The Enemy To Perform At Victorious Festival 2026

August Bank Holiday 2026 is already looking like a right scorcher as The Enemy join a host of other bands and artists at the award winning Victorious Festival.

Held at Southsea, Portsmouth on the English south coast with day tickets and camping available, it looks like this year could become another award winning year.

Friday 28th August is headlined by Richard Ashcroft and features acts such as Faithless, The Vaccines and Scissor Sisters. 

The Black Keys and Primal Scream are two of the acts lined up for Saturday 29th August.

The third day will see The Enemy and Kasabian reunited during the Sunday line up, in what promises to be a throw back to great Indie music.

Full details and tickets can be found at https://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk/

 

The Enemy - Social Disguises Album

The Enemy will be releasing their long awaited fifth studio album Social Disguises on Friday 20th February 2026.

It is promising to be a return to their roots, bringing the Coventry band back to their indie anthem days when they released their first album, We'll Live And Die In These Towns in July 2007 which shot straight to the top of the Official UK Album Charts. 

Two tracks from Social Disguises have already been released, giving fans a taster of what to expect from the 2026 album. Not Going Your Way and Trouble were well received during The Enemy 2025 tour. Fans have been delighted with the first new material from Tom Clarke, Andy Hopkins and Liam Watts since reforming in 2022. 

 Social Disguises is available for pre-order from The Enemy and all good record stores.

VIDEO: Trouble - The Enemy

The official music video for ‘Trouble’ by The Enemy

Listen here: https://slinky.to/TroubleTheEnemy

Pre-order the new album ‘Social Disguises’ - https://slinky.to/SocialDisguises

Join the mailing list: https://theenemy.os.fan/sign-up

Directed by Morgan Tedd

Lyrics: 

Can someone please explain

Cos I feel like I’m insane

I don’t understand a thing these days

Maybe I’m too set in my ways

Can someone put me back on track

Before I have a heart attack 

I don’t understand a thing you say

Every conversation’s like a maze 

And if it 

Looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah 

Oh if it looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah 

Can someone please explain

Cos I feel like I’m in pain 

I don’t understand a thing these days

Maybe I’m too set in my ways

Can someone put me back on track

Before I have a heart attack 

I don’t understand a word you say

Every conversation’s like a maze 

And if it 

Looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah 

Oh if it looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah 

Well you know, and I know

Exactly what this is

We both know, it’s a no-go

It’s just trouble, and you know it 

You know it looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah 

Oh if it looks like trouble 

Sounds like trouble 

Smells like trouble

It must be trouble, yeah

 

VIDEO: Not Going Your Way - The Enemy

 

The Enemy - Not Going Your Way

Listen/Download here: https://slinky.to/NotGoingYourWay

Lyrics:

Well just the other night,

I said I don't wanna fight,

But is something wrong?

Is something wrong?

Cos you've been so far away,

And I didn't wanna say,

But it's been so long,

It's been so long,

Oh I'm not going your way,

You're not coming my way no,

Oh oh oh,

She said I'm feeling fine,

But she says that every time,

It means she's not,

Oh no she's not,

Well I just shook my head,

Is this romance really dead?

It's just so hard,

That's what she said,

Oh I'm not going your way,

You're not coming my way no,

Oh oh oh,

If you don't wanna stay no more,

Then I don't wanna play no more, 

Can't deal with you this way no more,

Just let me go,

Oh oh oh,

I said I've wasted all my time,

The best years of my life, 

And she said no,

You've wasted mine,

Well now that it's all done,

I hope you had your fun,

And she said no,

I had none,

Oh I'm not going your way,

You're not coming my way no,

Oh oh oh

VIDEO: The Enemy - We'll Live And Die In These Towns @ HMV Coventry

The Enemy performed tracks from the new album It's Automatic to delighted hometown fans in Coventry at the HMV store. After playing three tracks, the lads performed the classic anthem We'll Live And Die In These Towns before signing copies of the CD and album. 

