The 10 best UK concerts of the last 20 years: an EILISH editorial selection

Choosing the best concerts in the UK over two decades is subjective, and this list does not pretend otherwise. It is an editorial selection of ten performances held between 2006 and 2026, chosen for ambition, occasion and lasting cultural weight. They are presented in chronological order, not ranked. The choices rest on the public record of these events rather than first-hand attendance by the EILISH Editorial Team, and they lean towards large-scale occasions, so readers are invited to make the case for the grassroots shows that deserve a place beside them.

2007: Prince and Led Zeppelin at The O2

**Prince, The O2 Arena, London.** Prince's 21-night run at the London arena in the summer of 2007 turned a single venue into a destination for weeks. A residency of that length was unusual for the UK, and it set a template that later artists followed. Its value lay in the sustained invitation to see one of pop's great live performers in a room built for the purpose.

**Led Zeppelin, The O2 Arena, London.** On 10 December 2007, Led Zeppelin reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert, with Jason Bonham on drums in place of his late father John. The date had been postponed from November after Jimmy Page injured a finger. A single set by a band that had long resisted reunions became one of the most discussed nights in British rock.

2008 to 2012: festival fields and reunions

**Jay-Z, Glastonbury Festival, Pilton.** Jay-Z's headline slot on 27 June 2008 was publicly questioned beforehand by Noel Gallagher, who said hip-hop did not belong at the top of the bill. The set that followed is often cited as the moment a rap headliner was accepted on the Pyramid Stage.

**Blur, Hyde Park, London.** Blur's reunion shows in 2009 brought the Britpop generation back together after years apart. The Hyde Park performance in July of that year was a communal occasion, with a band reclaiming its catalogue for an audience that had grown up with it.

**Beyoncé, Glastonbury Festival, Pilton.** Beyoncé headlined the Pyramid Stage on the Saturday night in 2011. It was a polished, large-scale pop production on a stage that had long favoured guitar bands, and it is regularly mentioned as a turning point for who is expected to close the festival.

**The Stone Roses, Heaton Park, Manchester.** The band's three-night reunion run in Heaton Park in June 2012 was a homecoming in the most literal sense. Few concerts of the period carried as much civic emotion for a single city.

2014 to 2019: return and breakthrough

**Kate Bush, Hammersmith Apollo, London.** Before the Dawn, in 2014, was Kate Bush's first run of live shows since 1979. It comprised 22 performances at Hammersmith Apollo, staged as theatre as much as concert. It is on the list for its rarity and for the care with which it was conceived.

**Stormzy, Glastonbury Festival, Pilton.** On 28 June 2019, Stormzy became the first Black British solo artist to headline the Pyramid Stage. For British grime and hip-hop, which had spent years being treated as an outsider to the festival establishment, the booking and the performance marked a clear shift.

2023 and 2025: farewells and returns

**Elton John, Glastonbury Festival, Pilton.** Elton John's Sunday-night Pyramid Stage set on 25 June 2023 was billed as his final UK show on the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. It fitted a career-spanning catalogue into a farewell that the festival crowd could sing along to from the first song to the last.

**Oasis, Principality Stadium, Cardiff.** Oasis opened their reunion tour at the Principality Stadium on 4 July 2025, 16 years after the band split in 2009. Whatever view one takes of nostalgia, the demand and scale of the tour made it the defining live story of the mid-2020s in the UK.

What the list leaves out

The selection tilts towards headline-making events, because those are the performances with the clearest public record. That is a limitation. Many of the best UK concerts of the past twenty years will have taken place in rooms holding a few hundred people, in jazz clubs, basements and pubs across all four nations, and will never have been documented as widely. EILISH welcomes nominations for those shows and will return to the subject.