On the eve of the release of their ninth studio album, Selling A Vibe, The Cribs are back to play in Kingston to kick off their “Intimate Album Release Shows”.
The lights dim and some funky “oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” music starts up (Tarzan Boy by Baltimora from 1985, according to Shazam) and the band walk on stage. Drummer Ross Jarman, guitarist and singer Ryan Jarman, and bassist and singer Gary Jarman are joined by another guitarist.
This is my first time seeing them live and the energy is great. Some of the songs from the album are being played live for the first time, including the title track. I love the catchy A Point Too Hard To Make, which has both singers alternating vocals. Mixed in with the brand new songs are the many early songs, including “one we’ve been playing for 20 odd years”, introducing Things You Should Be Knowing.
Ryan had much love for Kingston, he said there wasn’t anywhere else that they would want to debut their new songs.
The area in front of the stage was very lively, not quite a mosh pit but definitely energetic during the more well known songs including Martell and all the woh-oh-oh-ohs.
The energy stepped up a gear during the final song, the anthemic Men’s Needs had everyone bouncing about.
Great gig! I reckon Kingston loves The Cribs as much as they love us.
Doors are opening extra early at each venue on this tour. Instead of having a support act, there will be a two-part set with an interval so they have more time to play more of their extensive back catalogue. What a treat!
The Roundhouse is packed to the rafters. Before the show, words appear behind the stage in turn, building anticipation: These Are The Days. This Is The Place. We Are Love.
The Charlatans take the stage at the Roundhouse
Introductions come later but on stage we have drummer Pete Salisbury, formerly of The Verve, and percussionist Loz Colbert joining bassist Martin Blunt, guitarist Mark Collins, keyboardist Tony Rogers and singer, and occasional guitarist, Tim Burgess.
The band opened with Kingdom of Ours, the opening track of new album We Are Love. A dark brooding number. Then straight into beautiful and upbeat Weirdo. Next up, Tim brings out an electric guitar and the band launches into For The Girls, one of my favourite tracks from the new album with its classic Charlatans sound.
Fan favourite North Country Boy follows and gets the crowd rocking. There’s plenty of North Country Boy/Girl t-shirts around and I have t-shirt envy!
The rest of the first part is full of belters, new, old and somewhere in between. Many a Day a Heartache (with another guitar for Tim), Oh Vanity, Let The Good Times be Never Ending, Blackened Blue Eyes, and then back to their first album with Then, which was dedicated to those that were with them from the beginning. From the sound of the cheers, many of the audience considered themselves included. And just like that, part one was over.
Many a day a heartache
While the band went off stage for 10 minutes, security guards at the front were handing out cups of water. Very old school. (Tim tweeted from backstage that he’s got watermelon.)
Back refreshed after the interval, the band launch into Forever, an epic swirling tune (not dissimilar to Kingdom of Ours which opened part one). Hearing Forever live takes me straight back to 1999, a young optimistic student in Manchester. I’m in a daze, and get completely lost in the song. So powerful.
Each song sounds sublime. We Are Love sounds like a statement (emphasis on the ’Are’). Tellin’ Stories has Tim Burgess blowing kisses at the audience while they sing back at him, and for the next song Out on Our Own, he is singing while sitting on his knees.
Kisses from the ‘Best Lips in London’
Another new song Deeper and Deeper already feels like a comforting old friend. The energy has been building all night and the atmosphere is so incredible right now, but then it gets even better.
I haven’t yet mentioned the images projecting during the show, changing for each song and heightening the experience. An image of The Charlatans eponymous fourth album appears and they play a trio of songs from that period. This was the first album I discovered and still one of my favourites. “I love this song,” said Tim about Here Comes a Soul Saver.
The Charlatans segment
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a gig with a genuine mosh pit but I can see one swirling to the side of me in front of the stage. With the double whammy of One To Another and The Only One I Know, there’s no holding back and the mosh pit is in full action. (I was tempted to join in until I remembered how many bruises I came away with when I was a teen.)
