Royal Albert Hall History

Ahead of the 2024 shows, our honorary patron Roger Daltrey announced that after 24 years, he’s stepping down from his role at the helm of our legendary Royal Albert Hall shows. His final edition will include performances from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Young Fathers, The Chemical Brothers, and his own band The Who. 

Roger’s tenure in numbers tells the story of the impact he’s had since the concerts began. There have been 22 editions of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, including 132 shows, 600+ hours of live music and over 300 bands, artists and comedians. 

The shows have sold over 500,000 tickets, raising a whopping £32 million for young people with cancer and paying for over a million hours of specialist care.

As he bows out of these life-changing shows, we say thanks to Roger for all his work over the years!

A dream-combination of legends and the hottest new acts hit the stage in 2023. Wet Leg, Kasabian, Courteeners, Joan Armatrading, Roger Daltrey,  and Underworld all played show-stopping sets. On the Tuesday night, the likes of Alan Carr, Rosie Jones and Russel Kane made sure to bring the best of the world of comedy too!

Teenage Cancer Trust’s Royal Albert Hall concerts were back with a bang in 2022 with a lineup including: Yungblood, Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller, Madness, the band that started it all - The Who, and many more.

Almost two decades since the inaugural gig, an incredible line-up of stars rocked the Royal Albert Hall including Rudimental, Kevin Bridges, Tom Grennan, Take That, Doves, The Script and Levellers 

Across the week, we were lucky enough to have UB40 ft. Ali, Astro & Mickey, Russell Howard, Greg Davies, Sara Pascoe, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Courteeners, Kasabian, Def Leppard and our legendary Honorary Patron Roger Daltrey join us at the iconic venue.

We hit the incredible milestone of 100 shows at the Royal Albert Hall with the band who started it all, The Who. We were also lucky enough to have Olly Murs, Ed Sheeran, Romesh Ranganathan, Jo Brand, Kevin Bridges, Paul Weller and Pet Shop Boys join us at the legendary venue across the week.

Our 16th year featured John Bishop, The Vaccines and Everything Everything, Simply Red, Bring Me The Horizon, New Order, David Gilmour and more performing.

To mark the 15^th anniversary of the very first show in 2000, all the artists who performed that special night returned to the stage; The Who, Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller and Kelly Jones, plus many more.

The Cure put on a phenomenal three-hour show as part of our 2014 week of shows, which also featured Ed Sheeran and stand up from Micky Flanagan, John Bishop and Rob Beckett.

“Thanks to Roger and Teenage Cancer Trust, I’ve had some of the best nights I’ve ever had on a UK stage. The people who run the charity are amazing and the kids are an inspiration,” said Noel Gallagher after another run of amazing gigs. As well as Noel, Primal Scream, Echo & The Bunnymen and Rizzle Kicks took to the stage.

Paul McCartney fulfilled his long-term ambition of playing for Teenage Cancer Trust at the Albert Hall. He said: “I’d always wanted to play for Teenage Cancer Trust but for the first few years I was away on tour and we couldn’t make it work. In 2011 I was asked to do it and couldn’t so then I got the date in my diary for 2012. You could say the whole McCartney year was based around Teenage Cancer Trust!”

Roger Daltrey performed The Who’s 1969 rock opera Tommy, and Liam Gallagher returned to Teenage Cancer Trust’s stage with new band Beady Eye across this huge week in the music calendar.

Celebrating a decade of Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall, the 2010 line-up did not disappoint. Suede reformed after almost 10 years away from the stage, Arctic Monkeys performed for us for the first time, and The Who wrapped up the nine-night spectacular in style with a performance of Quadrophenia. Plus, Jimmy Carr, Noel Fielding and Rhod Gilbert joined us for an evening of comedy.

Florence Welch summed up what everyone was feeling about the week of entertainment supporting young people with cancer: “It’s so amazing to be here … this space, the people, for this cause - it really means so much to me.” Gig-goers were treated to an incredible night of folk music from Fairport Convention, Eliza Carthy, Seth Lakeman and Kate Rusby, and Sterophonics and Kasabian rocked the stage.

Six days of rock and comedy culminated in The Who headlining a truly special acoustic evening with Joan Armatrading, David Gray, Newton Faulkner and Amy Macdonald in 2008.

Noel Gallagher kicked of the week of Royal Albert Hall gigs with a two-night run, dedicating Don’t Look Back in Anger to the young people supported by Teenage Cancer Trust. Rocking the iconic venue that week was also Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs and The Who.

Belly laughs shook the Albert Hall in 2006 as top comedians including Ricky Gervais, Stewart Lee, Sean Lock, Lee Mack and Alan Carr kicked off an incredible week of live gigs. Bloc Party, Razorlight and The Cure were also on the bill.

The amazing Robert Plant opened our series of shows in 2005, with top rock and comedy acts throughout. UB40 ended the week with a little help from our patron Roger Daltrey and Eric Clapton.

Aha! TV’s Alan Partridge made an appearance on stage for a series of fundraising gigs for Teenage Cancer Trust in 2004. Joining him at the iconic venue were legends Tom Jones and The Who.

An epic week of music at arguably the world’s most famous performance venue featured Coldplay, Eric Clapton, Richard Ashcroft and Doves.

“They’re one of those charities where the money gets where it’s supposed to go, and where you can really see the benefit of it,” said Paul Weller, who took to the stage with fellow rockers Jimmy Page, Gary Moore, and Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation in 2002.

“The whole music industry is founded on the backs of teenagers and that’s what these gigs are all about - celebrating youth and music and at the same time raising as much money as we can for this fantastic charity. Without teenagers passion for music there would be no rock n roll!” said Roger Daltrey of The Who, summing up why he founded these now iconic series of gigs for Teenage Cancer Trust. At the inaugural concert, Roger and his band were joined on stage by Noel Gallagher, Bryan Adams, Paul Weller, Eddie Vedder, Nigel Kennedy and Kelly Jones.