The Guest List confront rage bait & culture wars on new single ‘Something Real’...
- Desh Kapur
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
“HATE IS ON TREND”.
“WAR IS ON TREND”.
“HEAR ME SAY SOMETHING REAL”.
UK Breakouts Take Aim At A Post-Truth World On
New Single ‘Something Real’ - OUT NOW
WATCH VIDEO BELOW
14-Date April UK Headline Tour
TICKETS HERE
After a breakout year that saw a 14-date sold out UK headline tour, and the release of their powerful debut EP When The Lights Are Out, The Guest List kick off 2026 with ‘Something Real’ - a blistering new single that confronts chaos & contradiction.
The track sees the band sharpen both their sound and their message, pairing an upbeat backing with a stark critique of a post-fact world where reality has become fragmented & commodified. Shaped by AI, algorithmic echo chambers, culture-war politics and rage-bait media cycles, the song explores how the truth is increasingly treated as a subscription rather than a shared foundation, with outrage monetised and empathy drowned out by noise. Listen here & watch the official video here.
Frontman Cai Alty’s cutting lines, “hate… is on trend / war… is on trend”, distil the chaos, before the track’s defining admission hits: “And I know that it blows your mind just to hear me saying something real.”.
Cai explains: “This is the song that best represents what we want to say and be. It’s about finding something meaningful in a world where trolls, comment bots, algorithms and whistleblowers dictate public understanding. Where suffering is normalised, and where our most hateful impulses are nurtured. We hope that people find this song as genuine as we do.”
Described by Rolling Stone UK as “a thrillingly ambitious…reminiscent of Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys” The Guest List are fast becoming a band to believe in. With The Independent tipping the five-piece as “on course to become one of the UK’s next big guitar bands,” and Dork declaring that “2026 feels like the year that graft plus ambition turns into a breakthrough”, the momentum around the band continues to build.
Their debut EP ‘When The Lights Are Out’ saw the band tackle men’s mental health, environmental collapse, insecurities, and haunting reflections of domestic violence. Together, the songs define The Guest List’s ethos: music with unflinching honesty.
Formed in early 2021, The Guest List came together as school friends and music students. Posting covers online, they quickly amassed over 400,000 followers and nearly 8 million likes, before carving out their own lane with original material, drawing comparisons to Arctic Monkeys & Radiohead. Their rise has been powered by both socially-conscious writing and their formidable live set which has seen them play Glastonbury, The Great Escape, TRNSMT & more. Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale caught their Glastonbury set, and BBC Radio 6 Music’s Chris Hawkins has been an early champion.
While proud of their Manchester roots, the band are keen to break out of the city’s tribal associations. “We have been brought up listening to Manchester bands, but we don’t want to be defined by that,” says Alty. “We want to be seen as a band from Manchester, not just a Manchester band.”
After a rapturous UK headline tour last November that saw 6,000 tickets sold - including three nights at London’s Camden Assembly - plus a 1,300-capacity hometown date at Manchester’s New Century Hall, the band return to the road in April for a further 14 dates - tickets here.
‘Something Real' stands as both a warning and a declaration: truth still matters, and saying it out loud has never felt more necessary. With over 5 million Spotify streams already, and a dedicated fanbase cutting across tribes and demographics, The Guest List are heading into 2026 primed for a breakout year.
UK HEADLINE TOUR DATES
April
7th DUBLIN 1, Academy 2
9th BLACKPOOL, Bootleg Social
10th KINGSTON UPON HULL, Polar Bear Music Club
11th EDINBURGH, Cabaret Voltaire
12th HEBDEN BRIDGE, Hebden Bridge Trades Club
13th PRESTON, The Ferret
15th LIVERPOOL, Arts Club
16th STOKE-ON-TRENT, The Sugarmill
17th BEDFORD, Esquires
18th PORTSMOUTH, Kola
20th SOUTHAMPTON, The Joiners Arms
22nd CARDIFF, Clwb Ifor Bach
23rd BRISTOL, Exchange
24th BRIGHTON AND HOVE, Dukes at Komedia Picturehouse
The Guest List are: Cai Alty (vocals/guitar), Tom Quigley (lead guitar), Leio Hunter (rhythm guitar), Sid Wallace (bass) and Angus Gilchrist (drums).
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