In a dank rehearsal room in New Cross, bathed in an eerie green light that clings to the walls like moss, The Maccabees<\/a> are easing back into each other\u2019s orbit. A headline appearance at All Points East<\/a> is still months away. Nearest me is their guitarist Felix White, dressed all in black. \u201cAny requests?\u201d he asks me. Soon the air is thick with nostalgia. Guitars twitch and flicker. Drums roar. Then in comes the choirboy vocal, clear yet quivering, as if frontman Orlando Weeks is on the verge of an apology: \u201cMum said no\/ To Disneyland,\u201d he sings. \u201cAnd Dad loves the Church. Hallelujah.\u201d It\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve heard \u201cLego\u201d, from their 2007 debut album, since the south London band bowed out eight years ago.<\/p>\n But here are all the early Maccabees hallmarks: staccato riffs, adolescent romance, tenderness wrapped inside tension. Back then, in the harried sprawl of mid-Noughties UK indie<\/a> \u2013 a scene of skinny jeans, dirty dance floors and MySpace pages \u2013 they briefly seemed to be just another charming, successful young band, writing cool, funny songs about wave machines and toothpaste. Yet they were always headed somewhere else, evolving, their sound increasingly adventurous on their way to a Mercury Prize nomination, an Ivor Novello<\/a> award, a No 1 record and a headline performance at Latitude.<\/p>\n Then it stopped. Seemingly out of nowhere, in August 2016, the group announced they were to be no more, save for a series of farewell celebration shows at Alexandra Palace<\/a> the following year. \u201cWe are very proud to be able to go out on our own terms, at our creative peak,\u201d a statement read. \u201cThere have been no fallings out.\u201d Fans were bereft. In the years since, details of the split have remained hazy: by all accounts, it was not so much a blow-up as a simmering of fractures and differences. The pieces didn\u2019t fit together any more. While Weeks told The Independent in 2020<\/a> that the band \u201cjust ran out of steam\u201d, blaming the creative frustrations of working as a group, it\u2019s clear a cooling-off period was needed. \u201cWith Orlando,\u201d says Hugo White, a guitarist in the band like his older brother Felix, \u201cthere were a few years we didn\u2019t speak. You\u2019d send one text maybe in six months.\u201d<\/p>\n They had been together their entire adult lives. \u201cI was 16 when I started the band,\u201d Hugo notes. \u201cI was 30 when we split up.\u201d Keeping five people together at that age \u201clocked into a diary that\u2019s scheduled for the next year, all intertwined in [each other\u2019s] lives\u201d, is difficult, he says. \u201cAnd I think that kind of broke in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n At that point, the five of them all agree, the idea of ever getting the band back together seemed inconceivable. \u201cIt felt final,\u201d says Weeks, who has now released three excellent solo records.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremely final,\u201d Felix jumps in, amid laughter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe needed it to be like that in order to move on,\u201d says Hugo. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t linger around.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Felix White during The Maccabees\u2019 set at the 2009 Isle of Wight Festival (Getty)<\/p>\n We\u2019re 10 minutes in, and the group dynamic of The Maccabees is already unmistakable \u2013 a familial rhythm of in-jokes, unspoken cues and roles that feel shaped over years. If Weeks is the reluctant frontman, softly spoken and meditative, Felix is the band\u2019s ebullient cheerleader. Brooding opposite him is Hugo, with a jaw as sharp as his humour, cracking a number of close-to-the-bone barbs about the breakup. Drummer Sam Doyle and bassist Rupert Jarvis are here, too, quieter, more enigmatic. <\/p>\n Though the mood is celebratory, there\u2019s no doubt the split was a difficult pill to swallow. \u201cIt was so weird because you\u2019ve made such a commitment to each other from a young age,\u201d Hugo later tells me. \u201cSo the idea that someone wants to make music outside of that group, with other people \u2013 it\u2019s almost like a betrayal… Even though it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n For Felix, the way it ended, just as The Maccabees had finally earned their place at indie\u2019s top table, was, by his own past admission, \u201cheartbreaking\u201d. \u201cWe were mid-thirties and there was a real sense of saying goodbye to a part of your life,\u201d he told us last year.<\/p>\n The Maccabees wasn\u2019t the only breakup Felix was going through. At the same time as those bittersweet Alexandra Palace shows, he was also parting from his girlfriend Florence Welch<\/a>, of Florence + the Machine. There was so much change in the air, Felix says, that it was difficult to navigate. \u201cLots of endings happening in lots of different versions of life.\u201d But then change has always been reflected in The Maccabees\u2019 music. Just as they became more expansive sonically, with gauzy guitar textures and swirling atmospherics reminiscent of Arcade Fire, so their lyrics matured. Gone were the chewed-up Lego pieces, replaced by introspection and songs concerned with the vicissitudes of ageing.