Skunk Anansie Live – Bournemouth O2 Academy

Skunk Anansie Live – Bournemouth O2 Academy

Tuesday 27 August. Review – Graham Tarrant

Celebrating their 25th anniversary together, Skunk Anansie are back on the road touring – it’s clear why they’re described as one of the greatest live bands the UK have produced as they blew away the Bournemouth crowd at the O2 Academy.

Skin burst onto stage in mesmerising fashion like a rock goddess wearing her spiked hoodie. Opening with ‘Charlie Big Potato’, she flicked her hood back to rapturous applause from the adoring crowd hypnotised by her energy.

Skunk Anansie © Graham Tarrant

It’s tricky to know how Skin should follow such an electric start, but she turned it up a notch further – during the following song ‘Because of You’, she leapt from the stage, surfing while held aloft by her adoring crowd still singing her cut-throat love song.

Skunk Anansie © Graham Tarrant

As the first first black British woman to headline Glastonbury in ’99, she hasn’t aged a day. In fact, she joked that while the audience were exhausted and sweating, she still remained cool and relaxed. Sickeningly, it was true despite her diving from the stage throughout the set.

The band remain as relevant as ever in the troubled divided times we live in, playing classics such as ‘Intellectualise my blackness’ and ‘Yes it’s f*ck*ng political’, along with a new song tonight ‘This Means War’. Along with recent single ‘What You Do For Love’ , these songs were highlights of the set – which is often rare when fans want to hear the classics from their 25 year career. If there’s anything good to come out of the shambles that is Brexit, it’s the possibility that the band will continue to be re-energised and write powerful tunes reflecting the disgusting rise of populism, not only in the UK but across the world.

Skunk Anansie – © Graham Tarrant

As well as their own vast catalogue, Skunk Anansie played a great rendition of Highway to Hell. Even when screaming above Ace’s guitar, her voice remains note perfect, and on softer songs, such as ‘Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good), the tenderness remains.

Skunk Anansie – © Graham Tarrant

Skin asked the crowd what song should finish the set, and there was only one correct answer – ‘Little Baby Swastikkka’. Not to be outdone by the adoring crowd, the singer again joined the audience in the mosh-pit, before surfing from the back of the packed crowd back onto the stage in impressive fashion.

This country has produced few better female voices and live, they are a sight to behold. Having bought their live album 25live@25, the band have to be seen to truly bring the sense of awe to life.

Skunk Anansie © Graham Tarrant

Afrojack, Die Antwoord and more added to Sziget

Sziget Festival is a non-stop music and arts festival with hundreds of program offered every day for its 7 days. This time some new names have been added to the line-up such as Afrojack, Die Antwoord, Skunk Anansie, Troyboi and many more. Sziget is held on a lovely green island in the middle of Budapest between 10-17 August. Advance round 1 tickets are available until 5th May.

Sziget aims to represent as many genres and art forms as possible. This is the place where contemporary circus and EDM are neighbors and where the to-do list of visitors is just endless. The list of program venues are expanding continuously as the programs themselves. You can find the map of program venues here: http://szigetfestival.com/info/map

New names
Grammy Award winning Dutch DJ and producer Afrojack, will definitely make a great party at Sziget, as well as the South African rap-rave group of Die Antwoord. The Canadian-born, LA based duo of DVBBS will definitely bring their high-energy presence behind (and on top of) the deck at Sziget. Szitizens can celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Punk; 40th anniversary with Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg, while Skunk Anansie will return to Sziget with a great live show. Troyboi, one of South East London's most closely guarded secrets has recently emerged from the shadows and is set to take the music industry by storm, now coming to the Island of Freedom. Moreover ZEDD, Russian-German Grammy Award winning musician and DJ is also coming as well as Carnage.

Already announced names in alphabetical order:
Afrojack
Aurora
Bastille
Bloc Party
Boys Noize
Bring Me The Horizon
Bullet For My Valentine
Carnage
CHVRCHES
Crystal Castles
Datsik
David Guetta
Die Antwoord
Dillon Francis
DJ Sliink
DVBBS
Dyro
Excision
FIDLAR
Hardwell
JAIN
Jake Bugg
Jess Glynne
John Newman
K.I.Z.
Kaiser Chiefs
Kodaline
Kovacs
M83
Manu Chao La Ventura
Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg

Molotov
Movits!
Muse
Naughty Boy
Nicky Romero
Noel Gallagher
Oscar and the Wolf
Parkway Drive
Parov Stelar
Rico & Sticks
Rihanna
Róisín Murphy
SIA
Sigur Rós
Skunk Anansie
Sum 41
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Lumineers
The Neighbourhood
Tourist
Travis Scott
TroyBoi
Unkle (live)
Vinai
Wilkinson (live)
Years & Years
Zedd

In 2015 a total of 441,000 Szitizens attended the event, representing more than 95 countries and this probably makes Sziget one of the most multicultural festivals in the world. Hundreds of acts and programs will be announced in the forthcoming months, now starting with eight names, representing different genres and keeping the music line-up as colorful as always.

All 5 day tickets have now sold out with limited 7 day tickets available!