STEREO MCs + DJ SPECIFIC – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 23.2.25
Tonight a sold out crowd welcomes the Stereo MCs back to the Concorde 2, something to bring some warm happy vibes on this soggy Sunday evening. Now, the Stereo MCs are no strangers to the Concorde 2, if anything it seems to be their venue of choice when they visit, having played here previously in March 2023 and December 2019 (Review HERE), their last visit to Brighton was not actually too long ago when they toured with the Happy Mondays in April 2024 (Review HERE).
In terms of new music output, their last album was 2011s ‘Emperor’s Nightmare’, but last year they signed a management deal with Creation Records Legend Alan McGee and Kevin Fitzgerald of Toura Toura Ltd and there are plans for recording and releasing new material.
So while there is exciting new stuff to hopefully come, tonight we can bask in the magnificence of a set drawing on their earlier albums.
DJ Specific was in the house to warm things up, we had a full on 90 minute mix of pumping tracks, some great bouncing tunes, a bit of big beat, plenty of bass, along with some classics such as ‘White Lines’, ‘Jungle Boogie’ and even a bit of Stone Roses, a couple of times he gave a shout out to the crowd teasing us the Stereo MCs were coming soon and to give a cheer, everyone did, but we still had another 45 mins to go.
Then at 9pm on the dot, the quartet of vocalist Rob Birch, DJ Nick Hallam, vocalist Cath Coffey and drummer Tansay Omar took to the stage, with a simple “How’s it going” from Rob. The Stereo MCs were away into the strong lively opener of ‘Pressure’. Rob dressed in his trademark jumpsuit, tall beanie style hat, glove and plenty of beads wrapped around his neck and wrists was every bit the image we were waiting to see.
The only device or instrument aside from a tamborine he used was a voice echo box unit, I am unsure of the technical term, but that’s what I am calling it, he used this to keep his last lyric echoing as they broke into the funky beats of the next song ‘Use It’.
Rob announced “Welcome to the show everyone, we are the Stereo MCs, I hope you are going to enjoy yourselves tonight and dance with us, that’s why you are here right, to dance and share this energy together”. Tansay teased those percussion drums taking us into ‘Fade Away’ oooooh, this is such a great song, probably one of my favs of the band’s. Rob’s quality lyrical rap style, and my word Cath Coffey’s vocals, so good and so powerful. Cath ever looked amazingly cool on stage, tonight she was wearing a camo get up, always grooving and dancing whether singing or not, it’s not just Rob, she is a massive part of the vibe and energy.
Another song from the band’s legendary album ‘Connected’ came next, the mega bassy ‘Everything’, by this point the folks next to me were full on dancing away.
Pausing for a second, Rob addressed the crowd, “Good evening everybody, Brighton, we didn’t come from South East London tonight, we came from somewhere else as were on a little run of dates, so we had come from a bit far out”, a chorus of thank you’s came from the crowd. Perhaps he was referencing the band’s mini tour of the USA in January. “It’s just nice to be here, we are going to feel it out, feel it out, this is music my friends, feel it out” he continued as DJ Nick introduced the dance beat and we were treated to a more recent(ish) song ‘Black Gold’ from 2008’s ‘Double Bubble’ album. Again Cath’s backing vocals were like liquid gold, Tansay was giving those electronic drums a good working too. The song certainly had a different vibe going to their early 90s stuff, a good vibe I should add.
“Hey Brighton, how’s it feeling out there” Rob quizzed the crowd as that thumping bassline of ‘Connected’ kicked in and all the camera phones came out to capture the moment. The whole crowd in unison sang together, while Rob called “Brighton, Brighton, Brighton” during the chorus, a massive applause followed.
Taking us back to 1989, a solid hip hop beat maxed out the speakers, with Rob peeling down his jumpsuit, joining Cath who’d already taken her camo jacket top off to reveal her awesome t-shirt emblazoned with “Love, Peace, Respect, Resist’”. The tune was ‘On 33’, it was a song that starts out so hip hop, but scales down to almost acapella with Cath and Rob chanting lyrics to Tansay’s percussion drums.
The more ambient vibe was coming into effect now with the next song ‘Changes’, this being the most recent song from an EP with Adam Port from 2017. Rob used his echo unit to full effect during this one, whilst Cath grooved and moved about the stage in front of DJ Nick, some sublime drumming from Tansay too.
Next Rob addressed the crowd “Of course it’s only natural right, that we stand here and would want to hear the most noise possible for everyone out there, I totally have consideration for you, you may just not feel like that, you make the noise you’ve got to make, but feel free about it”, he was wanting to see more dancing and energy from the crowd.
“I wanna go higher” rang out Cath’s vocals as the beat dropped and Rob was away with his lyrics, “Brighton Elevate your mind”, he cried, as he positioned himself on the front of the stage leaning out over the crowd, before taking his microphone over to Cath whilst stretching his other arm towards his voice echo box, asking the crowd “I wanna go…?” “Higher” we all sang back, “I’m in Brighton and I wanna go…?” “Higher” we responded again and it went on, “peace and love, thanks for involving yourselves” he replied.
