The Streets Live in Brighton review: unforgettable night from British pioneers
We sent Harvey Marwood to check out The Streets' huge headline show in Brighton.
Date published: 28th May 2024
Last Friday marked yet another unforgettable afternoon of live music in Brighton, with multi-award-winning band, The Streets making their way down to East Brighton Park for a headline performance in a City that has held great significance in their history. One of the most influential bands within the British and International music industry, Mike Skinner’s band are an undeniable pioneer of the refined sounds of UK Rap, Garage and everything in between. With a jam-packed lineup that notably included Mercury Prize Award nominee Kojey Radical, the sun was shining and a diverse audience turned up in their numbers to witness one of the most intuitive bands of this century.
With the live music starting early in the afternoon with a range of DJs playing, Kojey Radical stood out as one of the best performances from the day, with his penultimate set of the day energising the crowd to prepare for The Street’s headline set. Championed for his unique sound influenced by his background and surroundings, Kojey Radical is a fine example of the talent the rap scene holds today. Creating an atmosphere that was both intimate and expansive, his performance was a perfect primer for the main act, with tracks such as ‘War Outside’ and ‘No Confusion’, his track with 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective going down particularly well with the crowd.
Sharing personal stories and insights into his personal life that touched on the themes of mental health, Kojey built a personable rapport with the crowd and was quick to win them over, many of whom didn’t seem to have been familiar with his work until the day. Leaving the stage having gained a multitude of new fans, Kojey proved his worth as not only a musician but also a relatable person with a story to tell through his music.
As the sun set and the park lights dimmed, the anticipation for The Streets grew palpable. When Mike Skinner and his band finally took the stage, the crowd erupted in cheers. The Streets, known for their gritty, street-smart lyrics and genre-blending sound, delivered a set that was both nostalgic and refreshingly contemporary, a true journey of introspective nostalgia that was tangible throughout the park. Opening with the iconic ‘Turn the Page’, which has recently been doing the rounds again after electronic duo Overmono’s remix of the track, The Streets immediately set the tone for the night to the audiences’ content.
Skinner's distinctive voice and narrative style transported the audience back to the early 2000s, while the live instrumentation added a new layer of depth to the classic tracks. The energy was infectious as the band moved through a well-curated setlist that included hits like ‘Has It Come to This?’ and ‘Let's Push Things Forward’. Mike Skinner’s showmanship is still what sets the band apart from the rest. Constantly interacting with the crowd and starting a new dialogue between every few tracks, Skinner went on to talk about his experiences in Brighton specifically, where he goes on to admit to the crowd that his laptop with the very first recordings of ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ was stolen on the South Coast and lost forever. Chopping and changing his positioning throughout the show, Skinner often entered the crowd to perform more intimately, and halfway through the set made his way to the platform in the middle of the crowd to create a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree performance.
The standout moment, however, arrived when the band performed ‘Never Went To Church’, a track that visually moved the whole crowd. With the track being written about Mike’s late father, the themes of loss resonated with many due to it being a universal common factor; the track embodies the thoughts and feelings of many and so to hear it accompanied by the live band was moving and sentimental, a performance that will stay with many. Watching The Streets live in East Brighton Park felt like a privilege and a special occasion. A reminder of how the roots of British music have assisted the scene to develop how it has, there’s no denying that Mike Skinner and The Streets’ are just true legends of the industry, and the performance which they delivered was nothing short of exceptional.
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