Radio X's X-Posure Live is back at Barfly on Chalk Farm Road every month from Thursday 22 October, with Florentenes first. Doors 7pm, ages 14 and up.

Radio X is bringing X-Posure Live back to Barfly on Chalk Farm Road as a monthly night. The first show is on Thursday 22 October, headlined by Florentenes, a guitar band from Bolton.

The night is hosted by John Kennedy, who has presented X-Posure on Radio X since 1999. Radio X announced the residency on 28 September. It ran at Barfly for more than 15 years before the venue closed in 2016.

The dates announced so far

Date Show
Thursday 22 October 2026 Florentenes, plus Okay Blue and Pisces
Saturday 16 January 2027 X-Posure All-Dayer, line-up not yet announced
Thursday 18 February 2027 Big Truck

The support acts for 22 October are listed on Barfly’s own event page. It gives the times as 7pm to 11pm. Entry is 14 and over, and under-16s must come with an adult, with ID required. The page sells tickets but does not show a price.

Radio X says more dates will follow. Big Truck is the new band of Laurie Vincent from Soft Play, according to Barfly’s listing.

A studio upstairs

The venue is fitting out a recording and mixing studio upstairs for the residency. Radio X says it will capture a live mix of each X-Posure Live show, ready to broadcast straight after the gig.

Kennedy said: “I’m so excited to bring X-Posure Live back to the Barfly. I’ve always felt that documenting bands performing live in an intimate space, then sharing that experience with people on the radio, was a vital and visceral part of the radio show and the station.”

Radio X names Wolf Alice, Sam Fender, Interpol, Frank Turner, The Horrors and Miles Kane among the acts who played Barfly under the X-Posure Live banner.

How Barfly came back

Barfly reopened on 22 June 2026 after ten years shut. Frank Turner played the first night. He played his first sold-out solo show there in 2006, the venue says in its reopening announcement.

The building was bought by Propaganda Independent Venues, whose co-founders are Dan Ickowitz-Seidler and Richard Buck. The third co-owner is Chris McCormack, who founded Camden Rocks Festival and has lived in Camden for more than three decades, the announcement says.

The music room holds about 200 people. Between 1996 and 2016 its stage hosted Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Muse, The Strokes, Ed Sheeran and The Libertines, among many others.

The pub downstairs has changed too. Barfly Bar now opens daily, with:

  • a vinyl listening bar modelled on Tokyo’s record bars
  • a 1959 AMI jukebox, the same model Amy Winehouse owned
  • a wall of photographs from the venue’s first twenty years

Blue plaques marking artists and moments in Barfly’s history are due to go up “in the coming months”, according to the June announcement. No dates have been given.

What it means for you

  • The first night is Thursday 22 October, 7pm to 11pm, at 49 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AN.
  • Tickets are sold only through the venue, at barflycamden.com. Check the price there before you go, as it is not on the event page.
  • Teenagers can go. It is 14 and over, and under-16s need an adult with them.
  • Two days later, on Saturday 24 October, Camden Rocks holds an all-dayer at Barfly with Torus among the acts, according to the venue’s listings.

Chalk Farm and Camden Town are the nearest Tube stations. For anything affecting the Northern line that week, see our Camden roadworks and travel page.