John Mayer, Félix Rabin is deeply rooted in pop-rock tinted-blues, getting funky at times, in a long-standing tradition having its musical origins in the excesses of the musical icons of the sixties and seventies. The JPC is part of his 2025 UK tour!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £14 Adv.

Emerge

WEDNESDAY 17TH APRIL

Sometimes it's easy to miss that some of the best emerging talent is right here on your doorstep. Emerge is our local band night which gives you the opportunity to discover and enjoy up-and-coming music from your area!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £5 Adv.

Pete Wylie And The Might Wah!

SATURDAY 19TH APRIL

Pete Wylie is back with the Mighty WAH! for the ‘Songs Of Strength & Heartbreak’ tour 2025!  

A brand-new show, and the best WAH! there’s ever been.  

After successive sell out tours celebrating a storied career with the ‘Teach Yself WAH!’ best of, attention now turns to the record he returned with after breaking his back. ‘Songs Of Strength & Heartbreak’ is the stuff of legend- Sony spent a million pounds on it, then dropped it before release, despite its brilliance. [It’s a long story…].

This is a brand new tour with a brand new set, including all the biggies like ‘The Story Of The Blues’, Come Back’, and ‘Sinful’, plus the best of ‘Songs Of Strength & Heartbreak’. So get set

for SoSaH 2025!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £23 Adv.

The Courettes

THURSDAY 24TH APRIL

A rock’n’roll sensation from the word go, Danish-Brazilian The Courettes are back with their fourth and best album to date – ‘The Soul Of… The Fabulous Courettes’. And this time, they’re bigger, wider and deeper than ever before as they add more to the blistering ramalama that’s seen them cause pandemonium across the venues, festivals and airwaves of the UK, Europe, USA and Japan - and now at the JPC!

Doors: 19:00

Tickets: £15 Adv.

Diving at Dawn

FRIDAY 25TH APRIL

As one half of indie duo The Boy Least Likely To, Pete has had an impressive 20 year career to date.

Diving At Dawn is Pete’s passion project; indie folk storytelling with an intimate yet cinematic feel. Very much a one man band, Pete plays, sings and records everything himself. Live it’s just him, his guitar and his stories.

Music starts: 20:00

Tickets: £8 Adv.

Big Sky Orchestra

FRIDAY 2ND MAY

Big Sky Orchestra are a five-piece British band, with music that draws from soft rock, funk and Americana. Big Sky's live show is based on the ethos of the 60/70's West Coast jam band scene, with a British feel retained. A jazz rhythm section backing up two rock and roll guitar players and soaring vocal harmonies builds an intricate and improvised, yet always driving brand of Funk Americana.

The approach is built upon the improvisation and expression of each member, with songs cycled into one another and two lead guitars trading off throughout, meaning no two Big Sky shows are ever the same.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £10 Adv.

Viva Promotions: XSLF

SATURDAY 3RD MAY

Viva Promotions presents XSLF, the legendary UK punk band with ex-members from Stiff Little Fingers.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £10 Adv.

Gin Annie

SATURDAY 10TH MAY

Support from Regional One and Molly Karloff

A rising star of the UK's vibrant emerging rock scene, Wolverhampton's Gin Annie are helping maintain British Hard Rock at it's finest, complete with swagger, showmanship and a dedication to their own distinct brand of energetic and melodic hard rock.

"It’s a wonderful, high tempo, gritty rock and roll set played out to the backdrop of pyro and fire and high energy" - Moshville Times

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £13.50 Adv.

Skinny Lister

SUNDAY 11TH MAY

Since 2009, Skinny Lister have been at the forefront of first-rate folk/punk in the UK. Making waves with the irrepressible energy of their debut album ‘Forge and Flagon’ in 2012, the London formed crew went on to sign with Xtra Mile Recordings for the release of their classic second album ‘Down On Deptford Broadway’ (2014) and so beginning a partnership that has birthed a further four records with the label including ‘The Devil, The Heart, The Fight’ (2016), ‘The Story Is...’ (2019), ‘A Matter Of Life & Love’ (2021), and most recently ‘Shanty Punk.'

