X-Posure Live to return to Camden's Barfly venue for monthly residency

28 September 2026, 14:42 | Updated: 28 September 2026, 14:45

Florentenes will headline the first of the new X-Posure Live shows at Barfly in Camden. Picture: Press

Radio X's new music guru John Kennedy will launch a series of regular dates in London, with Bolton's Florentenes headlining the first show.

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Hosted by new music guru John Kennedy, X-Posure Live at the Barfly is back as a permanent monthly fixture at the legendary venue in Camden, North London.he iconic new music showcase will launch on Thursday 22nd October with Bolton guitar four-piece, Florentenes.

X-Posure Live 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.

John Kennedy presents X-Posure on Radio X. Picture: Radio X

Also announced are the X-Posure All-Dayer, which is set to take place on 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 important 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.

The Florentenes are a natural choice to launch the series, having supported The Royston Club, Jamie Webster and The Wombats, along with notable festival appearances at Liverpool Sound City and Neighbourhood Weekender.

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.

Big Truck will play X-Posure Live in February 2027. Picture: Press

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.

John says, “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!”