Kid Kapichi

Kid Kapichi are one of the most successful bands to emerge from Hastings in recent years, progressing from local grassroots venues to major festivals, arena support slots and international touring while retaining a strong connection to the town that shaped them.

The band formed in Hastings in 2013 around singers and guitarists Jack Wilson and Ben Beetham, later joined by bassist Eddie Lewis and drummer George Macdonald. That four-piece line-up remained intact for more than a decade. Their early years were spent building a following locally and releasing music independently, with EPs including Kid Kapichi, Lucozade Dreams and Sugar Tax gradually attracting national attention.

Tracks such as 2019 and Glitterati earned BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music airplay, and in 2019 Kid Kapichi appeared on the BBC Introducing stage at Reading and Leeds Festivals. Support slots with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes helped broaden their audience further.

Their self-produced debut album, This Time Next Year, followed in 2021. Its mixture of punk, garage rock and social commentary established the band’s identity, with songs such as Working Man’s Town drawing directly on Hastings and working-class life. NME described the record as “a snarling debut full of grit, determination and blood-curdling fury.”

The band’s profile rose again with Party At No.10, written in response to the Downing Street lockdown-party controversy. Liam Gallagher publicly praised the song and subsequently invited Kid Kapichi to support him at the Royal Albert Hall.

After signing to Spinefarm Records, the band released Here’s What You Could Have Won in 2022. Featuring tracks including New England with Bob Vylan, Rob The Supermarket, 5 Days On (2 Days Off) and Smash The Gaff, the album reached the UK Top 40.

Kid Kapichi subsequently appeared at major festivals including Glastonbury and Download and toured North America supporting Nothing But Thieves. Their third album, There Goes The Neighbourhood, arrived in 2024 and included Zombie Nation, featuring Suggs of Madness. By then the band had twice appeared on the cover of Kerrang! and had firmly established themselves among Britain’s most distinctive politically aware alternative rock acts.

A major change came in 2025 when Beetham and Macdonald left the group. The original four-piece played its final show at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill that July.

Wilson and Lewis continued Kid Kapichi, joined live by guitarist Lee Martin and Hastings drummer Miles Gill. Fourth album Fearless Nature, released in 2026, had been recorded by the original line-up but introduced a more personal and introspective direction.

From early Hastings gigs to Glastonbury, Wembley, the Royal Albert Hall and European touring, Kid Kapichi’s story remains unusually rooted in their hometown — with Hastings repeatedly appearing not simply as their place of origin, but as part of the subject matter, personality and identity of the band.