And now with the tantalising promise of new material on the horizon, catch Skinny Lister doing what they do best

at the John Peel Centre!

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £20 Adv./£23 OTD

Troy Redfern

THURSDAY 15TH MAY

Carving out a name for himself by relentlessly touring and blazing a trail across the main stage  festival circuits in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia, and sharing the stage with the likes of  Robert Plant and Dr Feelgood, Troy has worked tirelessly to build a strong following of diehard fans who gravitate towards his passionately honest, fiery performances and visceral guitar playing.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £15 Adv.

The Cloverhearts

FRIDAY 16TH MAY

The Cloverhearts are one of the newest, and fastest growing bands in the Celtic Punk scene today.

Fronted by Australian singer/songwriter, Sam Cooper, in just a matter of years the band has accumulated millions of streams online, whilst performing alongside genre giants such as The Mahones, Ferocious Dog, Booze & Glory and Mr.Irish Bastard, to name a few.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £14 Adv.

New Candys

WEDNESDAY 11TH JUNE

Concocted with the darkest deviant rock'n'roll ethos and distinctive melodic distortions, New Candys have established themselves as one of the most compelling bands to emerge from Italy in recent years. Founded by songwriter and singer-guitarist Fernando Nuti alongside bassist and synth player Dario Lucchesi, the lineup is completed by Emanuele Zanardo on lead guitar and backing vocals and Francesco Giacomin on drums and sampler.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £15 Adv./ £18 OTD

Peggy Seeger: Final Farewell

FRIDAY 13TH JUNE

Peggy Seeger, the grande dame of American and British Folk music, embarks on her last ever concert tour alongside her sons, Neill and Calum MacColl, in celebration of her 90th Birthday in June 2025.

Peggy has been performing for over seventy-five years and will showcase some of her best loved songs from across her extraordinary career, as well as new songs from her final album (out Spring 2025). Her songs remain uncompromising, and her wit and delivery are as sharp as ever.

Neill and Calum MacColl are superb musicians, sharing unique onstage chemistry with their mother. Expect whip-smart humour & family banter, blood harmonies and audience participation, alongside world-class musicianship.

This will be the last opportunity to hear Peggy in concert so do not miss this.

“Peggy Seeger inspires; as funny, feisty and angry as ever” The Guardian

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £30 Adv.

DAVE PEARCE: 90’s vs 00’s Dance Anthems – RIGHT HERE IN STOWMARKET (18)

FRIDAY 10TH OCTOBER

Get ready for a host of 90s 00’s dance tracks from the likes of The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Gala, Sandy B, Crystal Waters, N-Trance, Ultra Nate, Livin Joy, Groove Armada, Faithless, Darude, SASH, Paul Van Dyke, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and much much more, right here at The John Peel Centre!

Dave Pearce launched Dance Anthems on Radio 1 and has sold over 1 million mix compilation albums in the UK with numerous top 5 UK Chart positions. He has held residencies in Ibiza, Ministry Of Sound in London and BCM in Mallorca. He has played at all the major dance festivals including Creamfields, has been featured three times in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs in the world and is fresh back from supporting The Pet Shop Boys on their sold-out arenas tour.

Party the night away and re-live the best, most influential musical eras of our times, as Dave comes back to Stowmarket!!

VIP TICKETS: Includes Glass of Prosecco or Lager on arrival and one item in the cloakroom

Doors 7.15pm

Event starts 7.45pm (Last entry 9pm (prompt)

The Wedding Present

SUNDAY 26TH OCTOBER

David Lewis Gedge and his "semi-legendary" band celebrate a special anniversary live across Ireland and the United Kingdom, stopping off at the John Peel Centre in October!

‘The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!’ – John Peel

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £30 Adv.

Baskery

WEDNESDAY 29TH OCTOBER

The queens of banjopunk, these three Swedish sisters are back! Baskery play a combination of classic ‘roots music and Americana’ with a twist of rule breaking punk turn this much loved style of music on it’s head. Their sound oozes style and playfulness and has helped them accrue a number of plaudits and accolades.

Doors: 19:30

Tickets: £18.50 Adv.