‘Cureator’ ROBERT SMITH has announced his line up for the 2026 Teenage Cancer Trust series at the Royal Albert Hall.

ELBOW plus special guests MRCY

ROBERT SMITH’S COMEDY FAVOURITES featuring MAISIE ADAM, BRIDGET CHRISTIE, JACK DEE, ANDY HAMILTON, DOM JOLY, MILES JUPP, ATHENA KUGBLENU, STEWART LEE, DARA Ó BRIAIN  

MOGWAI plus special guests CRAVEN FAULTS and ANNIKA KILKENNY

MANIC STREET PREACHERS plus special guests THE JOY FORMIDABLE (150th Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall Show)

my bloody valentine plus special guests CHVRCHES 

GARBAGE plus special guests PLACEBO (rare, stripped back performance)

WOLF ALICE plus special guest NILÜFER YANYA

Press Release:

The lineup for the 2026 Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall concert series has today been announced by guest curator Robert Smith.

Elbow, Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, my bloody valentine, Garbage and Wolf Alice will headline nights after being personally invited by The Cure’s frontman. In addition, Robert Smith’s Comedy Favourites will feature some of the best stand-ups around.

The unique week of events at London’s greatest concert hall will take place from March 23-29 and tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 12 December. Fans will need to act fast to pick up a ticket for these exclusive events.

Cancer kills more teenagers and young adults in the UK than any other disease. Teenage Cancer Trust is the only UK charity dedicated to providing specialised nursing care and support for young people with cancer, funding specialist nurses, youth workers and 28 hospital units within the NHS.

Its Royal Albert Hall fundraising concert series was launched and curated by Teenage Cancer Trust Honorary Patron Sir Roger Daltrey, who was knighted for services to charity and music earlier this year, from 2000 to 2025. The headline set by the Manic Street Preachers on Thursday 26 March will be the 150th show.

This year’s curator Robert Smith is the first in a series of guest curators who will take on the mantle of raising money for this vital cause in future.

Robert Smith said: “Teenage Cancer Trust does absolutely amazing work, and l am very proud they asked me to be ‘Cureator’ of their March 2026 concerts at the RAH. I wanted to make it a truly unforgettable, unmissable week – a run of shows to dream about – and I am so grateful to all the artists who accepted my invitation to perform. These will be very special events; every band, both headliners and special guests, and every comedian too, is either legendary or at the top of their game… indeed in most cases, they are both! It is going to be a fabulous 7 nights, and I can hardly wait to experience it all. See you there!”

The opening night (Monday 23 March) will feature the alternative rock of Elbow. The band – Guy Garvey, Craig Potter, Mark Potter & Pete Turner – first formed in the early 1990s with drummer Alex Reeves joining them in 2016. Since the release of debut album Asleep in the Back in 2001 they have been nominated for the Mercury Prize three times, winning in 2008 for their multi-platinum selling The Seldom Seen Kid, as well as picking up a Brit Award for ‘Best British Band’ and three Ivor Novello Awards. Fans can expect performances of classic tracks such as One Day Like This, Grounds For Divorce and Lippy Kids as well as tracks from their recent studio album Audio Vertigo.

Guy Garvey said: “We’ve never played the Royal Albert Hall before and we’ve long been supporters of Teenage Cancer Trust. Sharing the stage with MRCY is an honour also. It’s going to be an amazing night.”

Joining Elbow will be special guests MRCY – producer Barney Lister and vocalist Kojo Degraft-Johnson – whose music combines the timeless warmth of Marvin Gaye with the modern sensibility of Khruangbin, Anderson Paak and Sault.

MRCY said: “We’re very excited to be on the lineup; our music is just our raw perspective as young men navigating life, built from our personal stories and everything we’ve lived through.”

Robert Smith’s Comedy Favourites will bring some of the biggest names in the business to the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 24 March. Robert has personally selected an unbeatable lineup featuring Maisie Adam, Bridget Christie, Jack Dee, Andy Hamilton, Dom Joly, Miles Jupp, Athena Kugblenu, Stewart Lee and Dara Ó Briain.

Mogwai formed in 1995 in Glasgow, creating music from fragile beauty to savage distortion. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar) and Martin Bulloch (drums). Since 1997, they have released eleven studio albums, with their most recent, The Bad Fire, landing to great acclaim in January this year. The band have also contributed to and written scores for projects with Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. Last year they released Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound, a first documentary about the band, directed by longtime collaborator Antony Crook.

Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite said: “We are extremely excited and privileged to be playing at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It’s 20 years since we last played there and to be asked by Robert Smith is an honour as The Cure have always been a huge influence on our music.”

Mogwai will be supported by the elusive Craven Faults, whose long-form electronic compositions coaxed from banks of modular synthesisers and vintage tape machines, evoke journeys though the post-industrial Yorkshire landscape. Also performing will be singer-songwriter Annika Kilkenny, raised in County Kilkenny, who has been introducing herself to the world through a series of lyrically layered, captivating songs written on piano and guitar.

