‘I could have put a deposit on a house or do this crazy experiment’: the British musician playing 365 gigs this year

In a lively pub in Oxford this week, Isaac Neilson picked up his guitar and performed live for the 231st day in a row. The singer-songwriter’s performance at the Old Bookbinders is part of a marathon effort to play a gig every day this year. The challenge has seen him put nearly 20,000 miles on the clock of his Peugeot 208 and cost him the best part of his life savings. “I was in a position where I could maybe put a deposit on a house or I could do this crazy experiment,” says Neilson, 26. “I chose to go all in on the music.” Neilson plays punchy indie rock (albeit acoustically on these dates), and describes the mission as “insanely ballsy, borderline insane” – but the kind of big play he feels he needs to break into an industry where “nepotism and other invisible barriers” shut out many independent and working-class artists. Over a drink before his show, Neilson says he is determined to make it as a solo artist while also highlighting the UK’s grassroots music scene and testing the “old industry myth that if you work really hard then you can get somewhere”. Isaac Neilson: No Affection – video So far, he has performed in more than 60 UK towns and cities including 28 gigs in his native Derby. He performed for more than 500 people supporting Cast in Barnsley and, unsurprisingly, completely empty rooms during the World Cup. He thinks he has gone through “two major mental breakdowns and six minor ones” but says his voice has “never been better”. Often performing more than once a day, he is on course to log more than 400 performances by the end of 2026, an undertaking that takes a daily average of three hours on the road. He is often accompanied by his girlfriend, Ashlea, who manages his social media, while a manager came on board after learning about his goal. Neilson has been booking gigs through relationships with promoters, and by scouring Facebook and Instagram for venues with stage time. He has set just two rules. He must perform every single day, and “…