Now if that banger wasn’t enough, next we had three more stone cold classics in ‘Step It Up’, ‘Ground Level’ and ‘Running’, wow, the vibe the band put out is immense, Rob always moving, dancing, leaning out into the crowd, hitting the floor, Cath oozing smooth cool vibes. Rob continued with his musical philosophy; “It’s a beautiful thing us all been here together, music it’s a special thing, people say to us, doesn’t this just become like a day job, you do so many gigs, but they just don’t understand, us all now meeting and been together is quite possibly a once in a lifetime thing, that’s why it’s special”
Whilst Rob & Cath are front stage and the clear focal points, you cannot undervalue just how important the beat bringers are in DJ Nick Hallam, with his bank of electronics, laptops, mixer knobs, he is running that beat production seamlessly, cool as a cucumber and Tansay with his array of drums, including electronic, melding in perfect harmony with Nick’s sound station, I had to really focus hard on the pair of them to look to see who was doing what and when, utter audio bliss, musical magicians.
“Life is a balance right” said Rob as we hit the hour mark, and the band left the stage to cheers of an encore.
The band returned to the stage a minute or so later to even more applause. Whilst the band got set up at their stations Rob addressed the crowd again “Well I know it’s a Sunday night and everything, and I don’t blame you if you want to go home or that kind of thing, we’re having a good time here and I think everyone else is , so we are going to hang out a bit more if that alright”. We were eased back into the music with a slower number ‘Sketch’ from 1992’s ‘Connected’ album.
Things then got funky with ‘Lost In Music’, a gorgeous phat dirty beat rang through this one, Rob rapping away, Cath back to dancing singing the “Yeah Yeahs” Rob once again using his echo unit to keep his vocals ringing long after he stopped.
Our penultimate song was ‘Place’ another ambient and more recent song originally put out in 2014 with Adam Port, “I’m gonna take you to a place, you’ve never been before, like shooting stars fly”. A beautiful song, with Cath’s powerful vocals ranging from soft to utterly belting out hitting all those notes and ranges.
“How’s it going Brighton, it’s a hot night right, it is up here with these lights”, he was not joking, it was insanely hot in the venue now, and Rob had already gone down another layer removing his T-shirt down to his vest “we came here with a good vibration and that’s what we came here to do” he continued as band cranked up our final song of the night, it was ‘Creation’ another solid classic from the 1992 album ‘Connected’. What a song to finish on, the crowd certainly would have taken more. I’d missed my train, so I wanted more, but at one hour, 22 minutes that was our lot, and it was all good. “Peace and Love all the time, stay this vibe” Rob closed with, and oh man I could not agree more!
Now I must admit I grew up a 90s indie kid, and my only real dalliance with the Stereo MCs back then was hearing ‘Connected’ which must have been on literally every indie compilation CD I owned, but I did miss out on their live experience. However this was rectified when I was lucky enough to catch them at the ‘Shiiine Weekender’ at Butlins in 2022 and was so utterly blown away by that experience, I made sure I stayed up to catch their 11pm performance at same festival the following year, hence me jumping at the chance of seeing them tonight. Their live shows are a cut above, they sound so fresh, I’d go as far to say better than their studio recordings, now I’m not saying those are bad in the slightest, it’s just that they have worked the songs in such a way now, that live they are funky, you want to dance, you want to move, it is timeless, never dating, both Rob and Cath’s vocals still are the same, so full and rich, it’s like they have bottled youth, their vibe on stage, the movements, the dancing…. okay I’m gushing now, so I’ll stop, but I am telling you, you need to see the Stereo MCs live, that’s why their tours sell out and they are still a massive draw for festival appearances. I look forward to hopefully new music and may the Concorde 2 bring them back once more.
Stereo MCs:
Rob Birch (Rob B) – vocals
DJ Nick ‘The Head’ Hallam – turntables, beats, production
Cath Coffey – vocals
Tansay Omar – drums & percussion
Stereo MCs setlist:
‘Pressure’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Use It’ (found on 1989 ‘33 45 78’ album)
‘Fade Away’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Everything’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Black Gold’ (found on 2008 ‘Double Bubble’ album)
‘‘Connected’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘On 33’ (found on 1989 ‘33 45 78’ album)
‘Changes’ (found on 2017 Adam Port & Stereo MCs ‘Changes’ EP)
‘Elevate My Mind’ (found on 1990 ‘Supernatural’ album)
‘Step It Up’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Ground Level’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Creation’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Running’ (found on 2001 ‘Deep Down & Dirty’ album)
(encore)
‘Sketch’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
‘Lost In Music’ (found on 1990 ‘Supernatural’ album)
‘Place’ (found on 2014 Various Artists ‘Workparty Five’ EP)
‘Creation’ (found on 1992 ‘Connected’ album)
