There are two NI Rocks Shows uploaded each week on Rock Radio NI. These are the playlists for those Shows for the month of August 2026 – all of which are still available from the On Demand Player. There are tracks by around 100 different artists on the Shows this month.
Playlists for July 2026 were published previously and those Shows are also still available via the On Demand Player - https://www.rockradioni.co.uk/news/rrni-updates/3963-ni-rocks-playlists-for-july-2026
There are also monthly Spotify playlists for the Friday NI Rocks Show which feature most of the tracks from each Show that month.
This month there were three new interviews - Taime from Faster Pussycat, Tony West from Blacklist Union and Sean Manning from The Exiles. There were also special promo features with Kris Barras, Ricky Warwick and Everlast.
Previous interviews can be found here - http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews.html and on the NI Rocks MixCloud page as well - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/ .
The featured album releases this month were from the Kris Barras Band, Steelover, Kickin’ Valentina and Kamelot.
Status Quo guitarist Richie Malone is our guest on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 11th September. Richie joined the band in 2016 and became a permanent member after the death of Rick Parfitt that year. His own band, The Richie Malone Band, plays the Empire Music Hall in Belfast on 25th September.
We chatted via Zoom about his time with Status Quo, the Richie Malone Band, the upcoming show, future plans and more.
That interview can be heard on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 11th September. The Show is available from the On Demand Player -
https://www.rockradioni.co.uk/hosts/ni-rocks-friday-rock-show
and MixCloud – https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/richie-malone-interview-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-11th-sept-2026/
Read more: NII ROCKS Interview with RICHIE MALONE (Status Quo / Richie Malone Band)
Sometimes an album lands in my inbox that just instantly strikes a chord and that was most definitely the case with “Turning Time” by The Exiles. It really is a fantastic album! When I read through the e-mail it became clear that “Turning Time” was actually a much-enhanced re-release of an album that first appeared in 1996 as “The Exiles” by Sean Manning & Paul Rafferty.
I was so intrigued that I arranged an interview with guitarist Sean Manning on Zoom on 11th August to talk about The Exiles and the album. Sean is an English guitarist who has also performed with Quiet Riot and Hurricane in the past. We had a great chat about The Exiles, the “re-release” of the album and Sean’s musical journey from his arrival in LA through to his decision to leave the music scene behind in the late 90’s after working with artists such as Kevin DuBrow, Kelly Hanson, Paul Shortino and Neil Giraldo.
You can listen to that interview with Sean on the Friday NI Rocks Show uploaded on 14th August - https://www.rockradioni.co.uk/hosts/ni-rocks-friday-rock-show
That Show is now on our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-tony-west-and-sean-manning-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-14th-aug-26/
It’ll be transcribed and posted here shortly.
It’s also available on the NI Rocks YouTube channel.
Read more: NI ROCKS Interview with SEAN MANNING from THE EXILES
I’ve been featuring tracks from American band Blacklist Union on the NI Rocks Shows for almost 15 years and it was great to see them be announced as support for Faster Pussycat on their European tour during September 2026. That tour includes a gig in The Empire in Belfast on 13th September.
Our friends at Kick Down The Door PR managed arranged for me to have a chat with Blacklist Union frontman Tony West via Zoom on 4th August. We talked about the band, the upcoming tour with Faster Pussycat, the collaboration with Lorraine Lewis from Femme Fatale, Tony’s side project The Savior Complex and much more.
The interview can be heard on the Friday NI Rocks Show uploaded on 14th August - https://www.rockradioni.co.uk/hosts/ni-rocks-friday-rock-show
That Show is now on our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-tony-west-and-sean-manning-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-14th-aug-26/
It has been transcribed so that you can read it below.
Read more: NI ROCKS Interview with TONY WEST from BLACKLIST UNION