The Only One I Know
There’s a moment of calm when a harmonica starts up for the melodic Get On It. And then the band disappear off stage as part two comes to an end, while the audience try to catch their breath.
Back for an encore. “Before we play the last song from our first album, we are going to play the last song from our latest album.” This introduces Now Everything, which is followed by Tremelo Song. Someone yells from the audience. “We love you too,” replies Tim. “I think that’s what you said anyway. There’s a lot of love in the house”.
Sproston Green
Understatement! The house is buzzing. The atmosphere is incredible. But all good things have to come to an end, and anyone who has seen the Charlatans before knows that that Sproston Green is the final song. I spy a crowd surfer in the mosh pit. The audience is going crazy.
And then, 2 hours 25 minutes after they started, it’s over. Wow!
Set list
Here’s the set list – I was lucky enough to get copies from a sound guy.
The release of The Charlatans 14th studio album We Are Love brought them to preview their new songs here at Circuit.
Opening with the album title track and latest single, We Are Love gives a taste of new songs to come. Then we are straight into an oldie, Weirdo, the favourite Charlatans song in the US, apparently.
The next song is a real treat, the live debut of For The Girls, with Tim joining in with a very cool black electric guitar. A new song with a familiar Charlatans sound. Launching straight into audience favourite North Country Boy, with the entire audience singing along.
A surprising old song next, Toothache, an album track from The Charlatans album, which sounds absolutely fantastic. We are pulled back to the present with a couple more new songs, including Tim on acoustic guitar for Many A Day a Heartache. It looked like the lyrics for Deeper & Deeper were taped to the floor of the stage.
Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over sounded magnificent. There’s something special about singing “I’m coming home” while your favourite band is playing in your hometown.
Another new one, Glad You Grabbed Me, followed by the classic One To Another. Crowd going crazy for it. The band disappear off stage and return for an encore a few minutes later. But they surprise us by deviating from the set list. They kick off with Then, which was beautiful, almost haunting, and follow this with Let The Good Times Be Never Ending. I missed Sproston Green – has a Charlatans gig even ended without it? – but “Good Times” was a fantastic closing song, leaving the crowd wanting more.
Absolutely sensational performance, I loved every moment. Great mix of songs, old and new, but all fantastic.
They must have enjoyed it too, the next day they announced that they would be back next month for a warm-up gig for their forthcoming December UK tour!
13th October 2025 (early show) at Circuit Kingston
I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen Biffy Clyro live as I seem to have missed their heyday. This show celebrates Biffy Clyro’s newly released tenth studio album called “Futique” (supposedly a portmanteau of future and antique – interesting).
Listening to them play a set of new songs and old, all jangly guitars and catchy songs, I’ve definitely been missing out! I very much enjoyed the swaggering rendition of The Captain. And look forward to hearing more of them in future.
Ash have just released their ninth studio album Ad Astra, (literally “to the stars”). The set opens with the first track on the album, a cover of Zarathrustra by Richard Strauss, setting the space age theme perfectly.
The band play the first five tracks of the album and then skip ahead a couple of tracks so they play 8 out of the 11 new songs. Graham Coxon appears on two tracks, Fun People and Ad Astra, but doesn’t make an appearance tonight.
Jump In the Line, a cover of Harry Belafonte’s calypso classic, written by Lord Kitchener (that’s the Trinidadian calypso artist, not Earl Kitchener of British wartime fame). “Shake shake shake Señora”. It was a surprise choice for a cover in my opinion but sounded great.
Tim Wheeler acoustic
The band take a break from new material to play 1994’s Jack Names the Planets, which Tim stated was the song that started their space age adventure. This was followed by Angel Interceptor which was celebrating its 30th birthday the following day. And finally Burn Baby Burn from 2001. An energetic trio of early songs to delight long standing fans, and keeping with the space theme.
