Category: Music Stuff

11th January 2026 at Troxy London and other venues

The Merch Market was created by Tim Burgess to support bands by allowing to meet and sell directly to the public, following a campaign to stop venues taking a cut of merch sales. The inaugural event was held in Manchester last year and was hailed as a success, with established bands including New Order, Inspiral Carpets and of course The Charlatans selling rare and exclusive items, alongside new and upcoming bands.

Apparently Troxy, a venue in Limehouse, east London got in touch to talk about running the next one, and several months later, here we are!

It was an early start for me, trekking across to east London in the rain on a Sunday when half the TfL lines don’t seem to be running.

Just before 11am, there was a queue stretching around the Troxy. I’d also passed the Clement Atlee, which was hosting the book event upstairs.

Inside Troxy

The foyer had the Tonic Music stall, selling T-shirts and other merch. Founded by Terry Hall, Tonic Music is a fantastic charity to support mental health in the music industry. They set up Terry’s piano and various guests played through the day, including Tim Burgess and James from Starsailor.

The main hall had stalls set up by bands, record labels and other merch sellers.

I made a beeline for The Charlatans stall as there was a promise of exclusive items. Tim Burgess had donated some of his own records so I had a flick through and selected an LP by The Kinks. I was listening to Tim’s Listening Party podcast recently and reminded of how great their songs are – it also reminded me of student days in halls and how we used to swap CDs to expand our musical horizons, and I discovered The Kinks because someone slipped their CD under my door one day.

I snapped up an exclusive “Best Lips in London” t-shirt, just like the one that had been worn by Tim Burgess at the Roundhouse last month and a limited edition illustration of all 14 Charlatans albums in the style of Saul Bellows. The main man himself made an appearance and I was able to get them both signed!

Bands

Bis had the stall opposite and were fanzine darlings when Blue Roses first came onto the scene so it was lovely to meet Manda Rin.

In the same area there were the Inspiral Carpets, Ride, ACR and Doves, with lots of T-shirts and signed merch.

One band that I was keen to see was The Cords. They will be supporting The Charlatans on their April/May UK tour so I had listened to their album and loved the jangly guitar. Eva and Grace Tedeschi are teenage sisters from Scotland. They also played a set on the main stage, but more about that later.

I’ve also been listening to Magic Seas, so it was great to meet John and James Prudence and pick up their album From This View, which was recorded with Ride frontman Mark Gardener.

Lovely to meet Mathew from Dodgy. We talked about the recent 35th anniversary show of The Dodgy Club at Bacchus in Kingston and how the whole thing started there. They have a new album and tour this year.

Chatting to the very cool, Natalie McCool about the lyrics printed on her tote: “You’re the 🥊 to my line”.

There are so many bands that I met and want to check out, it’ll take me a while to work through and write about (but please subscribe and you’ll get my updates!)

Other stuff

There were interviews on stage at The Troxy, starting with Andrew Trendell from NME chatting to Tim Burgess about the inspiration for the event, The Charlatans new album and the music scene. Tim explained how he had handpicked The Cords to support them.

There was a Timbola, with prizes donated by stall holders. Sadly I didn’t win anything.

Troxy held a raffle for a pair of Golden Tickets – a fantastic prize of free entry to any gigs at the Troxy for a year – to support War Child. Still got my fingers crossed! Troxy also arranged a couple of guided tours around this historic Art Deco building and former cinema, the largest in England at time of opening in 1933.

There were record labels showcasing their artists, record stores with stacks of vinyl, merch designers, and so much to explore.

Reading corner

Lunchtime for Wild Youth fanzine had prepared a special Merch Market issue for the event. I flicked through their back issues – they had paper copies going back to the early 90s! (I wonder if copies of the original Blue Roses fanzine should be reprinted?) I bought a copy copy of the 2025 review to read later.

Mick Jones of The Clash made a brief appearance at his Rock & Roll Public Library stall but I didn’t see him. I picked up a copy of the first issue of the magazine – the “birth of DIY culture” and “the ultimate mix tape” on the cover piqued my interest. There are three different covers so the magazine is on its way to becoming a collectors item itself!

Love the title of James Brown’s new book about music and magazines, Zine Age Kicks, and we had a nice chat about zine culture.

Live performances

There were several live performances at The George Tavern up the road and some of the bands looked really interesting to check out but with so much going on at Troxy, I didn’t get down there.

Troxy hosted live sets from The Cords and Tim Burgess acoustic – I’m going to write up the live reviews separately.

And then it was time for me to go home… it’s been a great day and I’m buzzing from immersing myself around so many fantastic bands, and going home with a wonderful collection of merch. After all, that’s what today was all about!