Manic Street Preachers’ headline gig on Thursday 26 March will be the 150th show at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust. 2025 has seen the Manics in untouchable form — from the release of their hugely acclaimed 15th album, Critical Thinking, to the publication of their truly unique Sunday Times bestselling biography 168 Seconds Of Hatred and Failure. Having headlined every like-minded festival in Britain, Manic Street Preachers’ live show is a celebration of the band’s four-decade career, where classics from the early days (Motorcycle Emptiness, You Love Us) and huge singles such as ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ and ‘A Design for Life’ rub shoulders with an ever-changing list of deep cuts and covers to create an utterly exhilarating gig experience.

Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield said: “We were lucky enough to play one of Robert Smith’s Meltdown shows in 2018, and now we’re honoured to have been asked by the great man to join the 2026 Teenage Cancer Trust shows he’s overseeing which raise money such a great cause. It’s our first time playing Teenage Cancer Trust as a band, a return to one of our favourite London venues and we’ve got a couple of surprises up our sleeves for the night. So, no excuses. See you there.” 

The Manics will be joined by fellow Welsh three-piece The Joy Formidable – Ritzy Bryan (vocals, guitar), Rhydian Dafydd (bass, vocals), and Dafydd Cartwright (drums). Fresh from acclaimed solo records and with new music coming in 2026, the band return with fire and the fearless, widescreen sound that defines them.

my bloody valentine made their long awaited return to the live stage this autumn after 7 years, delivering their unique sonic assault to UK arenas. With the timeless classic album Loveless in 1991, Kevin Shields had redefined what guitar music could be. On stage, Shields, Colm Ó Cíosóig (drums), Bilinda Butcher (vocals, guitar) and Debbie Googe (bass) combine the beauty of the band’s melodies and a soundscape barrage that will be unlike anything the Royal Albert Hall has heard before. “Shoegaze pioneers find prettiness in pulverising noise,” wrote The Guardian.

Before my bloody valentine on Friday 27 March will be a special performance by Chvrches, the Glasgow synth-pop duo known for hits including ‘The Mother We Share’ and ‘Clearest Blue’.

CHVRCHES will escape from the studio to play their first live show in nearly three years. The synth pop trio will perform a special stripped back and fiercely electronic set drawing from their four acclaimed, UK Top 10-charting albums.

“We are really honoured to be part of this amazing line-up of shows,” say Chvrches, “And to be supporting Robert and Teenage Cancer Trust. This will be the first CHVRCHES show since 2023, and a little different than how we normally play, which makes it feel even more special.”

Garbage, the iconic Scottish-American band, was formed in 1993 and still boasts all its original members, consisting of lead singer Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and revered ‘90s producer Butch Vig. After three decades of making records and touring together, they remain a vigorous force and are heralded internationally as one of the most influential and respected bands of their generation. The New York Times, in its recent interview with Shirley Manson described her as the Godmother of Rock. The band’s most recent studio album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, was released in 2025 to a rapturous reception, with some calling it their best album since their debut. Garbage will headline for Teenage Cancer Trust on Saturday 28 March.

Shirley Manson said: “When Robert Smith reached out to us about the possibility of performing for Teenage Cancer Trust we were all utterly thrilled as he is a highly revered figure in our world. We are honoured to serve at his behest and look forward to helping raise funds for Teenage Cancer Trust, a cause very close to our own hearts. I hope our people will choose to come out in support. Should be a great night.  In the Royal Albert Hall no less.”

Garbage will be joined by fellow legends Placebo, who will be playing a rarely performed stripped back set, to kick off the band’s 30th anniversary year celebrations for 2026. The release of their recent documentary film, This Search For Meaning, that included a contribution from Shirley Manson herself, looked at Placebo’s ongoing socio-cultural curiosity and musical journey – a quest that continues in their chart-topping albums and sold-out live arena performances worldwide today. The band are honoured to be asked by Robert Smith to perform and be part of such an important charity fundraising event.

Closing the concert series on Sunday 29 March are Wolf Alice, a seminal British band entering a bold new chapter following the release of their acclaimed fourth album, The Clearing. Ellie Rowsell (vocals), Joff Oddie (guitar), Joel Amey (drums) and Theo Ellis (bass) have grown into one of the UK’s most vital groups, celebrated for era-defining tracks like ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ and ‘Bros’, a Mercury Prize win for 2018’s sophomore album Visions of a Life and taking home the Brit Award for Best Group after 2022’s Blue Weekend. Recorded in LA with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin, The Clearing finds Wolf Alice at their most assured yet – balancing playfulness with sincerity and irony with candour on standout tracks including ‘The Sofa’ and ‘Just Two Girls’.

Joining Wolf Alice is Nilüfer Yanya, the eclectic singer songwriter and guitarist from West London who roams across indie rock, jazz, psychedelia and electronica to consistent acclaim.