NEWS
The major Trans Mission concert took place at London’s OVO Arena Wembley yesterday evening on Wednesday March 11, drawing around 10,000 attendees along with a wide range of performers who gathered to show their support for the transgender community. Below is a breakdown of what took place during the event, including live performances, notable moments and important speeches.
The special one night event was put together by Olly Alexander alongside Mighty Hoopla founder Glyn Fussell. The aim was to send a clear message that transgender people deserve recognition, appreciation and celebration, while also showing that the entertainment world stands firmly behind them.
Olly Alexander at Trans Mission, Wembley. CREDIT: @robynskinner7
Rahim Redcar at Trans Mission, Wembley. CREDIT: @robynskinner7
The show carried the official theme A Night of Solidarity For A Lifetime Of Change. It also focused on fundraising for charities, with proceeds divided equally between the Good Law Project and the transgender support organisation Not A Phase.
Artists who took the stage included Rahim Redcar, who performed songs originally released by Christine And The Queens including Full Of Life and Deep Holes. Kate Nash also appeared, performing her new track GERM along with her well known song Foundations. Former NME Cover artist Rose Gray delivered performances of April and also introduced a brand new track titled Straight From The Club To Your Heart.
Sophie Ellis Bextor later performed her popular track Murder On The Dancefloor. Wolf Alice, fresh from their recent BRIT Awards victory, performed stripped back versions of Leaning Against The Wall and Don’t Delete The Kisses. Olly Alexander also performed a selection of songs from Years and Years.
Before Olly Alexander took to the stage, legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen introduced him and delivered Shakespeare’s The Strangers’ Case speech from Thomas More. This is the same speech he recently performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and it touches on themes surrounding immigration and how society treats those seen as different.
Additional performers included Beverley Knight, Gottmik, Kae Tempest, MNEK, Sugababes, Beth Ditto from Gossip, Tom Rasmussen, and Queen vocalist Adam Lambert. Romy from The xx also appeared for a short DJ set alongside HAAi and Jasmine.4.T, while Jasmine.4.T also welcomed Jacob Alon as a surprise guest during the night.
Alongside Sir Ian McKellen, several other well known figures spoke during the evening including Jordan Stephens, Nicola Coughlan, Russell Tovey, Tia Kofi and Green Party co leader Zack Polanski among others.
“Tonight we are here saying ‘We will not be blamed, we will not be distracted,’” Polanski said as he addressed the crowd at Wembley. “As a gay man, I know that when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. We will all stand together.”
One of the evening’s most emotional highlights came when Caroline Litman took to the stage. She wrote the book Her Name Is Alice, which tells the story of her transgender daughter who died by suicide. During her heartfelt speech she honoured her daughter’s memory before introducing Beth Ditto and activist and model Munroe Bergdorf. The moment ended with a standing ovation from the audience.
Beth Ditto at Trans Mission, Wembley. CREDIT: @robynskinner7
“You have always seen a link between music, art and politics. When you look at people who make art, usually marginalised communities are right at the forefront of those spaces,” Olly Alexander told NME backstage, sitting alongside activist and the founder of Not A Phase, Dani St James.
“Music brings us together… Something like tonight, while it is so positive and so joyful and celebratory, it’s also about working out how we can turn it into change moving forward.”
Adam Lambert also spoke with NME backstage and shared why he believes gatherings like this are important for raising awareness while also strengthening unity and understanding.
“These are the kinds of events and causes that I will always put my energy into. Being an artist is amazing because we can use our platforms to affect the greater good and create a ripple effect,” he said. “If you don’t [speak out], you’re letting members of the community down. It’s a human rights issue. If you can look in the mirror and say that you treat people how you’d want to be treated, that’s a simple way of putting it.
“Everyone deserves respect and everyone deserves the safety of being able to exist. Trans people are no exception to that.”
Adam Lambert at Trans Mission, Wembley. CREDIT: @robynskinner7
The concert also comes after musicians including Charli XCX, Self Esteem and Wolf Alice previously signed a public statement supporting the transgender community within the UK music scene last year.
This came shortly after the UK Supreme Court decision on April 16, where judges ruled unanimously that under the Equality Act the legal definition of a woman is determined by biological sex.
The statement was written by Tom Rasmussen together with Tom Mehrtens, Head Of Music and Entertainment at SATELLITE414, representing voices from across the UK music sector. Support also came from Olly Alexander and Martha Kinn, Manager and Founder of Kinndred Management.
