CHERYM formed after meeting in college over a joint love of garage rock, pop punk and a desire to be the biggest band in the world.
Taking influence from The Smashing Pumpkins, Bikini Kill, American Football, PUP and Pixies, the Derry indie-punks accomplished more than most.
From releasing their critically acclaimed debut EP to their unforgettable debut album to playing a huge number of shows and tours across Ireland, the UK and all the way to the US. The last ten years established them as one of Derry’s great musical exports.
All good things must come to an end and CHERYM are now ready to bow out on their terms with one last homecoming show.
Ahead of their final show, we caught up with Alannagh, Emer and Hannah about their favourite memories from their journey.
Alannagh
When we won the NI Music Prize award (best new band) 2019 – this was a moment is cemented into my brain forever, we were just a wee band from Derry who thought we didn’t have a chance against every other incredible artist up there but turns out we were wrong. Being on stage holding that award was just crazy and for us to have so much support in that was even crazier.
The Beth’s EU/UK tour 2022 – this entire tour was just incredible, it really made us realise that this is what we wanted to do forever, just travel the world and play to different faces every single night. It would be impossible to pick just one show out of this run.
I’d say our headline shows in Germany and the Netherlands in 2024. I truly underestimated the magnitude of how far our music really had reached and it was just so crazy to see people there for us as the headline band. It made me appreciate the job even more and really sticks out for me.
Emer
Album Launch February 2024: This was my first day on the job – my first CHERYM gig. It was special for obvious reasons, and I felt really lucky to be there to celebrate the incredible record they made. It was a beautiful audience, a local, independent venue – where I’d watched CHERYM play many times, long before I joined, and it was just a gorgeous time. It was also where I first met some of the lovely CHERYM fans who’ve been so good to me.
Undertones Tour (France/Germany/The Netherlands) September 2024: it’s impossible to pick one moment from this, the whole experience was so fun. We are obsessed with The Undertones, can’t say enough good things about them, they are total legends. And to open their sold out shows every night was a dream. It felt great to represent where we come from in such a cool way, and yeah just the nicest group of people. I miss them!
Snow Patrol support (SSE Arena, Belfast) February 2025: this was immense. My favourite thing about this was that we got this gig because Hannah spoke to Gary Lightbody at his book signing, and said we would love to support SP some day, and a few weeks later they reached out to us. It was proper old school, and so cool of them. Nothing else to say but unforgettable, we’ve been so lucky to get to do these things and I’m so grateful.
Hannah
Supporting Enter Shikari in 2024 at the academy was one of my favourite gigs we ever played!!!! Opening for them was an absolute dream come true for us cause me and Alannagh were fans since we were wains so as you can imagine when we got the word that we were the openers we absolutely lost our minds. They go so hard live too, our sound engineer crowd surfed during their set I’ll never forget seeing his wee happy face gliding past my head during Sorry You’re Not a Winner.
Sometimes being an opening band kind of feels like a bit of a humiliation ritual because 80% of the audience do not give one fuck about the opener lol but I really enjoyed that gig, especially seeing so many women and girls in the front row for our set, it felt really nice and moving in a way!!! But yeah absolutely mental that even happened.
Can’t even choose a favourite but I’ve always had such a buzz off every gig we’ve ever done in either Bennigans or Sandinos, shoutout them being the best live music venues in the world <3 I just feel like it’s super important to mention those two venues because they have really helped to shape and mould our little band into who we are today. One of our first shows ever in 2017 was in Sandinos and we were soooo different back then and probably sucked a bit but people still came and clapped at the end and I think that’s kinda cool because it really highlights the importance of having a supportive music scene in a small town like Derry.
Your local scene really is the thing that will make you or break you as a band lolll ! I still be buzzing to get to as many local shows as possible and always try to push to the front and will buy merch (if I like the band) but like…rightly so cos we literally all should lol!? Everyone has to start somewhere and I just love the wee musics yeno hehe
Our Manchester headline show in Gulliver’s in February 2024 was crazyyy. We brought over Get Jealous from Hamburg and did a mini tour of the UK with them but it was also our first time ever headlining in Manchester and the weird thing was that we sold it out and I still to this day have no idea how lol – No but it was genuinely class because I don’t think we thought anyone would actually come and at that point we were so used to playing headline gigs sometimes to absolutely no one and even booking that tour in the first place felt like a massive risk but… it paid off!!!!!!!! it was absolutely rammed, people in the front row singing every single word of the set back to us we felt like proper celebs and someone even travelled the WHOLE way from Japan to be there which again, INSANE 😭
I specifically remember feeling so good about the gig after we played too cos I always get super nervous before shows and when I seen how many people were there I literally freaked out massively. But I remember when we got off just being like omg that was acc so funnnnnnn!!! I think even the fact that Get Jealous were there and they’re one of the best bands in the world too and we were just the same type of people too so it made the whole experience so much more fun and special in my mind I think.
We played a kinky festival last summer in Hamburg and that was kinda mental. I don’t know how much I can tell you about it, but it was probably exactly as you can imagine it to be but punk rock themed lol??? It was so fun and we met some amazing people there who we’re still mates with today. We honestly had the time of our lives (European promoters’ hospitality is always 10000/10) but no pictures to prove it cos you couldn’t bring phones into the venue :))) also our accommodation was included and we got to stay in a penthouse suite which was just delightful! We all got very drunk and played table tennis with some lovely Swedish people x
The Final Show
Don’t miss your opportunity to soak up all those pop-punk hooks and melodies one last time.
CHERYM headline New Gate Arts & Cultural Centre for their last show on Saturday 30 May 2026. They will be supported by Monday’s Child and Growing Pains.
Tickets are available here: CHERYM with Monday’s Child & Growing Pains – 30 May 2026 – Tickets
