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Welcome to the Forum Basement, our intimate, 50-capacity live music venue in Tunbridge Wells. We showcase a diverse range of talented artists from various genres, from country to punk rock and grunge.
At the Sussex, we have always been dedicated to supporting up-and-coming artists. Our tiny live music venue has had the privilege of hosting renowned acts like Soft Play (previously known as Slaves), Maisie Peters, Yonaka, and The Wytches for their early gigs.
Run in collaboration with the Tunbridge Wells Forum (an independent music venue), the Forum Basement in the Sussex Arms offers a warm and electrifying atmosphere. In addition to hosting gigs, we actively contribute to the live music scene in Tunbridge Wells by participating in events and festivals like Unfest and Local and Live.
Check out our complete gig listing below and book your tickets online today.
Whats On?
Interact with the polaroids to reveal their description, admission price and a booking link.

Loose Articles + Angered Kenneth + Playing Alice
16/05/2026 - 7:30 pmAdmissison: £11
18+Specialising in discordant, hypnotic repetition, tales of boozy nights out, and radical politics, Loose Articles are a punk quartet with plenty to say. Their music speaks to all those determined to get through the age of austerity with tongue in cheek, pint in hand, and two feet firmly on the dancefloor. Plying repetition (repetition, repetition…) with ragged edges and a sardonic, sarcastic drawl delivered with fierce, in your face, punk-fueled attitude, both feminine & threatening, Loose Articles are here to make a point.
Angered Kenneth are a four piece female-fronted punk rock band delivering sarcastic poet-punk lyrics over fierce guitar and punchy drum rhythms – it’s high energy, high voltage, high impact. You’ll walk out of their show ready to smash down the patriarchy, nick a mic and start your own riot grrrl band. Stomping boot-first through tired female stereotypes, with razor-sharp vocals that spit modern dating horror stories straight into the gutter – Nina makes an example of anyone who’s ever left you on read. They’re no one trick pony though, that’s for sure. Watching a set by AK, you’ll feel all the feelings. They’ll tug at your heartstrings with stories of love, loss and friendships too. A set by Angered Kenneth speaks to millennials, speaks to the gen Z, speaks to all of us.
Playing Alice are an all queer all female disco-punk 4-piece from Lewes/Worthing/Brighton/Horsham. Belting powerful vocals that glitter in harmonies, they mix catchy riffs and bass driven grooves to create their unique take on punk. Grab your dancing shoes and prepare to be blasted into a world where feminist and queer values reign supreme!
FFO: The Gossip, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Amyl and The Sniffers

The Tullamarines
17/05/2026 - 6:00 pmAdmissison: £
18+Cram four perennial over-thinkers into an Adelaide jam room, sprinkle in some love, care, anxiety, and affection, and you get The Tullamarines.
Josh, Angus, Benny, and Lucinda met on the local gig circuit and quickly bonded over a shared love of songwriting. Now a bunch of inseparable nervous wrecks, they share the highs and lows with the honesty and warmth of old friends. Their unique blend of perspectives hits you like a pillow to the head while you’re jumping on a bed of giddy indie pop, a feeling that runs through both their discography and their high-energy live shows.
Having already shared stages with Alex Lahey, The Vanns, The Buoys, and Teenage Joans, and completed national tours with TOWNS, Stumps, Dear Seattle, and Polish Club, The Tullamarines have firmly cemented themselves as a rising force in Australia’s indie scene.

Ganser
18/05/2026 - 7:00 pmAdmissison: £12
18+“What propels Ganser as a band, for me, is what shines here: their performance of joyful apathy so often has many other moving parts underneath that suggest that they are a band of deep caring, simply unsatisfied with the hands they’ve been dealt by the world.” – Hanif Abdurraqib
The Chicago art rock 4-piece made a splash during 2020 with their sophomore album Just Look at That Sky, finding themselves included in best of lists from that year including Vice, Rolling Stone, Paste, and more. Through the pandemic, the band remotely collaborated with other artists for a remix EP including Andy Bell (Oasis, Ride), Sad13 (Speedy Ortiz), Adam Faulkner (Gilla Band), and Bartees Strange while communicating with listeners online waiting for the opportunity to play their mix of noisy post-punk with “surreal humor and dark playfulness” (Paste).
After sharing the stage with the likes of Bikini Kill, Viagra Boys, Amyl & the Sniffers, Gilla Band and more, the band is deep in development on their third record after partnering with Liars’ Angus Andrew in 2022 on an EP called Nothing You Do Matters.
“Anyone can play punk rock. For Ganser, that’s no excuse for low standards. Over a pairof albums, including 2020’s marvelous Just Look at That Sky, the Chicago quartet deployed simple phrasing to make increasingly complicated thematic and artistic statements. On Nothing You Do Matters, a short EP produced by Liars’ Angus Andrew, they offer up their most sophisticated music yet.” – Marty Sartini Garner, Pitchfork
Ganser is Alicia Gaines (bass, vocals), Brian Cundiff (drums), Charlie Landsman (guitar) and Sophie Sputnik (keys, vocals).

