The Maccabees discuss All Points East reunion: “It just feels too great, too magical”
After announcing their reunion, The Maccabees have explained why they have decided to return to headline London’s All Points East in 2025.
The London-based group bowed out in 2017 in triumphant style with 30,000 fans flocking to Alexandra Palace over the course of three shows. Since then, the band’s members have embarked upon new projects with Orlando Weeks establishing an illustrious solo career, meanwhile, Felix and Hugo White recently released their debut album with new band, 86TVs.
Due to their other musical commitments, the chance of a reunion seemed slim until the band unexpectedly hinted at their return on social media last week. On October 28th, The Maccabees then officially confirmed their reunion would take place at All Points East on August 24th, 2025.
The show coincides with the tenth anniversary of their final album, Marks To Prove It, which became their first number one record upon release in 2015.
In a new interview with The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Felix and Hugo from The Maccabees explained they didn’t expect the band to ever reunite, but revealed that the opportunity to top the bill at All Points East was too tempting to refuse.
Felix shared: “As Hugo said – we’d all written off in our heads. ‘We’re not going to do this again.’ So, I was personally like, making peace with the fact that maybe never going to play those big shows again. But what would happen every year is, because a lot of our friends or whatever are locked into what All Points East do sort of curatively. So, we’d be going to those shows, and you couldn’t help but think looking at it like, ‘Oh, if we were there, like, where would we be playing? Would we be headlining? Would we be second top?’”.
The guitarist then reeled off artists he’s seen perform at All Points East over the years such as Nick Cave, The Stokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which he believes has helped the event fill an indie-shaped hole in British fesitval season.
He elaborated: “In a way, All Points East has sort of become that for the indie generation, because Reading and Leeds has changed a little bit, so you always look at the line-up. So, that was the one that, like, when it got offered to us, it was like, ‘Argh! We can’t not do that!’ It just feels too great, too magical. So that’s where we are.”
Additionally, his brother, Hugo, shared his pride of The Maccabees being able to return on such a grand stage, adding, “It’s incredible as well, and just a kind of testament to it that we’ve actually been able to come back and do a show that huge, you know? I mean yeah, it’s a lot to think about.”
- Orlando Weeks: “I never thought music would be my career”
- 86TVs discuss brotherhood and life beyond The Maccabees
Elsewhere in the interview, the White brothers discussed Hugo’s wedding in 2020 which saw The Maccabees perform together for the first time since they split. The guitarist invited an array of friends to take to the stage, including Jamie T, Florence Welch and Adele, before The Maccabees reunited for a special one-off appearance.
Initially, Hugo believed frontman Orlando Weeks would be unwilling to participate, but thankfully, he agreed to take part in the occasion. He explained, “Asking Orlando [Weeks] was the big one, where I was like, ‘I don’t think he’s going to do that, even for my wedding.’ But he did, he came, and we did The Maccabees again.”
Who is supporting The Maccabees at All Points East?
At this stage, the full line-up is yet to be released for the festival. However, upon announcing the performance, The Maccabees confirmed they would be assisting to “deliver an essential bill of artists that they love, both old and new”.
While no further names have been unveiled, Felix did provide an insight into what fans should expect from All Points East: “It’s going to be amazing. It’s going to be of bands that if you were coming to see The Maccabees in 2007, early years, there’s going to a few of those gold bands.”
Felix continued: “There’s some of our favourite bands at the moment. If you like The Maccabees, it’s going to be every single stage of every different type of band, it’s going to be that sort of world.”
Pre-sale for The Maccabees at All Points East begins at 10am on October 30th ahead of general sale at 10am on October 31st.
Tune into The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X weekdays from 6:30am – 10am and on Global Player
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