Suede, Rock City, Nottingham

Supported By Bloodworm

First up tonight are Nottingham's own Bloodworm who were invited onto the whole of Suede’s massive tour by Suede’s guitarist Richard Oakes after he was so impressed when he saw them play. So, it’s a home coming for them and I can vouch for Oakes’s judgement because they are excellent. Exactly my sort of thing, very gothic, very The Cure at times and with a singer in George Curtis who maybe wants to be Andrew Eldritch. 

So where have I been for the last 37 years? That’s a good question because Suede were formed in 1989 and here I am at my first ever Suede gig. How is that forgivable? 

The thumping intro to 'Disintegrate' starts the show and is quickly followed by two others from the new album 'Antidepressants' signalling to those who didn’t already know that the Suede of 2026 are just as good, if not better, than the Suede of the 1990s. Tonight’s audience, who sings all the new songs back word for word, clearly agree. 

 

Then it’s 90s time as they mix it up with the old classics of 'Trash' and 'Animal Nitrate'. From there we get an impressive foray through nine of their ten albums and they even throw in a brand new track 'Tribe'. 

What is even more impressive is that every night on this tour has been unique. With each night throwing up at least one track that hasn't been played anywhere else on the tour as they play some of their lesser known material. Tonight that is 'He's Dead' (a b-side from 1992), 'Down' (off 1999's 'Head Music') and the exquisite 'For The Strangers' (off 2013's 'Bloodsports'). Two of which I'd never heard before and one I'd rarely played. 'For The Strangers' is such a belter that it's now permanently on my Suede playlist. 

I also wasn’t quite aware of quite just how good a frontman Brett Anderson was as he takes us deeply into his world, or ‘Suedeworld’ as he passionately calls it. I'm sure that is all old news to everyone else but please forgive the newbie here. 

He is a man seemingly with constant energy and perhaps a knee brace, which he probably needed the way he bounced around the stage relegating the rest of the band to the margins to give him room. Only bass player Mat Osman dares to occasionally come to the front of the stage. Probably knowing that Anderson will soon have vacated the stage completely and jumped into the crowd, which he duly does. Towards the end of the night, he even dispensed with his microphone and still managed to reach every corner of the venue with his voice. 

While obviously very aware of their earlier material, I only recently became a fanboy when I stumbled across their excellent 2022 album 'Autofiction' with which I because entranced before being just as thrilled with last year's 'Antidepressants'. So, the highlights for me are the likes of ‘She Still Leads Me On’ from the former and the mesmerising ‘June Rain’ from the latter. 

From those albums I have started to work backwards towards their 1990's heyday, having discovered a band whose new music is, as I said earlier, probably better than the records that brought them to prominence in the first place.  

But those oldies have their place as the closing trio of ‘So Young’, ‘Metal Mickey’ and ‘Beautiful Ones’ demonstrates and threatens to take the roof off Rock City. 

They send us home with a solitary one song encore, another belter from 'Autofiction' namely ‘The Only Way I Can Love You’. Quite a night.

Glastonbury 2015 - Saturday

First up today on Other is the perfect festival fare of Frank Turner, who confesses he’s already played an intimate set around the campfire in Strummerville. If only we’d known, it’s just at the bottom of our hill. I wonder if he saw Ride there. His set, as ever, is brilliant even if he does make up sit down and the get up again for ‘Photosynthesis’. There are no concessions for the old folks’ knees.

We get to Pyramid early today, in time to stretch out on the grass in the sun and listen to the Waterboys. You could almost stay there all day. Then George Ezra comes on and brings half the festival with him. Folk who also seem intent on staying all day. 2,000 is company, 70,000 is a crowd. We decamp, which is a shame as we’d quite like to have seen Burt Bacharach who is up next, just for the novelty.

Next stop is the Acoustic for Tom Robinson. Who now looks quite an old man but still rocks like a youngster. When he finally gets on stage that is, as they seem to have problems setting up his equipment and the harassed stage manager gets more and more harassed as the precise punctuality of Glastonbury gradually goes t*** up, in the Acoustic tent at least. Then when Tom finally gets on and after a brilliant ‘Up Against The Wall’ he breaks a bass guitar string (no mean feat) and has to improvise. After taking requests from the crowd he plays a real favourite in ‘Grey Cortina’, which has probably never been done acoustic before and probably never will be again. A real treat.

We had intended staying in the Acoustic tent for a while because Texas were on next but they have cancelled and their replacement Rainy Boy Sleep is currently pulling the biggest crowd of his life with those who haven’t heard the news.

We slip around the corner to that impossibly small tent on William's Green and Courtney Barnett, who we wave at from a distance as we can’t get inside (again).

We then return to the Acoustic tent for the triumvirate of Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack and Andy Fairweather Low. They are a brilliant collaboration playing a collection of each other’s songs but also a few too many covers of other artist’s songs when really their own back catalogues are rich enough to be plundered.

Next in the still impossibly small William's Green tent are the Palma Violets and again, we wave from a distance. No matter, they are up on Other tomorrow.

On the way back to camp is the Park stage, although we pass Leftfield on the way where Enter Shikari (again) have the place rocking. Up on the Park are Spiritualized, as impenetrable as ever. We debate the long, possibly mile long, hike to the John Peel to see Suede but opt for the camp site bar instead. There was always Kanye I suppose. Nah.