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Orlando Weeks performs during the band\u2019s 2013 Isle of Wight set (Getty)<\/p>\n On a personal level, growing up with The Maccabees, all of us more or less the same age, I\u2019ve always felt a strange sense of ownership over them, as if they are my band, a soundtrack to my coming of age. I was 20, still flinging myself across sticky, student dance floors in torn Levi\u2019s, when a mutual friend played them to me just before the release of debut album Colour It In. Then, two years later, nursing a broken heart, I found myself near Felix in the crowd as Blur played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. \u201cI fell in love to your first album,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n There were other encounters, too, running the gamut from cringe to extremely cringe. Backstage at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2011, introduced to Hugo by a PR, I careened into fanboy overdrive, explaining more than once that \u201cyour band changed my life\u201d. Professionally speaking, I couldn\u2019t be trusted to be objective, either: I spent years wearing down a late, great music editor who refused to let me write about them. Eventually, she caved, and I reviewed them at Brixton Academy, not knowing it would be one of their last shows. (Headline: \u201cIs it time The Maccabees headlined Glastonbury?\u201d) Of course, they\u2019re not just my band. Recently, at a stag do in the Scottish Highlands, I derived immeasurable joy from watching the groom-to-be insist on playing four vintage Maccabees songs back-to-back at 3am, those time-capsule choruses still a bottomless font of bonhomie. To me, in an era of swaggering, hyper-macho indie landfill, with bands such as Razorlight and The Rifles, their music always stood apart, shimmering with warmth and depth.<\/p>\n Evidently, Danny Boyle<\/a> thinks so too. For a pivotal scene in his film Steve Jobs, he turned to the sweeping, crepuscular tones of \u201cGrew Up at Midnight\u201d, lifted from the band\u2019s critically acclaimed 2012 record Given to the Wild. \u201cWe thought that was going to make us f***ing massive in America,\u201d says Felix. \u201cThey used the whole song at the end and we were like, \u2018Oh my God, we\u2019re going to America, people\u2026\u2019\u201d He pauses\u2026 \u201cF***ing nothing. If anything, we were smaller after the film came out.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The Maccabees at the NME Awards in 2016, shortly before their split (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n Be that as it may, there\u2019s no downplaying the magnitude of those farewell shows, which felt part celebration, part elegy. I was there and can attest to just how emotional they were. \u201cThere was a real sense when those last Maccabee shows happened that everyone had been, was a particular age, and it became sort of symbolic for saying goodbye to a certain part of your life \u2013 sort of early thirties,\u201d says Felix. \u201cThat idea of real adulthood was upon everyone, that you\u2019re definitively ending a stage of your life \u2013 and it felt like it was inside all of the rooms when we played those shows. It felt like everyone was pouring their own collective sense of goodbye into it, whatever that might be \u2013 relationships, being young, people that couldn\u2019t be there, all that kind of stuff. So it felt very heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n For a while, it seemed that Felix would not look back as he set off on new paths. He launched Yala! Records, wrote the cricket-themed memoir It\u2019s Always Summer Somewhere and started a cricketing podcast called Tailenders <\/a>with radio host Greg James and England\u2019s all-time leading wicket-taker Jimmy Anderson. But as time passed, he realised, \u201cyou do get to a point where you\u2019re like, actually, life doesn\u2019t last forever. If we want to do this, it could be a really beautiful thing.\u201d There was a recognition that it would likely feel that way for their fans, too, who had felt the poignancy of their parting, and had since perhaps been doing a lot of the things that the band had been doing, like starting families and spending more time at home. \u201cAs a Maccabee through the ages, I think you can really hear that in the music: you can hear that we\u2019re 19, you can hear that we\u2019re 24 and so on. And the gigs used to feel like that, like when we were first playing, and there used to be people hanging from the ceiling and shoes flying everywhere and all that kind of thing. And then, as we got older, it changed into something more introspective.\u201d<\/p>\n As we got older, it changed into something more introspective<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Felix White<\/p>\n Cut to Glastonbury this year and there The Maccabees are, headlining the Park Stage, with a comeback set that weaves all those elements together. Yes, there\u2019s introspection, but also that frenetic energy; if there\u2019d been a ceiling, you can be sure people would have hung from it \u2013 perhaps without their shoes. \u201cWe never thought we\u2019d be playing these songs again to anybody,\u201d Felix said to the crowd. So how come they are, I ask? The catalyst, Hugo says, was his wedding to the author and poet Laura Dockrill in lockdown. After hiring out a pub in Battersea, he invited Weeks on the condition, he jokes, that he would sing. \u201cAnd just for the after party,\u201d Felix chimes in, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s not an open invite!