Bristol, UK · post-punk · punk

IDLES

1 festival played →

Bristol post-punk built on solidarity and volume — a live show closer to a group therapy riot, all sweat, hugs, and howled affirmations.

IDLES trace back to Joe Talbot, born in Newport and raised through his teens in Devon, who met bassist Adam Devonshire at sixth form college in Exeter. The pair moved to Bristol to study, where they later opened the Bat-Cave nightclub together. Guitarist Mark Bowen, who had moved to the city from Belfast, met Talbot on the local DJ circuit before joining the band, which formed in 2009.

IDLES spent eight years refining their live performances before releasing the Welcome EP in 2012, followed by the tougher Meat EP and the remix set Meta in 2014 and 2015, when guitarist Lee Kiernan replaced Andy Stewart. Talbot's mother died while the band recorded Brutalism, released in 2017; her image appears on the cover alongside a sculpture made by Talbot and his father. The band toured in support of the Maccabees and Foo Fighters.

Talbot's vocal delivery sits between speech and shout, carried by guitar work built on repetition, feedback and sudden shifts in volume. Lyrics take on grief, masculinity, immigration and class, delivered bluntly and often with dark humour, alongside open discussion of mental health and community. Live, the band favours physical performance and close contact with its audience.

Joy as an Act of Resistance, released in 2018, broadened the band's audience considerably and was accompanied by an exhibition staged with HM Electric Gallery in London. The record helped earn IDLES a nomination for Best Breakthrough Act at the 2019 Brit Awards. Ultra Mono, released in 2020, became their first album to reach number one in the UK.

Crawler followed in 2021, moving toward slower, more textural material, and Tangk, released in 2024, became a second UK number one, pushing further into electronics. In 2025 the band composed the score for Darren Aronofsky's film Caught Stealing.

Read more

post-punkpunk