Barfly Camden and Radio X have announced the return of X-Posure Live to the Chalk Farm Road stage. The iconic new music showcase, hosted by John Kennedy, will become a monthly residency at the relaunched venue, giving the show that has helped introduce generations of artists a permanent home in the room where so many greats first started out. The residency launches on Thursday 22nd October with the unstoppable Bolton four-piece Florentenes, already a favourite on Kennedy’s show. Also announced are the X-Posure All-Dayer (16th January 2027) and Big Truck on (18th February), with much more to come. Tickets are on sale now at www.barflycamden.com.
Before Barfly closed in 2016, X-Posure Live had made Chalk Farm Road one of its most cherished stages. Wolf Alice played here under the X-Posure Live banner. So did Sam Fender, Interpol, Frank Turner, The Horrors and Miles Kane. At the time, these nights felt like the best-kept secret in London; artists captured at the precise moment before everything changed for them, witnessed by crowds that understood their gravitas. In that sense, X-Posure Live at Barfly didn’t just showcase new music; it created moments that still resonate now.
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(Left) Frank Turner on the original Barfly stage.
John Kennedy said, “I’m so excited to bring X-Posure Live back to the Barfly. I’ve always felt that documenting bands performing live in an intimate space, then sharing that experience with people on the radio, was a vital and visceral part of the radio show and the station. For me, a gig captures the essence of rock’n’roll and to have done that for 15+ years with artists as amazing as Sam Fender, Elbow, Kate Nash, Frank Turner, Bloc Party, Razorlight, Regina Spektor, Ben Howard, Jamie T, Michael Kiwanuka and so many more, just when they’re starting out, was a real privilege. To do it again is an honour!”
The Florentenes are a natural choice to launch the series. The electrifying indie outfit have been turning heads, supporting The Royston Club, Jamie Webster and The Wombats, along with notable festival appearances at Liverpool Sound City and Neighbourhood Weekender. Kennedy has already been championing them on X-Posure, with their recent single ‘Madeline’ produced by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, The Who), confirming industry buzz that Florentenes are one of the UK’s most exciting young guitar bands. The Barfly stage is exactly where the next chapter in this story should be written.
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Florentenes (left) and Big Truck are tipped for the X-Posure Live showcase by John Kennedy
Also returning to Barfly early next year is the X-Posure All-Dayer. Artists are soon to be announced but the X-Posure All-Dayer was an annual fixture, always guaranteed to spotlight the acts expected to break through in the coming year, with Wolf Alice, Nadine Shah, and Idles as examples. Now it’s back and firing, so expect to see big names before they blow, alongside an all-dayer of incredible live music.
Big Truck are also lining up next year, bringing their self-proclaimed ‘life-affirming abstract guitar pop’ to the X-Posure stage at Barfly. The new band from SOFT PLAY’s Laurie Vincent are flying after the recent release of their debut album ‘Middle At The Middleway’ on Marshall Records and will hit the road next February, landing for an unmissable and intimate show at X-Posure Live. Get ready for a roadblock in Camden.
To mark the return of the X-Posure Live residency, Barfly is installing a dedicated recording and mixing studio upstairs at the venue. The studio will allow a live mix to be captured and made available for broadcast immediately after each X-Posure Live performance – a seamless bridge between the stage and the airwaves, and a new dimension to both the live experience and the show itself.
John Kennedy has been at the helm of X-Posure since 1999, building one of the most trusted and long-running new music programmes on British radio. Over more than twenty-five years on the airwaves, the show has championed artists from The xx and Arctic Monkeys to Adele and Royal Blood – acts who were introduced to the nation on X-Posure long before the arenas came calling. The renewed partnership with Barfly feels less like a new chapter and more like a homecoming.