The 6th of December saw the return of Brighton’s cheeky boys, aka Rizzle Kicks. Although the weather outside was cold and harsh, we somehow had a feeling the boys would help us forget about all that.

A packed out crowd got some intensive ‘Rizzle Kicks Training’ from the likes of Running Dogs, Little Nicki and Justin ‘Mikill Pane’ Uzomba. As a curtain of darkness covered the stage in anticipation of the headliners, there was not an empty seat in sight.

The Kicks’ live band started off with a very polished and well produced intro. Before we knew it, Jordan ‘Rizzle’ Stephens and Harley ‘Sylvester’ Alexander-Sule burst onto the stage – greeted by thousands of screaming fans.

With the band already in full flow, the boys blasted into their set with ‘Round Up’ from last year’s debut album, ‘Stereo Typical’. From the moment the duo bounced onto stage they went at it with full force, showing no signs of tiring any time soon. They even found space for plenty of crowd interaction and some special live remixes of the James Bond theme tune and Ed Sheeran’s ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’.

But the duo didn’t neglect their string of hit singles, playing ‘When I Was A Youngster’, ‘Down With The Trumpets’ and ‘Mama Do The Hump’. The boys showed that although they were approaching the end of a whistle-stop UK tour, they still had their Brighton roots very much in mind – telling the crowd how they formed and giving a shout-out to the charity AudioActive, which helped get them on their feet and on the steady road to success.

Upwards and onwards the boys go, and with a new album looming in 2013 – we’re sure we’ll see them again very soon.

Brighton Centre, Thursday 6th December 2012
Words by Conor Allen