The Rough Trade 50 weekender takes over the Southbank Centre from 17 to 19 July, with live music, a record fair, Rough Trade Books on stage and a full orchestra performing the Kes soundtrack.
Fifty years ago, a small shop opened on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill and quietly changed the course of British music. Rough Trade Records went on to release the Smiths, Pulp, Scritti Politti, the Raincoats, Delta 5 and an extraordinary catalogue of independent music that still defines what British alternative culture looks and sounds like. This July, the Southbank Centre is marking the anniversary in the way it deserves: with a three-day weekender that treats the whole thing as the cultural institution it is.
Friday 17 July: An Evening With Rough Trade Books
The weekend opens not with a band but with writers. Rough Trade Books, the label’s literary imprint, takes the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage with authors including Max Porter and Kate Stables, Ella Frears and Aidan Moffat, and Jen Calleja, performing their work live with musicians and performers alongside them. Hosted by Lily Blacksell. If you’ve been wondering what the overlap between post-punk and contemporary poetry sounds like in person, this is a reasonable place to find out.
Saturday 18 July: Pulp, Scritti Politti and Hannah Patterson
Saturday is the main event. Pulp play the Royal Festival Hall at 7.30pm, drawing on both the era-defining back catalogue and new material from 2025’s More. Jarvis Cocker writing about class, desire and social observation in the Royal Festival Hall is exactly the right venue for exactly the right band, and this is a one-night-only performance.
Scritti Politti play the Queen Elizabeth Hall twice: an afternoon show at 3pm and an evening show at 8pm. Green Gartside’s alchemic fusion of underground pop and leftist political theory remains one of the more unusual propositions in British music, in the very best way. Also on Saturday afternoon: Hannah Patterson’s debut novel Ungone gets a live performance in the Purcell Room, accompanied by Ana da Silva, founding member of the Raincoats.
Sunday 19 July: Kes, caroline and My New Band Believe
Sunday closes with two things worth going to separately that happen to be on the same day. At 5pm, Ken Loach’s 1969 masterpiece Kes screens in the Royal Festival Hall with a live performance of John Cameron’s original soundtrack played by a full orchestra, introduced by Jarvis Cocker. This is a spectacular way to see a film that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and the orchestra elevates Cameron’s score to something quite remarkable.
Then at 7.30pm in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, caroline, the vibrant eight-piece whose debut was one of the more extraordinary independent records of recent years, close the weekend alongside My New Band Believe, led by Cameron Picton of black midi.
There’s also a record fair running across the weekend, because of course there is.
The London x London Take: Rough Trade is one of the genuine pillars of British independent culture, and this weekend has been programmed with the seriousness that deserves. Pulp on Saturday and Kes with a live orchestra on Sunday are the anchor events, but the Rough Trade Books evening and caroline closing the weekend are equally worth planning around. Three days, every single one of them worth going to.
Need to Know
- Where: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
- When: Friday 17 to Sunday 19 July 2026
- Venues: Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room
- Price: Varies by event
