Author: Blue Roses Fanzine

3rd September 2025 (late show) at Circuit

Along with the tickets there were instructions that phones would have to be locked up in Yondr pouches on arrival and released at the end of the show. I expect the intention was to stop people watching through their phone screens or to take a break from technology for a short while, so there is some irony that I feel the need to mention it. I found it strangely disorientating. I had no way of telling the time but clocked (no pun intended) someone with an analogue watch that I could read from there I was standing. I’d been warned not to rely on my phone for any payments so I’d taken my credit card (which lives in my phone case) out and tucked it in my pocket. No checking messages or doom scrolling while waiting for the show to start. Old school!

I’d last seen Bryan Adams here at Pryzm in 2019 doing a short best of set while he was in the middle of an arena tour. This time, he played his new album Roll With The Punches in full while doing a Q&A with the audience. I learnt that this album was on Bryan’s brand new and independent record label, Bad Records, which gave him more creative control. Fans clearly travelled for the show, and they asked when he was planning to return to play in Lebanon and Portugal and various other locations. 

Generally though, without a curator gathering questions in advance, the audience ask stupid questions. Bryan Adams was a great compère, answering sensible questions and shutting down anything that had already been asked or didn’t warrant an answer.

With the album being released just days before, I figured the audience were hearing most of the songs for the first time and it was interesting hearing some of the origin stories and inspiration. Felt like a different vibe to the greatest hits and it would need a few listens to really grow on me. 

Unusually for me, I left during the last song. I wasn’t sure what the queues would be like having 1000 people waiting to have their phones unlocked all at once, but I didn’t want to wait to find out!

3rd July 2025 (early show) at Pryzm, Kingston

Now it’s time for a trip back in time, not to the 90s, but the heady days of 2005…

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of debut album Stars of CCTV, Hard-Fi played the album in full. 

We heard hit after hit after fantastic album track. There were five singles released from this album of 11 tracks and many of the tracks in between sound like they could have been, like Unnecessary Trouble sandwiched between Tied Up Too Tight and Better Do Better.

Sharing fond memories of Kingston, singer Richard Archer regaled us with stories of his time here while at Kingston University.

Hard To Beat is one of my favourite songs from the 2000s and sounded fantastic in the middle of the set. 

Hard-Fi sounded fresh and exciting and I forgot for a while which decade we are in!

29th May 2025 at Pryzm, Kingston

The last time I saw Skunk Anansie was when they headlined the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury festival 1999, the last headliners of the 20th century. And it was a nice surprise to run into my 1999 festival friend  at this show!

The band just released their seventh studio album The Painful Truth, though I must confess that I wasn’t familiar with any of their material since the 90s. Despite this, the energy, the sound, the songs were recognisable as  typical Skunk Anansie. Playing a handful of new songs, Skin sounded powerful and fierce.

The set ended with a couple of much welcomed oldies. Skin related the origin story of Hedonism, about how it was about raw feelings for an ex but how the passage of time has given her strength. “I hope you’re feeling happy now” she said, shaking her head and making it clear that she didn’t really mean it. 90s Grrrl Power is all grown up now.

The last song was Weak, from their very first album Paranoid and Sunburnt from 1995. I think I was actually a bit scared when I first saw the video on TV!

Skunk Anansie are a fireball of energy and incredible live!

14th May 2025 at Pryzm, Kingston

To celebrate the release of their new album Butter Miracle The Complete Sweets!, vocalist Adam Duritz and guitarist David Immerglück (Immy) visited Kingston to play a short acoustic set at Pryzm.

23rd April 2025 at Pryzm, Kingston

I rarely turn down an opportunity to see live music so when I was offered a ticket to this, I barely paid attention to what I had agreed to. I did not realise that Jeff Goldblum, the actor, makes music. In fact, he was promoting his third jazz album, Still Blooming, with the Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Jeff talked about his recent role in Wicked. His co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo featured on the album, though sadly they didn’t make an appearance on this night in Kingston.

24th January 2025 at Pryzm, Kingston

Shed Seven announced a tour to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of their debut album Change Giver, released in 1994. Their two nights at Pryzm were postponed from October last year to January 2025.

Listening to the album before the show, it turns out that I’d probably not heard Change Giver in full back in the day. It was released just a bit before I discovered indie music and was quickly followed by A Maximum High in 1996, which contains the ‘early’ hits that I remember, like Getting Better, Going for Gold and On Standby. 

The band played Change Giver in full, with Speakeasy and Dolphin as particular highlights. Great energy in the room, with frontman Rick Witter chatting to the crowd.

The second part of the show was billed as a ‘greatest hits’. These included the aforementioned songs from A Maximum High, plus hits from later in the 90s, including Disco Down and Chasing Rainbows. There were only a couple that I didn’t recognise and it seems likely that these were newer songs, but they also sounded great.

I bumped into some acquaintances who told me that Change Giver was the soundtrack to their university years and they had even been to the show at the same venue the night before. Great to see Shed Seven inspire such passion. I enjoyed the trip back to the 90s sound and hearing Change Giver in full. If there’s an anniversary tour of A Maximum High in 2026, I might just have to check them out again.