Hastings trio HotWax embark on a 22 date UK and EU headline tour in support of their debut album ‘Hot Shock’ in January/February 2026. 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.
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