Celebrating a band which never stops backing Sunderland
The Futureheads’ Wall of Fame honour feels like deserved recognition of something bigger than musical success
The Futureheads have taken their rightful place on Sunderland’s Music Wall of Fame, joining a growing roll call of artists who have helped shape the city’s rich musical identity.
The latest mural to be added to the collection outside The Fire Station was unveiled last weekend, cementing the band’s place alongside Sunderland music royalty Dave Stewart, Field Music and Kenickie.
Commissioned by Sunderland Music City and created by Sunderland illustrator Kathryn Robertson (KR Illustrates), it’s difficult to imagine a more deserving addition.
I’ve followed The Futureheads (Ross Millard, brothers Barry and Dave Hyde and David ‘Jaff’ Craig) through pretty much my entire journalism career covering arts and culture in the North East.
Album launches. Big hometown gigs. Festival announcements. Passion projects. Campaigns to champion Sunderland’s creative future. If something meaningful has been happening in Wearside’s cultural landscape over the past two decades, there’s a decent chance at least one Futurehead has been somewhere in the mix.
Of course a quarter of a century’s worth of musical achievements alone would justify a place on the wall, but their legacy in Sunderland goes much deeper than record sales or festival slots.
This is a band that has consistently used its success to fuel a determination to see Sunderland fulfil its creative potential.
The mural reveal - which followed a communal pavement sing song of their hit Kate Bush cover, Hounds of Love - served as a fitting encore to a special in conversation event: An Evening With The Futureheads inside The Fire Station.
Ably marshalled by longtime friend and admirer Frankie Francis - of Frankie and the Heartstrings fame and himself a driving force behind Sunderland’s Music City ambitions - the chat bounced effortlessly between career-defining milestones and wonderfully mundane details.
This was the first time the band had done such an event and it offered a funny, generous and revealing insight into more than 25 years of music, friendship and shared history - from early jamming sessions in The Bunker where they met to putting out a Christmas album at the end of 2025.
There were stories about flying on Dave Grohl’s private jet, memories of landmark performances (Glastonbury, Later… Jimmy Kimmel Live!), what it’s like to be share a manager with Wham! and reflections on navigating the strange reality of becoming one of Britain’s most exciting bands while still being unmistakably, stubbornly Sunderland.
There were also snippets of early videos and photoshoots to enjoy as well as chat about the band’s wider cultural impact.
Split Festival - which they founded - got its moment in the spotlight, reminding everyone in the room just how ambitious that event was, and how much it changed perceptions of what Sunderland could deliver culturally.
Likewise Summer Streets, created by Ross Millard and now a much-loved fixture in the city’s cultural calendar, with this year’s edition returning to Cliffe Park on July 4 and 5.
Barry, who co-founded the Northern Academy of Music Education (NAME) in 2021 also gave an impassioned speech about the power and importance of individual creativity and music in the context of ever-encroaching AI - and what success really is.
There were also a few unresolved questions left hanging - like what might have happened if Dave’s art course had demanded more of him than drawing apples? And how does anyone EVER lose a voicemail from Kate Bush?
Once the chat was done and dusted, the band reverted to a more familiar formation and belted out a clutch of classics including Decent Days and Nights, The Beginning of the Twist and Beeswing - taken from the respective albums The Futureheads, This Is Not The World and Rant, respectively.
And then it was time to move the action to the open air for the joyous Wall of Fame reveal.
The unveiling capped a landmark week for the city.
As well as bringing Sunderland’s Year of Music to a close, it followed the Music Cities Network Summer Summit, which made Sunderland the first UK city to host the international gathering of music leaders and industry figures.
Delegates from 15 cities, including Berlin, Sydney and Reykjavik, spent the week discussing the future of music while experiencing first-hand the culture that makes Sunderland’s scene distinctive.
If those visitors left with one clear message, I hope it was this: Sunderland’s music story isn’t just about talent. It’s about generosity, community, ambition and people willing to keep pushing for more.
Not to get too gushy, but it’s fair to say you’d struggle to meet a better group of ambassadors to all of the above than The Futureheads.
So while the much-deserved mural may officially cement The Futureheads’ place in Sunderland’s music history, the truth is they’ve been helping write it for years