Category: Live Music

2nd November at Circuit, Kingston

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. 

8th October 2025 at Circuit, Kingston

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.

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!

4th October 2025 at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith

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?

Great band, great songs, great night!

 

3rd October 2025 at Circuit, Kingston

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.

17th September 2025 at Circuit, Kingston

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. 

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. 

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.