Chvrches stun fans with a bold new sound and surprise debut at Royal Albert Hall
Chvrches debuted a new song, 'Conman', during their set at Robert Smith's Teenage Cancer Trust's Royal Albert Hall gig series - see footage below.
The band were added to the line-up for the charity concert series curated by The Cure frontman, who stepped in as the curator this year in the place of The Who's Roger Daltrey. They join other names for the 2026 edition, including Garbage, Wolf Alice, Manic Street Preachers, Elbow and My Bloody Valentine.
Last night (March 27), they took to the stage together for the first time in 'almost three years', and used the occasion to debut a new track titled 'Conman'.
'I promise I'm not just inside watching telly all the time, we have been making a record,' Lauren Mayberry told the crowd. 'And we thought, since this is a special night, we would play something off that record for you guys. So be kind to us, we've never played this in front of human beings before.'
The track opens with a pulsing, industrial bass, as Mayberry sings: 'A man made for the microphone fills my pockets full of stones/All of his wives, all of his nine lives dance on the edge of a knife.'
It unfolds with grating guitar riffs and urgent, stirring vocal cries from Mayberry, introducing a heavier, post-punk sound for the band.
It's not the first time Chvrches have crossed paths with Smith. In 2021, he featured on their single 'How Not To Drown', which they told NME at the time was a 'mental' experience.
Then, in 2022, they teamed up to perform that track as well as 'Just Like Heaven' at the NME Awards, and also picked up the award for Best Song By A UK Artist together.
Last summer, Chvrches first told fans that they had started work on a new album, and earlier this month, the band's Martin Doherty and Jonny Scott told NME what fans could expect from the project.
'It's going to surprise people, and I hope it's going to delight them and rip some faces off,' Doherty revealed, also adding that it was 90 per cent complete. 'It's quite hard, but not to the point where you won't recognise the band. It's still the same people and DNA.'
Last week, Doherty and Scott announced that their debut album as The Leaving, 'Ultimate Buzz', will be released on April 24.
