Wille & The Bandits – “Trouble Round the Bend” Single Review

Review By Glen Parkes

Wille & The Bandits return with serious intent on their new single, “Trouble Round the Bend”, the first look at their upcoming album Salt Roots, due February 27th, 2026. Long known for bending genres as effortlessly as they raise their voices for social and environmental justice, the band deliver one of the most urgent and hard-hitting tracks of their career.

From the first crushing riff, “Trouble Round the Bend” feels like a storm rolling in from the horizon—heavy, unrelenting, and impossible to ignore. Wille Edwards’ vocals ride atop deep, rolling grooves from bassist Harry Mackaill and drummer Zachariah O’Loughlin, while Stevie Watts’ Hammond swells add a gritty, old-soul pulse to the song’s modern fire. It’s a band in full stride: raw, locked-in, and absolutely fearless.

This time, the band’s musical weight matches the weight of their message. Partnering with Surfers Against Sewage, Wille & The Bandits are shining a spotlight on the UK’s sewage-pollution crisis—and the single’s accompanying video goes all in, placing the band knee-deep in the very issue they’re fighting. As Wille puts it, the riffs “hit as hard as the reality of sewage being dumped into our seas,” a reality he knows too well as a father watching his own children fall ill after swimming in contaminated waters.

“Dirty Riffs to Defeat Dirty Seas” isn’t just a slogan—it’s the mission driving this era of the band. And if “Trouble Round the Bend” is anything to go by, Salt Roots could be their most potent and purposeful album yet.

A thrilling, heavy, and heartfelt call to action, this single proves once again why critics and fans alike consider Wille & The Bandits one of the UK’s most exciting and socially conscious rock acts

alt Roots UK TOUR
 March 2026
  
 4^th Fleece | Bristol
 5^th The Brook | Southampton
 6^th John Peel Centre | Stowmarket
 7^th The Star | Guildford
 11^th Night and Day | Manchester
 12^th Voodoo Rooms | Edinburgh 
 13^th Rum Shack | Glasgow
 14^th Cluny | Newcastle
 18^th Acapela | Cardiff
 19^th Albert’s Shed | Shrewsbury
 20^th Adelphi | Liverpool
 21^st Amped | Huddersfield
 22^nd Bodega | Nottingham 
 27^th Greystones | Sheffield
 28^th Carnglaze Caverns | Liskeard * with Martin Harley, True Strays, Echo Town and James Dixon
 Apr 29^th Half Moon Putney | London 
 
 Tour Tickets on website  https://www.willeandthebandits.com/
  
 Pre-orders for Salt Roots are now open 
 https://www.willeandthebandits.com/pre-order-salt-roots
  
 Trouble Round the Bend is OUT NOW on all digital platforms
 https://we.tl/t-KDz8uPwkgG