Favourite Haunts: Still In Love, Cheerbleederz and Harker on the Small Venues They Love
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Written by Huw Baines
Clockwise from left: Still In Love, Cheerbleederz, Harker
Welcome to the latest edition of Favourite Haunts, where we like to make a big noise about small venues and the bands who make their stages their home for weeks and months out of the year. Here, we catch up with some indie-punk lifers in Cheerbleederz and Harker, along with UKHC royalty in the form of Still in Love. Head below to find out which rooms they get a kick out of seeing on a tour routing.
Still in Love
Who? Bringing together members and ex-members of Dead Swans, Throats, Brutality Will Prevail, Last Witness and Bring Me The Horizon, Still in Love have already been there and done it in UK hardcore. But there’s nothing phoned in about their debut album for Church Road — out on September 5, ‘Recovery Language’ splits the difference between Have Heart-style anthemics, hulking Hope Conspiracy riffage and gnarly breakdowns for the spinkicker in you.
Where?Catch them at Torquay’s Burn it Down festival at the end of August and, longest drum roll ever, opening for Defeater, Modern Life Is War and Crime In Stereo at the Dome in London in October, right before the craziness of the Common Thread tour kicks off.
What’s their favourite small venue?“The Underworld in Camden is a venue that plays a big part in not only the history of Still in Love but UKHC as a whole. Over the years each member of this band has spent countless nights at this venue either playing or watching the best in heavy music. From Ninja Fest to Mastodon, Have Heart to Stamping Ground, Converge to Knuckledust, there have been unforgettable shows here. We will always jump at the opportunity to play here and it’s run by the best people (John and Sploot, we're looking at you). Hardcore will always have a home here.” Adrian Cecil, bass.
Cheerbleederz
Who? You may remember Phoebe Cross, Kathryn Woods and Sophie MacKenzie from such bands as Fresh, Me Rex, Felicette and Happy Accidents. Cheerbleederz are from the same world, with their forthcoming EP ‘Prove Me Wrong’ trading in effortlessly hooky indie-pop studded three-part shoutalongs. It’s like a particularly fun time mucking about with your mates, if your mates were all really good at writing catchy songs.
Where? In September they’ll play shows in London, Manchester, Norwich and Oxford, while November brings a support slot with Lakes at the Underworld as Watford’s finest play their biggest London show to date.
What’s their favourite small venue? “We’re very excited to be playing Ivy House for our next show. It's a community pub in Nunhead, south east London and is a staple of the local community. I always pass it on my cycle to work, and as the weather has been sunny lately, it’s been cute seeing people hanging out on the benches outside — it’s quite a peaceful spot. I’ve played there this year with my other band Me Rex and it was really welcoming — the staff are lovely, the vibes immaculate. It seems to encompass all walks of life and any fit any kind of event. I’ve seen Trust Fund there with a quartet, gone to early years music sessions as part of my work, I know friends who got married there and I recently went there for a memorial celebration. Big up Ivy House!” Phoebe Cross, drums and vocals.
Harker
Who? Led by guitarist, vocalist and chief songwriter Mark Boniface, Harker have been mainstays on the UK indie-punk scene for a decade now, putting out a couple of well-regarded full lengths that pull together the rickety hookiness of Superchunk and something more gnarled, with blown-out guitars reminiscent of Off With Their Heads. More recently they returned with the pleasingly shouty I Ruin Everything, the first taste of a new record set to arrive at some point in 2026.
Where? Harker will play a trio of UK shows in September — in Portsmouth and London prior to a hometown show in Brighton — and then head to the US for Gainesville’s annual punk throwdown Fest.
What’s their favourite small venue? “KTS Freiburg. We played here, I think, on our first tour of Europe in 2014. It was the second show of an almost two week tour with Casually Dressed. Just like a lot of Europe venues, rough round the edges but friendly people and an awesome space. Astpai headlined the show, and it was rammed. I was at the back by the merch stand watching the room bounce. We stayed in the dorms upstairs, in the morning I noticed names of all the bands that had played shows previously scrawled on the ceiling and walls — a lot of No Idea Records alumni. What a place!” Mark Boniface, guitar and vocals.
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