Check out Brooke Combe, Alfie Templeman and Pale Waves at Y Not Festival

One of the great things about Y Not is that it gives visitors the opportunity to see lesser-known acts who may one day be topping the festival bill.

Names to look out for among this year’s line-up include Brooke Combe, Alfie Templeman and Pale Waves.

Rising soul star Brooke Combe is enjoying a huge run of summer festivals. She played at Tramlines in Sheffield last weekend and is booked for performances at Deer Shed Festival in North Yorkshire and Kendal Calling in Cumbria in the two days leading up to her appearance at Y Not on Saturday, July 30.

The 21-year-old won the Breakthrough Female prize at the Scottish Music Awards last year and was adopted by indie royalty such as The Courteeners and The Snuts, who she supported in 2021.

Brooke kicked off this year in similar scintillating style when her debut single Are You With Me? topped the Official Vinyl Singles Chart upon its release.

She got into music when she was just five years old and received a toy drum kit. Brooke grew up listening to the Nineties r ‘n’ b played in her mum and dad’s house, as well as the Motown her grandparents would play her and developed her love of songwriting through listening to Amy Winehouse and Fleetwood Mac.

Alfie Templeman is just 19 years old but has already toured Australia in a support slot with The Wombats this summer. He has completed his first UK and Europe headline tour where he added Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi to his army of fans. Multi-instrumentalist Alfie has racked up more than 140,000,000 streams worldwide and in excess of 221,000,000 radio impacts in the United Kingdom alone. His single 3D Feelings gave him his first Top 40 Airplay record and made it onto the A list at BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, Radio X and Virgin.

Indie pop singer Alfie’s debut album Mellow Moon was released in May this year, two years after he began working on it during a period of turbulence for the world and for himself. When the record was launched, Alfie said: “It feels like I’m on a different planet. I’ve gone somewhere new and I’m discovering fire for the first time.”

Alfie spent the earliest part of the pandemic shielding due to a respiratory issue which was first identified in childhood. He felt very low and began taking antidepressants as he attempted to deal with his anxiety. He said: “I think people assume that I’m this easy, outgoing person but there’s actually a lot more layers to me and this record shows that,” he says. “Writing songs like ‘Broken’, ‘Take Some Time Away’ and ‘Mellow Moon’ were like therapy. It was me asking ‘What’s wrong with me?’ and ‘How am I going to get better?’ Just figuring things out in real time. I had therapy but there were still things unresolved in my mind. So I turned to music for the answers.”

Catch Alfie performing at Y Not on Saturday, July 30.

Indie rock band Pale Waves will plug their upcoming album Unwanted during their Friday slot at the festival, which takes place at Pikehall, near Matlock. The new album, which is due for release on August 12, is informed by the band’s personal and artistic journey since the release of their debut long-player My Mind Makes Noises four years ago. Frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie said: “Unwanted was really the only thing this album could be called. It’s bold and unapologetic, and that’s what the Pale Waves community is about. We don’t need to fit a perfect mould, we don’t need to apologise for being ourselves, and we won’t change for anyone. That acceptance is what connects us.”