UNFEST: Screensaver + NOTV
23/05/2026 - 7:30 pmAdmissison: £0
18+Throwing off the shackles of existential dread with hypnotic beats, punk energy and swirling synths, screensaver take weighty themes about power, lies, corporate coercion and systemic failure and deliver them via their blend of maximalist post punk. With a dance heartbeat, a kraut-rock back bone and new wave glimmer, there’s a catharsis in their anxiety induced compositions that is both dark but danceable.
Beginning as a trans Pacific collaboration between Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint/Exek) and Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision/Polo/Swim Team) back in 2016, the project spent three years in an incubatory state. By 2019 Christopher had long since relocated to Melbourne and the current line up now consists of James Beck (Personal Touch/ex Rat Columns) on drums, Dorian Vary (Soundtrackmusic) on bass and Jonnine Nokes (Horse Pills/Activities of Daily Living) on synth.

UNFEST
23/05/2026 - 2:00 pm
Irish & Trad Sessions
07/06/2026 - 4:00 pmAdmissison: £0
18+Irish Music at The Sussex Arms – Free Entry
The Sussex Arms are bringing the true Irish spirit to the Pantiles! Join us for an afternoon of live traditional Irish, Cornish, Folk, and old-time tunes with some of the county’s finest session players. If you’re a fan of the Pogues, the Dubliners, or new folk legends like Lankum, this is for you. Our handpicked Celtic Session band is here to bring ‘Trad’ back to where it belongs – in the heart of the pub.
So grab a pint of Guinness and watch the best ‘Trad’ this side of Dublin. Sláinte!

Cowboyy (MVT Everywhere At Once)
26/06/2026 - 7:30 pmAdmissison: £8
18+South coast born three piece, guitar oriented, high energy, math rock pop band. with a fresh and modern outlook on writing and playing, Cowboyy strive to create their own unique sound- refusing to be anything but themselves. From crazy pedal effects , ridiculous two hand tapping, to ear piercing guitar lines. Cowboyy hope to be a fresh new guitar band you won’t forget.
Cowboyy first came up through the widely known Windmill scene, signing with Nice Swan Records after playing a string of shows (including the Great Escape) with no music or photos released. After putting out their first EP and taking a break, they are back with a highly anticipated second EP! Cowboyy recently released their single “Drawbridge Castle” and have plotted a string of shows in early 2026 amongst the build-up to the release of their much anticipated second EP.
“Rhythmic shredders running wild off an outlaw spirit” NME
“’Algorithmic’ is full of scrappy, OTT guitars and Art Brut style hilarity, while closer ‘Nothing’ brings to mind Los Campesinos! at their most slow-burning.” – DIY
“Cements a new sound inspired by math-rock, post punk, electronic and jazz” – Dork
“Pummelling percussion had ears ringing and faces grinning, as cowboyy’s dissonant wall of sound lassoed the crowd into enchantment” – Clash

Hawxx
22/10/2026 - 7:30 pmAdmissison: £10
18+HAWXX create rituals of rage and resistance.
Through songs of protest, feminist resistance, grief, ecological catastrophe and queer love, they write songs to keep the soul alive in a dying world, to carve a way through the terrifying times we are in.
Their upcoming second album ‘The World Splits Open’ will be released in 26.06.26. This record weaves alternative metal, punk, and traditional Greek music from Anna’s heritage.
Based in London, HAWXX are Anna on lead vocals/ guitar, Hannah on guitar/ bvs and Jess on drums / bvs. Their debut album ‘Earth, Spit, Blood and Bones’ was nominated for album of the year by Metalhammer and Kerrang describe them as ‘playing like they want to start a revolution’.