A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in September 2025

This month featuring, among others, Everything But The Girl, the Manics (again), Hot Chip, Ash, Suede, my beloved Dog Race, Kevin Rowland talking about his life and Erasure in a place where you couldn’t drink beer while watching them …

Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl), Moth Club, Hackney, 1 Sep – If Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn put on some more of these shows I cannot recommend enough that you try and get tickets. Genuinely one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen in my life. Her voice is incredible, the songs so poignant and gentle, and it is just a lovely warm evening. No phones or pics allowed, so here is my artistic impression …

Manic Street Preachers (James Dean Bardfield & Nicky Wire) + Keith Cameron in conversation, Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Brighton, 4 Sep – God this was a gorgeous evening, James picking up his guitar and solo blasting out a couple of the more wordy Richey-era songs, and James and Nicky duetting on Your Love Alone Is Not Enough. I didn’t go to the book signing queue afterwards because I am far too shy for that sort of thing.

Findia, Troxy, London, 5 Sep – This was nice enough gentle electronic singer-songwriter fare and a tough gig to play with a lot of chattering middle-aged men yammering their way through it.

[Findia at Troxy, London]

Hot Chip, Troxy, London, 5 Sep – My journey into Hot Chip fandom has been a weird one. I first saw them supporting LCD Soundsystem and thought the hype of the audience wasn’t a match for what they were doing, then saw them again at Latitude by which time they had moved into the category of bands who have a smattering of tracks I love and loads of stuff that leaves me cold, but now I can’t imagine ever not going to one of their London gigs. It was glorious fun.

[Hot Chip at Troxy, London]

Liquid Engineers and The Devout, Electric Ballroom, Camden, 6 Sep – This kept getting relentlessly advertised to me on Facebook and I ended up thinking how bad could a night with a few beers and a Gary Numan and Depeche Mode tribute bands be, then I misunderstood the timings and completely missed Liquid Engineers and was absolutely baffled by the devotional worship directed towards The Devout, although they had nailed the music sound and also had some very funny twists on Depeche Mode’s old stage presentation.

Ash, Scala, London, 9 Sep – I enjoyed them so much supporting Manic Street Preachers and The Charlatans at Audley End in the middle of effin’ nowhere last month that I went to see them on their own, and got rewarded by Graham Coxon coming on for a blistering encore.

[Ash – WITH GRAHAM COXON! – at Scala, London]

Blondshell, Electric, Brixton, 11 Sep – I basically spent too long in the pub with a mate in the afternoon, so I have photographs of being there, but my one line review is essentially “Well … my picture roll suggests I definitely attended this and was down the front but otherwise it is all a bit hazy”. Sorry, Blondshell lady.

[EXHIBIT A in this drunken mystery]

Disco 2000, Trades Hall, Walthamstow, 13 Sep – As ever an incredible night of dancing and £1,495 raised for a local charity. They have a Halloween and a Christmas special coming up. BE THERE.

Gazelle Twin, Royal Festivall Hall, South Bank, 14 Sep – I was looking forward to this but I think it would be fair to describe it as a “challenging” listen and I headed back to the bar after a couple of tracks.

[Gazelle Twin at Royal Festival Hall, South Bank]

Suede, Royal Festivall Hall, South Bank, 14 Sep – Broken music for broken people, launching their new album, with Brett as charismatic as ever and even at one point singing The Asphalt World unamplified, projecting his voice to the back of the Royal Festival Hall under his own steam.

[Suede at Royal Festival Hall, South Bank]

Big Red, The Lexington, Islington, 17 Sep – A smattering of Sonic Youth with some prog-ish time signatures changes thrown in, I was slightly concerned the bassist and drummer looked young enough to be my grandchildren. I wrote down something in my notes app “YOU MENTIONED FATIGUE FROM THE VACCINE, SHUT THE FUCK UP” which I think was one of their lyrics? Or I was having an episode. One or the other.

[Big Red at The Lexington, Islington]

Importantly though, I enjoyed that the guitarist appeared to have his own passport photograph stuck on his guitar, presumably in case he forgot who he was.

Flip Top Head, The Lexington, Islington, 17 Sep – I only caught a tiny little bit of this but enjoyed it.

[Flip Top Head at The Lexington, Islington]

Dog Race, The Lexington, Islington, 17 Sep – Wow, this band, man. They played a new song which they claimed to have only written two days before which had the epic build-up and intensity of In Every Dream Home A Heartache about it. I also got to speak to the singer’s dad, which made it an even lovelier evening. GO AND SEE THEM.

[Dog Race at The Lexington, Islington]

[Erasure in conversation at Union Chapel, London]

A 40th anniversary evening with Erasure – music, conversation, nonsense & more, Union Chapel, London, 19 Sep – The fourth time I’ve seen Andy Bell (the one from Erasure, not the one from Ride and Oasis) this year, but one of four Erasure “evenings” this year which are Vince Clarke’s first venture onto stage since their last tour four years ago. A mix of chat, Q&A and live performance, the songs were great and moving, Vince and Andy were very funny, and the Union Chapel remains a frustrating venue with distant toilets and arcane licensing laws.

[Erasure performing at Union Chapel, London]

Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, Rio Cinema, Dalston, 23 Sep – Not a gig. I didn’t even get a code to even attempt to buy tickets for Radiohead’s London shows. This was a marginal re-cut of the 1922 F W Murnau directed movie starring Max Schreck that ripped off Dracula to haunting effect before there was the licensed Bela Lugosi-starring version of the original tale. It was set to tracks from Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac. Sadly I remain unconvinced that playing the film and the music at the same time added anything much to either to be honest.

Sprints, Rough Trade East, London, 30 Sep – For a long time I kept buying tickets to see OMD and then it became a running joke that either the gig would be cancelled or I wouldn’t be able to make it. Sprints appear to be the new OMD, as I had sack this off in favour of the subsequently announced …

… Kevin Rowland, Trades Hall, Walthamstow, 30 Sep – Oh bless him, I love him so much. Not a gig, but a Q&A about his biography hosted by the ever dependable Walthamstow Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club. Didn’t go and get the book signed, too shy, see notes passim and so on.

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here.