Grunge-laced punk favourites HotWax bring UK tour to South Yorkshire

The Hastings trio are hitting the road in support of their debut album ‘Hot Shock’ and will take to the stage at Sheffield’s Sidney and Matilda on February 6.

The first 4 UK dates are part of Independent Venue Week, whilst the rest of the UK dates is in partnership with Music Venue Trust.

Support comes from Jeanie and the White Boys and Slag.

‘Hot Shock’ shot to a UK Record Store Chart number 1 and UK Top 40 on release, was named as Rough Trade’s album of the month and earned widespread critical acclaim on its release in March 2025.

The album has recently landed No.16 in Rough Trade’s Top 25 albums of the year, which was accompanied by a limited edition silver vinyl run of their performance at Rough Trade East recorded live in London last March.

HotWax’s debut album followed the release of two critically acclaimed EPs that launched the touring Hastings trio to ever bigger stages, playing over 200 blistering live shows in the past 18 months alone including Reading + Leeds, Mad Cool, All Points East, Download, support tours with Royal Blood, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Deap Vally and more.

It’s the band’s incredible stagecraft and seemingly limitless energy that caught the attention of producer Catherine Marks (Boygenius, Wolf Alice) at Third Man Records’ Blue Basement last summer; “It was the sweatiest gig we have ever done – it was really, really packed,” explains Tallulah

“Afterwards, Catherine came up to us and said, ‘Oh my god, I need to record your album with you. I want it to sound like the energy in this room. It needs to feel like a party.’”

The band went on to build an all-female team to record ‘Hot Shock’, with Marks co-producing alongside Steph Marziano (Picture Parlour, Cassandra Jenkins), bringing a crowd of the band’s friends into London’s legendary RAK Studios to record a live runthrough of the new record – perfectly capturing the distinct, dizzying energy of a HotWax gig.

While touring the US, the band also recorded with Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa at her studio in Joshua Tree.

The result is an album made to be played to a crowd, loud and with abandon.

But there’s also a beating pulse of vulnerability underscoring ‘Hot Shock’, written throughout the whirlwind of life on the road.

“Touring and constantly living in the moment can be chaotic. But there’s also a feeling of knowing that the more life experience we gain, the more fearless we become” explains bassist Lola Sam.

Although Hot Shock may traverse the unsettling terrain that comes with entering young adulthood, there’s also a sense of playful abandon that is never far behind. Childhood friends Sim-Savage and Sam have been writing together since they were 12, before the latter met drummer Alfie Sayers at music college five years later.