Tim Burgess announces 2026 Merch Market will come to London

Tim Burgess‘ annual Merch Market will come to London’s Troxy for 2026.

The Charlatans frontman hosted the Merch Market, which allows bands to sell merchandise for free and keep 100 per cent of the income, last year in Manchester. Members from New Order, Inspiral Carpets, Everything Everything, Penfriend, Cabbage, and more manned stalls while Burgess hosted his own and delivered a live performance on the day.

In addition to hosting their own stall, New Order drummer Stephen Morris and keyboardist/guitarist Gillian Gilbert were interviewed on-stage by Dave Haslam, along with Mark Gardener from Ride.

This year, the Merch Market will land in London, with the Troxy forming the main hub for stalls, live interviews, performances and more surprises. Other venues participating include The George Tavern – a nearby walk that will host bands and stalls all day – along with The Old Ship and The Clement Attlee, who will host even more stalls, interviews and book events. Thanks to Tonic Music, Terry Hall’s piano will be making an appearance at the Merch Market as well.

Tim’s Vinyl Adventures is also set to join alongside plenty of labels and record sellers, and bands selling exclusive merch, one-offs and remainder stock. A list of participating artists is soon to come.

Speaking about the London Merch Market, Burgess said: “Troxy is one of my favourite venues in the country and when they asked about us bringing The Merch Market, it was a very quick yes. Our event in Manchester is still spoken about and it was a brilliant day for bands to connect with fans – and to also shift merch that’s gathering dust in studios and lock ups”.

News of this year’s edition of the Merch Market follows comments Burgess made in 2021, where he spoke out about venues taking an unfair cut of merch sales. “The whole system needs addressing,” he said at the time.

“This isn’t about The Charlatans. It’s about those bands who need merch income to survive. Some places take 25 per cent. A quarter of the full selling price. Vinyl doesn’t even have that markup to begin with.”

Following a campaign started by the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), who started a directory highlighting venues charging zero commission for selling merchandise, it was confirmed that 400 venues had agreed not to take a cut of artists’ merch proceeds by joining the database. There are still many venues that have not signed up to the scheme.

In further comments to NME in 2022, Burgess reiterated his stance was “about fairness” and not money, adding: “Often at Charlatans gigs, our fans smash the record for the bar take at a venue.

“When I first tweeted about merch commission, Warren Ellis from The Bad Seeds replied [saying] that we could maybe ask the venues for a percentage of the bar take. It’s no more unreasonable than them taxing the merch.”

We recently spoke with The Charlatans about their first album in eight years, ‘We Are Love’. The album – which they’ve called their “best record” yet – is due October 31 via BMG and was produced by the likes of Dev Hynes, Fred Macpherson and the legendary Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries). You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

Burgess spoke about recruiting Hynes to produce their album, explaining: “We wanted to work with Dev, and I’ve known Dev for a long time. The first time I saw him was [at] The Old Blue Last [in London], and he was playing drums for Florence, before Florence became the Florence that we know. It was just the two of them on stage, and I thought, ‘This is great’. They’ve stuck in my mind.

“And then, of all places, we met him again in New Zealand, and he was then Lightspeed Champion. We both talked about how much we liked each other, and so it was like a thing. I’ve always thought about him, and then I just dropped him a line. He was just really into it, and the timing was right for him.”