Gurriers

A pub conversation, then two years in a rehearsal room

Gurriers came out of a conversation in a Dublin pub in late 2019, when five musicians who had been in other projects met to talk about starting something together. The first rehearsal happened in January 2020. Dan Hoff arrived at the early meetings with a four-month plan for what the band would achieve; within weeks the city shut. Rather than stall, the group kept itself together across the lockdowns through Zoom calls and shared playlists, using the band as a fixed point while everything else was suspended.

The side effect was an unusually long apprenticeship with no audience attached to it. The first Gurriers gig was at the Workman's Club in Dublin on Halloween 2021, and its 300 tickets sold out. Two years of writing before a debut show meant the sound arrived more or less finished: noise rock and experimental guitar bolted onto pop structure, which the band has described as handing over harsh sounds and then a chorus to sing. The line-up is Hoff on vocals, Ben O'Neill and Mark MacCormack on guitars, Pierce O'Callaghan on drums, with Charlie McCarthy joining later on bass.

Come And See and what it bought them

The debut album, Come And See, landed in September 2024. The band deliberately made a full record rather than the digital-only EPs most new guitar bands put out, and its material still carries the middle of the live set — 'Nausea', 'Des Goblin', 'Erasure', 'Sign Of The Times', 'Top Of The Bill' and 'Approachable' all survive into the 2026 shows. O'Neill has since called that first album a statement of intent, with Hoff saying he wants their records to speak universally, pointing to the far right in Ireland as an example of a local problem that is not only local.

What followed was the kind of two-year run that normally takes longer. Gurriers played Later… with Jools Holland, appeared on Glastonbury's Woodsies and Leftfield stages, and took arena support slots with Turnstile and Kneecap. Their set at The Great Escape in 2026 was picked by NME among the festival's ten best performances, and the summer that followed ran through Sniester on 23 May, Rock For People on 10 June, then All Together Now, Lowlands, Leeds and Electric Picnic.

The second record

Nobody's Coming To Save You was announced in May 2026 with its title track, and tickets for the accompanying tour went on sale at 10am on Friday 22 May. The album came out on 25 September 2026 through Play It Again Sam. It was recorded at Attica Studios in Donegal and Holy Mountain Studios in London, produced by Mark Bowen of Idles with Loren Humphrey, engineered by Chris Fullard and mixed by John Congleton. Ten tracks, opening with the title song and closing on 'Crybaby'.

The subject matter is late-stage capitalism, big tech and the ordinary grind of getting by, and the band has been firm about where that sits. Asked about the politics, they answered that they are a band, not a political party, and pointed to Rebecca Solnit's line about hope being an axe for breaking down doors. On the title track itself they said it feels hopeless on a first listen but reveals itself as a call to action, with the emphasis on collective responsibility rather than rescue.

RTÉ's Alan Corr called it a triumphant second album, reading 'Party Lines' — which opens with a Michael Parenti quote — against Manic Street Preachers' The Holy Bible, hearing Rage Against the Machine in the fury of 'Nothing Happens Twice', and singling out 'Crybaby' as a shoegaze waltz that hints at where the band might go next. His verdict was that Gurriers remain a moving target. Thomas James, who has made videos for Kneecap and Young Fathers, directed the clip for 'Waiting For Fisher', describing it as a surreal satire on what competition drives people to.

Standing, autumn 2026

The album arrived with support from BBC 6 Music and KEXP, coverage in NME, Rolling Stone and Wonderland, and an NME cover in the week of the Dublin headline shows. The touring picture is the clearer measure. The UK and Irish leg began in Glasgow on 14 October and has run through Manchester's New Century on 16 October and Project House in Leeds on 17 October; the London date at Electric Brixton sold out and was packed before the band came on.

The Irish run is the current focus: Ulster Hall in Belfast on 28 October with Enola Gay, doors at 7pm for an 8pm start and very little ticket availability left, then Vicar Street in Dublin on 29 October, also with Enola Gay. The 3Olympia Theatre follows on Sunday 1 November with Child Of Prague opening, tickets at €30 to €35.65 including fees. From there the tour continues into December across Europe, taking in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam. Support rotates between Enola Gay, Tramhaus, Really Good Time and Child Of Prague depending on the city.

The show as it stands

The current set does not build towards anything; it starts there. The walk-on music has changed to spaghetti western for this tour, replacing the Frankie Valli intro of the last one, and then the title track goes straight in, with Hoff more or less in the crowd by the end of it. 'Party Lines' follows, then 'Nausea' and 'Des Goblin', and the room is already moving.

Length has grown with the second album's material. Glasgow's SWG3 TV Studio opening night ran fourteen songs to a crowd of roughly 700 and took a 9/10 from Bring The Noise; Leeds ran seventeen, closing on 'Approachable', 'I Wish I Was' and 'Crybaby'. At Electric Brixton the band played all ten songs from the new record, Hoff handing choruses back to the audience to shout and telling them to dance. Reviewers keep landing on the same point about the relationship with the room — Backseat Mafia noted bassist Charlie McCarthy being carried above the crowd in Leeds, with a wall of death forming, and wrote that the band wants to be in the crowd rather than playing at it. Still Listening, reviewing Brixton, concluded that Gurriers want to be a band that matters and are.