Many other artists and industry figures also voiced their backing for those impacted by the ruling. Among them were Scissor Sisters, Perfume Genius, Garbage, Rachel Chinouriri, JADE, Lambrini Girls, Billy Bragg and others who publicly shared their support.
NEWS
Paul McCartney welcomed around 50 fortunate fans into Abbey Road Studios on Tuesday, May 5, for an intimate preview of his upcoming album, ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’. During the special listening session, he opened up about the inspiration and memories behind many of the songs featured on the project.
After attendees handed over their phones, they were guided into the iconic Studio Two, the same room where The Beatles famously recorded much of their catalogue. Before the event officially began, McCartney’s voice could already be heard from the control room as fans looked around hoping to spot the music legend. He later walked downstairs into the studio, where a cosy set designed like a personal living room had been arranged with vinyl records, framed pictures, and decorative pieces, including a street sign displaying the album’s title.
“Hello, welcome to Abbey Road,” McCartney greeted the audience as he settled into his chair. “I’m going to play the new album for you and try and think of stuff to say about it.” Over the next hour and a half, he reflected on moments from his childhood in Liverpool and the earliest years of his bond with his Beatles bandmates.
He explained that the album includes “quite a few” tracks that revisit earlier parts of his life and shared why he often finds himself writing about the past. “It occurred to me that that’s where your big bank of information is,” he said. “If you’re Charles Dickens, you’re gonna write about how your dad was in prison or something. [The past] is a very rich field of information.”
One of those reflective tracks is ‘Down South’, an acoustic driven song that recalls McCartney hitchhiking with George Harrison when the pair first became close. “It would be me who’d suggest to John [Lennon] and George, ‘Let’s go hitchhiking’,” he remembered. “I can’t see John doing that, or George. It was my thing.” He then jokingly exaggerated his Liverpool accent while recreating the moment, before sharing a story about getting a ride on a milk float with Harrison, who ended up sitting on the battery and burning himself when the zip on his jeans touched it.
“Memories are a weird thing,” he said while wrapping up the story. “I was talking to Olivia [Harrison, George’s widow] and she said, ‘Oh yeah, George told me about that and how you got the zip burn!’ I swear it was George!”
‘Days We Left Behind’, the first single from ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, includes references to Lennon, who McCartney admitted he still gets “emotional talking about” to this day. Another track, ‘Home To Us’, reflects on life growing up in Liverpool and the working class neighbourhoods McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr came from. “The three of us were raised in quite poor conditions,” he told fans, laughing that when he describes the housing estates to Americans, “it sounds like Downton Abbey”. “No matter how rough it was, it was home to us.”
The song also features Starr on drums and vocals, with the two musicians trading lines throughout the track. McCartney explained that Starr originally recorded the drum parts at producer Andrew Watt’s Los Angeles studio, though the drummer became frustrated after not hearing the recording appear anywhere. McCartney later asked Watt to replay the session and described the performance as “really good – very Ringo”, which motivated him to complete the song and send it back to Starr, telling him, “‘Here you are, this is what you wanted’”.
Paul McCartney credit: Sonny McCartney / MPL Communications
When McCartney later invited Starr to contribute vocals, the drummer only returned chorus parts, leaving McCartney unsure how he felt about the song. “I thought, ‘He must hate it!’” he admitted. After speaking directly with Starr, the pair eventually understood each other properly and completed what McCartney described as the first “Paul-Ringo duet”.
Elsewhere on the album, McCartney revealed that ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’ includes the first song he has ever written about his parents, ‘Salesman Saint’, which centres on perseverance through difficult periods “because they had to”. Other songs include ‘Mountaintop’, inspired by the “hippy mood” surrounding Glastonbury, and ‘Ripples In A Pond’, written as a love song dedicated to his wife Nancy.
Throughout the listening session, McCartney enthusiastically mouthed the lyrics, pretended to play drums and guitar along with the music, and occasionally grabbed an acoustic guitar to demonstrate certain melodies for the crowd. While discussing ‘Life Can Be Hard’, he played the main guitar riff live. After accidentally hitting the wrong note, he laughed and admitted, “I haven’t been practising. You’d think if you knew you were doing this, then you’d have practised.” Smiling afterward, he added: “But I don’t care!”
‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’ arrives on May 29 and was produced by Watt across sessions in Los Angeles and East Sussex.
Just hours after the playback event ended, it was also revealed that McCartney will appear as a guest on The Rolling Stones’ forthcoming album, ‘Foreign Tongues’. The collaboration follows his contribution to the band’s previous release, ‘Hackney Diamonds’.