After a group bow, the band walk off stage. With these short shows, we never expect an encore. I’m not sure if this encore was planned as the amps had been turned off, but Tim, Mark and Rick returned to play a bonus song – Girl From Mars. Of course. It’s the Ash song that everyone wants to hear and very much fits into the space themed set. So much energy in the room!
This gig was sold out before I heard about it. I had no inkling that Gene were planning to reform and tour but I – along with the rest of the packed out Apollo – am absurdly pleased that they did.
I had a much loved recording of Gene at the Royal Albert Hall (taped off Radio 1) in March 1997 that would lull me into a meditative state to allow my teenage self to Sleep Well Tonight indeed. The set was a mix of tracks from different albums and as a live show, had a warmer tone and greater depth than recordings.
At 8.30 sharp, the lush red curtains open and an image of the Hammersmith Apollo flashes up on the stage – London Will You Wait?
I think the audience would agree I think we’ve waited quite long enough!
But a fantastic choice for an opener (I wonder if they started with that in Sheffield or Leeds earlier this week?!), it got the London crowd singing and swaying along. Swiftly followed by one of my favourites, Be My Light, Be My Guide. Beautiful.
Martin Rossiter was on stage in a red suit, white haired, with a hint of Larry Lamb about him, joined by the original band members. Steve Mason on guitar, Kevin Miles on bass, Matt James on drums, along with stalwart Mick Talbot on keyboards.
The band played one long-lost classic after another. We Could Be Kings. Where Are They Now? Sleep Well Tonight. Haunted By You. Many more that I sang along to but forget the titles of.
A spotlight on Martin brought the tempo down a little for the melodic Speak To Me Someone.
The vocals take me right back to my live tape and I’m so happy to be hearing Gene live again. The nostalgia is strong in this audience.
Martin jokes that they won’t be playing Olympian tonight, but then slowly launches into arguably their best known song.
The set then closes with one of my favourites, For the Dead.
Back for the encore, the band played another handful of songs including You’ll Never Walk Again and ending with a rausing version of Fighting Fit.
But wait, there’s more! A second encore brings the band back onstage for another few songs, finally ending with Who Said This Was the End?
Idlewild were a great live band of the 90s and early 2000s. I have seen them countless times, at their own gigs, supporting other bands or festivals. Most memorably, they were on the bill for the opening of the Scottish parliament concert on 1st July 1999, along with Garbage.
On the release of their 10th album, the eponymously titled Idlewild, I realise I’ve missed quite a few of their previous records over the past 20 years.
Lead singer Roddy Womble is looking fresh faced and full of youthful energy. It was great hearing their early tracks like Roseability, You Held the World in Your Arms and When I Argue, I See Shapes. But this energy carried into their new songs, a couple of which were being played live for the first time.
There was too much space for this to be a sold out gig but with a big dose of nostalgia and hearing new material, I really enjoyed it.
Lola Young’s single Messy has been a radio favourite this year. I think it’s a great song, so I wanted to see what she was about. Last year I saw Anne-Marie at the same venue, and found myself as one of the only adults in the room not accompanying one or more teenagers. This time I did come along with a teenager, which definitely helped blend in amongst all the other youngsters. Lola Young is 24 and fairly local as she is from Croydon and studied at the BRIT school, reflected in her fan base her tonight.
On the eve of the release of her third album, I’m Only F**king Myself, Lola Young played a bunch of new songs with lots of energy and a powerful voice. The finale was a rousing rendition of Messy, the only song from the previous album, with boisterous audience participation. Lola introduced her bad and seemed overcome with emotion at times.
Lola Young – Messy (explicit version)
A few days later, Lola Young was reported to have collapsed on stage in New York and cancelled the rest of her tour. She is immensely talented but has been open about her struggles with mental health so I hope she gets the help she needs and comes back stronger.
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!
Blue Roses Fanzine 2.0 