\u201d <\/p>\n And so, for the first time since Alexandra Palace, all five of them were in the same room. Their friends Jack Pe\u00f1ate, Jamie T, Florence Welch and Adele all performed that night. Crucially, so, too, did The Maccabees. Reuniting, says Weeks, \u201cdidn\u2019t feel forced, because after the end of something like The Maccabees, to coordinate a meeting felt sort of contrived. Then, suddenly, there was this event that was a very obviously uncomplicated reason to all be together.\u201d<\/p>\n After Covid, he explains, there were tentative conversations about a reunion. Slowly, the pieces aligned. The White brothers\u2019 new band 86TVs were forced to pause their plans after Stereophonics called back their drummer, Jamie Morrison, for a tour. \u201cSo, suddenly, there was this fallow year for them,\u201d Weeks continues, \u201cand I had finished my stuff with [his 2024 album] Loja. So it was just a natural hiatus there. If there hadn\u2019t been an All Points East that felt so good, then it might easily have just drifted and not happened. But it just felt very uncomplicated again.\u201d <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The boys are back in town: The Maccabees at Glastonbury 2025 (Jill Furmanovsky)<\/p>\n Certainly, their Glastonbury set had a natural ease and coherence. \u201cThe thing that I was really noticing was that me, Land [Orlando] and Hugo all used to do this thing where we\u2019d all move at the same time, like unintentionally choreographed,\u201d says Felix, when I meet him and his brother again a few weeks after the festival. \u201cYou\u2019d do two steps forward, stand still, three steps back, and you feel everyone do it at the same time. Like, weird, telepathic, synchronised. And here we were doing it again.\u201d Falling unconsciously into step with one another without even speaking, he says, was \u201cso weird… even beyond the playing, like it was in your body somewhere\u201d. <\/p>\n Beforehand, though, \u201cI was f***ing nervous,\u201d says Felix. \u201cAnd the TV thing really does heighten the whole experience.\u201d \u201cYou can\u2019t really get a more high-pressure scenario,\u201d agrees Hugo. They\u2019d been calm in the days leading up to it, but that changed on the day, explains his brother. \u201cLand had this thing in his head where he was saying randomly, sporadically, with no context, how nervous he was out of 10. So you\u2019d be having a chat, and he\u2019d suddenly go \u2018seven\u2019, and then half an hour later, it\u2019d be \u2018six\u2019, and then \u2018nine\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Nerves aside, the band were thrilled with how it went. \u201cI didn\u2019t come down from it for days,\u201d says Felix. The set was capped by an appearance from Welch, now back with Felix, for a rendition of her galloping 2008 hit \u201cDog Days Are Over\u201d. \u201cIt was a rehash of what we did together at the wedding,\u201d says Hugo. \u201cAs soon as she sings in a room, it changes. She has that thing where she changes the atmosphere in the inner space, and it\u2019s really rare.\u201d<\/p>\n The whole process was very different from the classic rock clich\u00e9 of \u201cputting the band back together\u201d \u2013 rebuilding relationships took time. \u201cWe\u2019d meet up with our kids on the South Bank,\u201d says Hugo. \u201cStuff that is so far from how we would have spent every day. After a year of not speaking or whatever, you know, you go for a coffee and walk for an hour. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Hugo White: \u2018Florence has that thing where she changes the atmosphere in the inner space, and it\u2019s really rare\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it\u2019s different now,\u201d he adds, \u201cbecause Land lives in Lisbon, but things are just back to how they were. And there were years where it was like a stranger messaging you.\u201d <\/p>\n Of course, there have been seismic shifts in the musical landscape since The Maccabees formed in 2004 over a love of The Clash and the BBC series The Old Grey Whistle Test, which featured punchy, angular performances by the likes of Dr Feelgood and XTC (\u201cYou can see why it looked fun to play fast,\u201d says Felix). These days, the industry is \u201cless focused on bands\u201d, says Hugo. \u201cPeople are creating these things on computers. Because it\u2019s cheaper, it\u2019s easier. It doesn\u2019t require the same effort as five individuals that connect in a certain way to be able to create something.\u201d Jarvis agrees. \u201cIt\u2019s so much more expensive to just be a new band. Back when we first started, we\u2019d chuck in a fiver each to go and spend four hours rehearsing, [but] that doesn\u2019t get you anywhere nowadays,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel very sorry for the new bands because of that, and there\u2019s a lot less new bands. You really notice that \u2013 there are fewer venues, fewer nights out, fewer things going on for bands to form a scene.