Meltdown Festival: The Streets at Royal Festival Hall
If you wanted to see Mike Skinner and The Streets in their natural habitat, it’s fair to say it wouldn’t be the so-called “brutalist utopia” of the Royal Festival Hall. Their true home would be a sweat-drenched, WKD-scented nightclub circa 2002, permeated with the aroma of a nearby kebab shop wafting through the air.
Yet despite the incongruity of the Meltdown Festival setting – with much of the crowd seated, at least to begin with – Skinner commands the stage like a virtuoso conductor. You could talk about the songs, which for many in the now middle-aged crowd evoke misspent teenage years in poetic form – but, strangely, that’s not really the point.
Rather, it’s that this gig is part stand-up, part concert, part millennial self-help seminar. The singer makes the venue hum not by being a star pumping out the hits, but by connecting with fans and being an ordinary bloke. He praises his kids for trying hard in their GCSEs. A punter in a Burberry shirt and cap is welcomed onstage mid-set. A running joke emerges: Skinner wants a standing ovation, like the illustrious musicians who’ve graced the venue. It’s repeatedly granted atop a speaker he uses as a platform – like a Roman tribune of the plebs.
Of course, none of this would work if the music weren’t any good. Much of The Streets’ groundbreaking debut, Original Pirate Material, is covered – Turn the Page, Has It Come to This?, It’s Too Late and, of course, Don’t Mug Yourself – one of those tracks that brings the crowd to their feet, despite the Brummie songwriter’s polite exhortations to be mindful of your neighbours.
There are also the hits from A Grand Don’t Come for Free – notably Fit But You Know It – which gets the Festival Hall bouncing. Yet it’s not the bangers that showcase Skinner’s talent best, but rather his slower epics. Blinded by the Lights is almost hymnal, while Dry Your Eyes may be one of the greatest breakup songs ever written for a simple reason: it’s not about the bitterness of loss, but about the heartbreak of the dying stages of a relationship you want to work, but know is done.
After all that emotion, The Streets close with a newer track, 2020’s Take Me as I Am. Its drum and bass rhythms linger in our heads as Skinner and his band take those well deserved standing ovations – after which, fans head into the night, probably following the scent of Waterloo’s nearest kebab shop.
Mark Worgan
Photos: Pete Woodhead
For further information and future events visit The Streets’s website here.
Watch the video for Dry Your Eyes here:
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