NEWS
The Itch have officially revealed their first album It’s The Hope That Kills You and have shared a chaotic and playful new single titled Aux Romanticiser.
Read More: Dance punks The Itch are creating their own party paradise
The Luton based dance punks will release the album on April 10 through Fiction and I Oh You and it is available to pre order now. The record also includes earlier singles Space In The Cab as well as their debut release Ursula.
Aux Romanticiser features samples from the viral web series Subway Takes alongside Pearson Sound’s WAD and hears frontman Simon Tyrie delivering lyrics about turning into a bedroom DJ armed only with an AUX cable. “Let’s get it started You don’t even know how to cross fade Just stick it in your phone and play some Beyoncé.”
The low budget video that accompanies the track opens with a group of people questioning whether DJs are even necessary anymore before the song kicks in. The visuals then cut to scenes of friends losing themselves during a messy and indulgent night out at the club.
1. ‘Space In The Cab’
2. ‘No More Sprechgesang!’
3. ‘Can’t Afford This’
4. ‘Pirate Studios’
5. ‘Drugdealer’
6. ‘Radio Frequencies’
7. ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’
8. ‘Aux Romanticiser’
9. ‘Ursula’
10. ‘Never Change’
11. ‘Switch It Off’
The duo previously appeared as NME’s The Cover stars in September where Tyrie spoke about the band’s approach. “What we’re trying to do with The Itch is to play fun nights that don’t feel like the industry’s got their hands all over them.”
Georgia Hardy added: “When you’re outside of the music industry you think everyone inside it knows what they’re doing and that there are rules you have to follow like playing certain shows or landing on specific playlists.
“But once you’re working in it you realise it’s all nonsense and everyone is just figuring it out as they go. That gave me the confidence to say the music and the creative world around it matter most. I mean our booking agent hates us but we just do not want to do those traditional tours because there is no upside.”
Check out the band’s live dates below.
JANUARY
28 – St Moritz Club, Soho, London, UK
MARCH
10 – Les Inrocks with Stereolab and Elias Rønnenfelt, Paris, France
MAY
13-16 – Great Escape Festival, Brighton, UK
23 – Dot to Dot Festival, Bristol, UK
24 – Dot to Dot Festival, Nottingham, UK
JULY
3-5 – Wilde Weide Festival, Kraggenburg, Netherlands
NEWS
Sharon Osbourne has revealed she is holding early discussions about bringing Ozzfest back in 2027 as a tribute to her late husband Ozzy Osbourne.
The iconic metal festival was last staged as a full standalone event in 2018, followed by a one off New Year’s Eve show in 2019. Sharon now feels interest in a proper return is stronger than ever and says initial talks are already underway with Live Nation. Her vision is for a comeback that is larger in scale, more inclusive in sound and truly international in reach.
Speaking to Billboard, she said: “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people. We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
Sharon has also made it clear she wants the festival to grow with its audience, suggesting the next version of Ozzfest could reflect modern listening habits by opening the door to a wider range of sounds beyond traditional metal.
She later added: “I’d like to mix up the genres.”
Should the plans come together, Ozzfest would once again travel internationally, recalling its late nineties and early two thousands peak when it became both a launching pad for emerging bands and a major platform for established heavy acts.
In an earlier episode of The Osbournes Podcast, Ozzy, who died in July 2025 aged 76, asked whether the festival could ever return. Sharon responded without hesitation: "Yeah, sure. Of course."
Their daughter Kelly then raised the issue of rising booking fees, suggesting that managers need to be more realistic when negotiating festival appearances.
Sharon responded: "Why is it when it comes to us that everybody thinks that we are trillionaires, and so that every manager who wants their band on our festival wants one of the trillions they think we’ve got to put on the festival?”
Ozzfest was originally founded by Ozzy and Sharon in 1996, at a time when she was also managing the Black Sabbath frontman, and began life as a two day event.
A year later, the festival expanded into a touring format, although by the time it returned in 2018 it had been scaled back to a single night at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
That final edition featured Ozzy at the top of the bill alongside artists such as Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and Korn’s Jonathan Davis.
