Mad Cool 2018

Over the weekend of 23rd and 24th April, DIY Alive took over the venues surrounding Oval Space in East London for a weekend of not just live music - but a glimpse behind the music industry’s various curtains, with a series of talks and workshops highlighting various elements of the creative world in which DIY resides. As part of this, Alfie Templeman stopped by for an In Conversation with music journalist Will Richards to talk debut album 'Mellow Moon', teaming up to save the planet and more.

Over the weekend of 23rd and 24th April, DIY Alive took over the venues surrounding Oval Space in East London for a weekend of not just live music - but a glimpse behind the music industry’s various curtains, with a series of talks and workshops highlighting various elements of the creative world in which DIY resides. As part of this, Baxter Dury stopped by for an In Conversation with music journalist Dan Stubbs to talk recent autobiography Chaise Longue, legacies and more.

We're at Reading Festival this episode, talking to headliners Fall Out Boy about mixing it up - and their new/old EP, Sunflower Bean about playing bass while crowd surfing, and a very wet Sports Team about Pete Doherty's breakfast choices.

It's a Bestival extravaganza as we're Dorset bound, talking to IDLES (pre-chart success), Sundara Karma about what they've been beavering away at, House of Vans headliners Spring King about keeping calm on the road, Anteros' Laura about being bullied for her impeccable English, plus Black Honey and The Xcerts.

We're at one of Spain's best-known festivals, Benicàssim this episode, where we find out what Metronomy has been up to (spoiler: there's new music sooner rather than later), what BODEGA's reading habits are (unsurprisingly highbrow, as it happens), and just how tired Shame are. We also made them miss Madness. Sorry, boys.

We're in a hot and sunny Madrid for this episode, as we head to Mad Cool festival. Find out what FIDLAR have been up to, how Perfume Genius is working on his dance moves, the best £20 Serge from Kasabian has ever spent, how Wolf Alice plan to celebrate a year of 'Visions of a Life', plus loads more.

It's up to Hull for 53 Degrees North with Slaves, Dream Wife, The Horrors, LIFE and more. Find out why the festival exists in the first place, why Dream Wife are wearing matching t-shirts (and their experience of walls of death last week in Germany), The Horrors' Faris spills on his various artistic projects, and discover precisely nothing about the imminent new album from Slaves.

A series in which the bands are allowed to talk about anything at all... except their music. It's a wild ride with Peace, as they discuss banana theories, peeling lemons and expanding their vocabulary - not to mention frontman Harry's claim to plank before planking 'was a thing', and now you can listen to the whole conversation via the DIY Podcast.

We're down on the pier once again, with interviews from across The Great Escape, including Demob Happy, Yonaka, Hatchie and Drahla.

As festival season kicks off, updates from two of the first. We were once again at the Brudenell Social Club for Live at Leeds, hosting both the DIY and Neu stages there. We talk to stage headliners Pale Waves about their recent US tour, Anteros about finalising album details, and Whenyoung on preparing to support some heroes. Then, from Liverpool Sound City, we're with Peace as they prepare to headline the whole shebang (featuring van playlist info), Matt Maltese recovers from a noisy air conditioning unit, and King Nun get visual. On audio.