VIDEO: The Enemy - It's Automatic @ HMV Coventry

The Enemy returned once again to their home city, performing new tracks at HMV from the fourth studio album, It's Automatic. This video is the title track from the album and this is the first public performance. Afterwards, fans were able to get copies of the album and CD signed by Tom, Andy and Liam.

VIDEO: The Enemy - Some Things @ HMV Coventry

The Enemy returned to their hometown of Coventry for the launch of It's Automatic, their fourth studio album. Tom, Andy and Liam delighted fans as they performed new tracks from the album  and threw in a classic from 2007. HMV hosted the band and fans were able to get the new album signed.

Some Things is track eight on the new album.

VIDEO: The Enemy - Magic @ HMV Coventry

The Enemy performed tracks from the new album It's Automatic in their hometown of Coventry. It was the first public performance of the fourth studio album, with a classic track thrown in for good measure.

Here is track number five from the album, Magic.

The Enemy Announce HMV Coventry Album Signing

The Enemy have announced they will be performing at HMV Coventry on the day their fourth album, It's Automatic is released.

On Friday 9th October 2015, fans who purchase the album in HMV, will also be able to have their copies signed by the band after their performance.

More details can be found: HERE

Tom Clarke Interview In Fused Magazine

The Enemy's Tom Clarke has given an interview with Fused magazine about the bands new album and direction. Both heartfelt and honest, it gives fans (and non-fans) a real insight into how the band arrived at the sound for the fourth album and why they are daring to be bold with the new direction.

Read the full interview: HERE

Interview: Andy Hopkins And Liam Watts On BBC Coventry And Warwickshire Radio

[pic: BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Shane O'Connor with Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins from Twitter]

The Enemy's Liam Watts and Andy Hopkins popped into BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Shane O'Connor's Breakfast Show for an interview about the new album and upcoming tour. The interview was broadcast on Friday 11th September 2015 and will be available until October 10th.

Listen HERE [2hr 22mins into programme] 

VIDEO: The Enemy BBC Midlands Today Interview

Here is the BBC Midlands Today interview with Tom Clarke, Andy Hopkins and Liam Watts, broadcast on Tuesday 8th September 2015 and extra footage.

[Video footage: BBC]

The Enemy - It's Automatic (Lyrics)

VIDEO: The Enemy - It's Automatic

Here is the first video from the fourth studio album by The Enemy due for release on 9th October 2015. The title track, 'It's Automatic' received it's first radio play on XFM's Jon Holmes Breakfast Show today (25/08/15) and went down a storm with fans. The video premiered on NME

Conor Doherty described it saying, "it's different, but sounds brilliant." Twitter user matteos herringos said, "I got goose bumps listening to that! It's bloody massive ..... what a tune!"   Die hard fan, Amy Langham thought the new track was, "big" - saying Jon Holmes should play it again.

Tickets for the November tour and pre-orders for the new album are available now: pledge.com

VIDEO: The Enemy - 'It's Automatic':

The Enemy Explain Why Yeovil Gig Was Cancelled

The Enemy were forced to cancel their Yeovil gig last night following health and safety reasons. The band took to social media, answering questions about the reasons why the gig had to be cancelled at the last minute. The overwhelming majority of fans backed the bands decision to put their safety first. Here is The Enemy's full response to the situation:

"We've seen a few people raise the same points online and we'd just like to address them here.

Didn't you know the barrier wasn't sufficient in advance of the gig?

Most venues don't have a crash barrier in place permanently, so when we advance a spec to a venue we always state that sufficient barriers must be hired in if not already in place. Usually when we get there the venue has done so and there is no issue. On this occasion the promotor/venue hadn't done so despite it having been specified.

Couldn't you have just done the gig with the hand rail instead of a crash barrier?

Not without risking the safety of fans on the front rows. We've seen people say Enemy fans don't care about safety they just want to go mad, what they perhaps fail to realise it that Enemy fans are afforded the opportunity to go mad because of controlled safety measure put in place to allow people to jump around and crowd surf safely. The barrier is also there for the safety of the crew working the pit, without it the crowd would surge and the unweighted hand rail would topple and they'd face injury too. So no, we really felt it wouldn't be responsible to play the gig without the barrier. We're aware that some bands have played the venue with a hand rail, but every bands fans are different and we will always put fans safety first.