Joy Formidable, The Royal

As we walk in to the ‘Red Room’ of The Royal, the first thing I notice is how busy it is, which is a pleasant surprise. The second thing I notice is that the band currently on stage don’t appear to have a lead singer. Then I see him, right up on top of the speaker stack. That’s an old trick for sure but not often performed by a band third on the bill. These are 'The Souvenirs' the first of two local bands playing tonight. I immediately think Eddie Argos and Art Brut; it's the way singer Dale Dawson dresses, struts about and the art punk sound of the band.



We only catch the very end of their set, so it’s difficult to comment really but if the state of Mr Dawson is anything to go by, it must have been a good set. He looked totally wrecked.

Serenaded to the stage by Suede’s ‘Animal Nitrate’, Ryan Needham of ‘You Animals’ tells us that they were only given two days notice of this support slot and by the way he disses Derby, I get the impression they’ve hot footed it across Britain in a transit van to fill this slot but no. A quick look at their Myspace reveals they too are Derby boys, and like 'The Souvenirs', well established on the local scene.

They are an energetic five piece who struggle for space on the stage and have something of ‘The View’ about them or is that just because they’re a tad shambolic at times, in a good way. We’re not tally convinced about the point of the keyboard player though, the token girl seems oddly lost, as is her contribution. Her keyboards get lost somewhere amongst their riotous sound, which has potential and would become more intelligible, if they calmed down a touch.



The highlight of the night almost arrived when Ryan seemed to contemplate swinging on one of the Royal’s ‘posh’ chandeliers; it used to be a hotel you know. He seems to change his mind at the last moment, it’s a good job, it would not have held his weight and could have fused the whole building. He just gives it a shove instead, popping a bulb in the process.

They finish by pushing a speaker off the stage and hurling a guitar after it, everyone’s gone so 'rock n roll' tonight and it’s a good job the crowd are standing a little back. Ryan then plays the last few notes on the cymbals with his microphone. I hope they find fame and fortune soon because they’re going to be going through some equipment at some rate.

Ryan does appear to be a big Joy Formidable fan, having seen them last month at the Dot-to-Dot and seems thrilled they’ve got in to see them free tonight.

The Joy Formidable certainly aren’t local, hailing from Mold, North Wales. They sneak up onto the stage with little fuss but quickly set about living up to and then trampling all over their already impressive live reputation. They’ve improved since we last saw them, their sound becoming a bit more distinguishable, less of a haze but still sounding ethereal; think early Lush with balls and a touch of Kim Deal thrown in for good measure. The critics have tagged it ‘shoegazing’ as they did then and do so again now.

They open with their current single, the terrific ‘Whirring’ and immediately put everything into a thumping delivery of it. An approach they continue all night. In fact it leaves you exhausted just watching the amount of energy they expend, particularly Matt Thomas on drums. Such fantastic drumming and his pounding rhythms are the backbone of the power of the band. His efforts leave him visibly gasping for breath. Regrettably my camera battery gives out before I can get a photo of him and his under fire drum kit.

Suppose you could also feel sorry for my ears, his thundering delivery, along with Ritzy Bryan’s eardrum-shredding guitar makes my ears wonder why we elected to be front row.



‘Whirring’ ends or rather doesn’t and instead merges in to the thumping intro of ‘Cradle’. Possibly their two best songs back to back, a brilliant duo of urgent, thrusting pop.

The band clearly know how to write a catchy song even if they do choose to layer a haze of noise over it. They could of course go away, capitalise on that inherent catchiness, and write a classic pop song. I’m sure they’re well capable. They could bag a big hit and never look back, never play the likes of the ‘Red Room’ again, which would be shame of course, but judging by the new stuff played tonight ‘Greyhounds’, ‘Anemone’ and ‘Spectrum’ (I think), they have no intention of deviating from their current path. Good job too. ‘Spectrum’, if that is indeed what it is called, was a definite highlight for me.



Ritzy manages to juggle looking pretty cool in black stockings, boots etc, whilst playing guitar and managing not to trip over her huge pedal board, although sometimes only just, whilst all the time slaying us with her voice. She doesn’t talk much but perhaps she doesn’t have the breath to spare and instead seems to rely on her piercing eyes to communicate with the crowd.

Then there’s the great basslines laid down by Rhydian Dafydd. At times you need three sets of eyes to take it all in.

A thundering version of ‘The Last Drop’, think Breeders, is followed by the more mellow ‘Ostrich’ which ends with its solemn drum beats, giving Matt a rest of sorts.



Then it’s the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of ‘Austere’, which may or may not have something to do with the ‘Moaning’ part of the title of their oddly entitled mini-album ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’. The song does seem to hint at erotic intentions, although it’s often difficult to make much sense of Ritzy’s lyrics. One of their fans clearly got very excited about it and compiled a video for it using clips from the website Beautiful Agony, which was promptly banned by everyone, even YouTube. The band loved it though and still host it on thejoyformidable.com. It’s actually really good, rather ermm... arty, although probably NSFW.

They finish their nine song set with the anthem that is ‘The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade’. It’s a fitting finale; good enough to make the hairs on your neck stand up.

Edit this setlist | More The Joy Formidable setlists

Cradle.mp3

Cradle - The Joy Formidable

Anemone on YouTube