Skunk Anansie visited Brighton this month on a UK tour simply titled ‘UK Tour 2025’, which was good enough for us. Support came from So Good, a London-based band who describe themselves as “ignorant brat pop” – which turns out to be a pretty accurate description of their music. Most of their songs were very radio-unfriendly, but they provided an interesting start to the evening’s show and one that kept us talking about them during the interval.
We’re pretty certain that the event had sold out tonight with the standing area downstairs and the seating in the balcony area just about completely filled. The audience was waiting in anticipation of the start of the headline set at the scheduled time of 9pm, but as in all good theatrical performances the band kept us waiting for a few more minutes.
When Skunk Anansie finally took to the stage they launched into ‘This Means War’ which was released as a standalone single in 2020. Following on from this, we were surprised to learn that the group had only released six albums since their formation in 1994. However, they do have a seventh album titled ‘The Painful Truth’ due to be released in May so presumably this gig was part of a promotional tour. In any case, the band played three tracks from the new album.
The band, comprising of Skin (lead vocals, guitar), Cass (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ace (guitar, backing vocals) and Mark Richardson (drums and percussion), really seemed to be in their element. ‘Skin’ was continuously running around the stage, moving to the beat and jumping from the front monitor throughout the whole performance. She also had time to walk into the crowd, circle the edge of the standing area and crowdsurf back again… Not sure where all of that energy comes from, but we do appreciate it!
The band played a good mix of songs from their back catalogue. The set included a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ alongside the band’s classics ‘Weak As I Am’ and ‘Hedonism’. The set lasted about and hour and forty minutes and the evening’s performance concluded with ‘Lost And Found’ from the forthcoming new album.
We enjoyed our first experience of a Skunk Anansie show and will definitely be back for more. The band will be performing at The Old Market in Hove on the 16th May as part of The Great Escape.
Words by Robert Sutton
Photos by Robert Sutton Photography