Why was the show cancelled so close to doors?

We'd been working throughout the day to try to resolve the situation, we didn't want to give up at any point. Ten minutes before doors when the correct barrier was still not in place we took the decision that it was unreadable that one could be installed before the public entered the building. Unfortunately the promotor of the show was unobtainable, leaving us in a very bad place right up until just before doors. We did all we could from our end to get the message out quickly and effectively on social media but we recognise there was a lack of communication with ticket buyers from the promotor. This left us picking up the pieces and looking rather bad and it's an issue we're talking to the promotor about today.

We also saw a couple of people suggesting we never even made it to the venue. This simply isn't true, in the photos you can see all our equipment was set up and we were ready to play a show. We all arrived at the venue for sound check and I personally observed the flimsy hand rail.

Yesterday we really were put in an impossible position, I can only apologise to the fans for being let down, we feel let down too. We want you all to understand, we didn't sit in a van on a motorway for hours just to turn around at the other end and head back. We were as disappointed as you guys. The situation may of been resolved were we actually able to speak to the promotor who put the show on but he was unobtainable all day so we were left with no choice. We're pretty angry about the whole situation too.

To those who read these points and still can't grasp why we had to pull the show, maybe you should consider the safety of those around you. Yes it's disappointing, but we have a moral and legal responsibility to protect people attending a show.

We're working with the promotor today to try to reschedule the show to give them chance to provide acceptable barriers."

NME.COM: Tom Clarke Talks About New Album

Tom Clarke spoke to Mark Beaumont from NME.COM:

When most musicians claim they had to get clean to find inspiration for their new album, they don’t mean it in quite the same way as The Enemy’s Tom Clarke. “Every now and then I just get in the shower and write lyrics,” he says, discussing the creative process behind their forthcoming fourth album ‘It’s Automatic’ and its giveaway “transition track” ‘Don’t Let Nothing Get In The Way’. “For some reason that’s the place that I write songs more frequently than anywhere else. I got in the shower and those lyrics were just there… I always just want to get home and get in my shower because I know I can write songs there. I’ve been looking at redoing my bathroom but what if I get rid of the shower and it doesn’t work anymore?”

Magical musical faucets aside, ‘It’s Automatic’ is an album driven by romantic woes (“a lot of this album is about relationships, I’ve had a lot of them now and none of them have worked. It’s definitely the most personal record”) and the need for a fresh start. “We’re at the point where we want to try and take a bit of a risk and put an album out that’s different and progressive and a bit of an evolution,” Clarke explains, still burnt, perhaps, by the scathing critical response to 2012’s Top 10 third album ‘Streets In The Sky’.



“It started before we released the singles and rarities album [2014’s ‘Dancing All Night’, released via PledgeMusic]. We were playing a gig in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and I sat Andy [Hopkins, bass] and Liam [Watts, drums] down and kinda said, ‘Look, I can’t do another ‘We’ll Live and Die In These Towns’. I don’t wanna cover old ground, I don’t wanna make another Enemy album, I wanna go and do some solo stuff’. Andy was like, “Well I don’t wanna make another Enemy album either, we really have covered it and I wanna do something completely different”. That’s where the talks started of, ‘Maybe we do it as The Enemy but we do something that people wouldn’t expect.’”

They set about cribbing sounds and ideas from their favourite contemporary records – Diiv, Death Cab For Cutie, the Drive soundtrack, R&B beats and even, thanks to their new producer Gethin Pearson, their mortal enemies from the school of 2008. “Gethin’s the person who basically made me listen to the Horrors album. He said ‘I don’t care what you think about them, you’ve got to listen to this album cos it’s too good not to’. So I drove back from work listening to the album going, ‘He’s right, it’s fucking amazing’. That latest album (2014’s ‘Luminous’), it’s like Simple Minds but there are bits of The Cure. I love it. I just listen to it from a musical perspective, forgetting anything previously [Horrors singer Faris Badwan mocked The Enemy at the 2008 NME Awards, declaring that they’d “defied natural selection”].”