\u201d <\/p>\n As the fashions of the scene that spawned The Maccabees in the indie sleaze era made a comeback, Weeks saw his past life through a new lens. \u201cWe must be far enough away from that moment to look back at those pictures with a kind of giddiness,\u201d he says. \u201cThe colours and the weird asymmetrical haircuts and plimsolls and acrylic Perspex dangly little earrings and all of those things that, at the time, didn\u2019t feel nearly as cool as looking back at photos of The Clash. But we\u2019re far enough away from it now that it owns its identity.\u201d<\/p>\n The tribalism of the era, when you could tell which aisle of HMV a person would head to just by their hairstyle, holds a romantic pull for the band. \u201cThere was still so much DIY-ness about it all,\u201d says Weeks. \u201cThere was more of a look, a cohesiveness of aesthetic.\u201d Felix recalls being at a metal bar in Camden recently, \u201cand they\u2019ve all got a look. That made me feel really nostalgic and jealous thinking, oh, I can\u2019t remember being in a place where everyone\u2019s got this code that makes them all sort of connected.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Felix White (far left): \u2018We spent two and a half years in full-on mania making \u201cMarks to Prove It\u201d\u2019 (Jill Furmanovsky)<\/p>\n Though the average fan\u2019s taste may seem more diverse than ever, Hugo wonders if something was lost in the transition to pick-and-mix fandom in the streaming era. \u201cYou used to buy one album and listen to that until you got another album. [Nowadays] you don\u2019t have to listen to one album.\u201d He stops himself and laughs. \u201cDo they even listen to an album? You just dart between songs like social media, scrolling through things.\u201d<\/p>\n The Maccabees seem conflicted about social media generally \u2013 especially its demands for self-promotion. \u201cWhen Marks to Prove It came out in 2015,\u201d Felix recalls, \u201cwe had a long conversation about whether we should even put on the Instagram that the album\u2019s out. We spent two and a half years in full-on mania making this record and it was generally like, is it naff to say the album is out today?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think what kids like the young artists now are expected to do, it\u2019s just, like, mind-blowing in comparison to how things worked for us,\u201d Hugo says. \u201cWe were so fortunate to be able to make stuff as a group of people and not be in this constantly competitive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust being not part of promotion,\u201d Weeks marvels. \u201cYeah, it was always someone else in control,\u201d says Doyle. \u201cDeliver the artwork and they would promote it by getting posters up or whatever it was,\u201d adds Hugo. <\/p>\n I\u2019d love to have seen Nick Drake\u2019s Instagram. Imagine him asking people to swipe up and share<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Felix White<\/p>\n The sort of \u201csavviness\u201d that self-promotion requires was not what set them on their way, notes Weeks, picking out current bands he likes \u2013 Divorce, Caroline, and Black Country, New Road \u2013 who have \u201caccidental alchemy\u201d but also manage to be engaging on Instagram, without having to lay bare their \u201cprivate, inner workings\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to have seen Nick Drake\u2019s Instagram,\u201d says Felix, laughing. \u201cImagine him asking people to swipe up and share.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s clear that as they prepare to play All Points East, headlining a bill that includes Irish sensation CMAT and indie stalwarts Bombay Bicycle Club, laughter and good vibes have returned to The Maccabees. \u201cEveryone\u2019s in a good headspace and connecting with each other, and that\u2019s allowed it to be stronger,\u201d notes Hugo. <\/p>\n Which raises the question: will there be more music from The Maccabees in their forties? <\/p>\n \u201cDo you think that means we would make better music or worse music?\u201d asks Felix. <\/p>\n It\u2019ll be a different stage of life, for better or worse, I reply. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be slower,\u201d laughs Hugo. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a good feeling about it,\u201d Felix says, with a wry smile. \u201cIt\u2019s tempting\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The Maccabees headline All Points East on 24 August in Victoria Park; last tickets are available here<\/a>. Reissues of their albums \u2018Colour It In\u2019 and \u2018Given to the Wild\u2019 are released on limited edition vinyl on 22 August. You can pre-order here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-311615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114958573690922329","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Felix](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-88470156.jpg\")
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