Delving into psychedelic and progressive sounds, ‘It’s Automatic’ and first single ‘So Much Love’ are about “when you almost don’t want to be in love with someone but you are and you probably always will be no matter who else you meet – it’s venting that feeling”.

Tom is confident it’s a new-era Enemy record that will catapult them straight back into the public eye. Although he insists he won’t be returning to Twitter, which he quit over “cyber bullying” last year. “Twitter is a bit like an infection that you don’t really know you’ve got but it drags you down and you’re never really firing on all cylinders,” he says. “Since leaving Twitter my productivity has gone up, my mood is generally better, I can’t see me going back… There’s so much pressure to be on social media, you’re like an outcast if you’re not. But I’d rather be a happy outcast.”

Article: NME.COM

The Boys Are Back In Town

The Enemy 2015 Tour Dates

The Enemy 2015 tour dates are out and fans have been able to pre-book from 9am today Wednesday 8th July 2015) ahead of general release on Friday 10th July. The full 12 date tour covers England and Scotland at the moment. Any additions will be updated via the bands social media sites.

A new official website for The Enemy has also be launched at theenemyband.com and it looks like the fourth album is already stirring up a lot of interest among fans and the media.

Lyrics: The Enemy - Don't Let Nothing Get In The Way

Don't Let Nothing Get In The Way

Beautiful morning with a blood red sky
Man with a briefcase asks you why
He doesn't know that today's the day
that the brothers and sisters come together again

They got no morals, they got no code
They got no names for the places they go
They wanna rob you, wanna steal your soul, but ya
You gotta fight for the ones you love, singing

Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way

Beautiful girl with the blood red eyes
Mother and father asked her why
They didn't know that today's the day
that the brothers and sisters join together again

They got no morals, they got no code
They got no names for the places they go
They wanna rob you, wanna steal your soul, but ya
You got to fight for the ones you love, singing

Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way

Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way

Ohhhh ohhhh
You gotta fight for the ones you love
Ohhhh ohhhh
You gotta fight for the ones you love

Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way
Don't let nothing get in the way, hey
Don't let nothing get in the way

The Enemy Announce New Album And Tour

Coventry band, The Enemy have announced tour dates and a 4th album are on the way later this year. The band are also returning to Warner Bros music via VAM records and look set to win over a new audience with their definitive rock sound. Music manager John Dawkins has described the latest album saying, "new album is frightening. Cant wait to unleash. Even the give away track on pre order launch are strong" on Twitter.

With three top 10 albums already under their belts, The Enemy look set for a fourth if the free track 'Don't Let Nothing Get In The Way' is anything to go by. Fans have been pre-ordering the new album, 'It's Automatic' from various websites and Pledge Music have signed copies, t-shirts and UK tour VIP upgrades - allowing fans to get access to the soundcheck before a show on the UK tour and a photo with the band.

The twelve date tour kicks off at Fibbers, York on the 16th of November and concludes on the 1st December at Rock City in Nottingham. Popular locations such as London, Manchester and Glasgow form part of the tour and home fans will be pleased to know The Enemy will be performing in Coventry on Saturday 21st November 2015. Tickets go on general sale at 9am Friday 10th July 2015, but fans who sign up at http://bit.ly/EnemySignUp can get pre-sale access on Wednesday 8th July 2015 from 9am.

FULL TOUR DATES:

November:
16th - Fibbers, York
17th - The Ritz, Manchester
18th – HMV, Birmingham
20th – Forum, London
21st – Empire, Coventry
22nd – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
24th – Riverside, Newcastle
25th – Stylus, Leeds
26th - Garage, Glasgow
28th – Leadmill, Sheffield
29th – Waterfront, Norwich

December:
1st – Rock City, Nottingham