CMAT + KATY J PEARSON – BRIGHTON CENTRE 9.3.26
It is the day after International Women’s Day and, fittingly, two female voices provide the Brighton Centre with a splendid evening’s entertainment.
“With me, EVERY day is International Women’s Day,” yells CMAT to the roars of a packed and overwhelmingly female crowd.
“F***, this is a big room,” she adds, before filling every molecule of it with a power pop performance that leaves the viewer in no doubt that this is a star in her pomp.
In contrast, support act Katy J Pearson is a demure, understated performer with a fistful full of lilting, haunting country-inflected songs that drift between Joni Mitchell and Lana Del Ray. Thus far she has released a trio of long players via Heavenly recordings, these being ‘Return’ (2020), ‘Sound Of The Morning’ (2022), and ‘Someday’ Now’ (2024), and highlights from these records are played tonight as part of her 9-song set.
Playing alone with just her guitar, she apologises at one point for the stripped down rendition of songs that sound far richer on her albums because, she explains, going solo is the only way to make touring economically viable. We have however previously seen Katy performing live in Brighton with a full band when she headlined the Chalk venue in Pool Valley on 13th September 2022 – Read our account of that evening HERE.
Even as a solo artist, Bristolian singer-songwriter Katy is still an engaging and likeable presence on stage and familiar songs like ‘Those Goodbyes’ and ‘Sky’, with their invocations of fly-blown Arizona ranches, emotionally stunted cowpokes and endless sun scorched horizons, translate well.
Further information about Katy can be located on her record label’s biog page HERE.
Katy J Pearson:
Katy J Pearson – vocals, guitar
Katy J Pearson setlist:
‘Those Goodbyes’ (from 2024 ‘Someday, Now’ album)
‘Siren Song’ (from 2024 ‘Someday, Now’ album)
‘Alligator’ (from 2022 ‘Sound Of The Morning’ album)
‘Talk Over Town’ (from 2022 ‘Sound Of The Morning’ album)
‘Beautiful Soul’ (from 2020 ‘Return’ album)
‘Long Range Driver’ (from 2024 ‘Someday, Now’ album)
‘Maybe’ (from 2024 ‘Someday, Now’ album)
‘Tonight’ (from 2020 ‘Return’ album)
‘Sky’ (from 2024 ‘Someday, Now’ album)
If a lone figure with a guitar is captivating, then CMAT’s explosion on stage alongside her band in a blaze of lights is a sensory overload.
She first appears alone up on a balcony, lit by a single spotlight, to sing opening number ‘Janis Joplining’ with the band playing along on stage in near darkness. When she joins them for the up-tempo blast of ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ it is an announcement that the evening has begun for real. And Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, her bandmates and everyone else, are going to have a good time.
In a show lasting a little short of two hours she performs just 14 songs, which leaves a lot of time for fun and games. The audience plays a key part in CMAT shows and much attention is paid to reading out T-shirts, banners and even birthday headbands. It’s not hard to see why she has such a loyal following, the banter and engagement is genuine and she’s loved for it.
Her band plays just as big a role in the larking about. Fiddle player Holly Carpenter and keyboard player Colm Conlan are called upon to give us an interpretive dance, despite the fact Carpenter is seated because of a leg injury.
If this all sounds a bit like a pantomime, there is an actual pantomime when she introduces each band member but ‘forgets’ Conlan. While he lies prostrate on the floor the audience yells “He’s behind you” like it’s Bobby Davro at the London Palladium up there.
There are also musings about not winning at the Brits, baggy tights and what LGBT really stands for (London, Gatwick, Brighton Train, according to Conlan).
All of this would be nice, or possibly a little tiresome if you’ve just gone along for some music, if it weren’t for the fact the band – guitar, bass, drums, fiddle, keyboards and pedal steel – are brilliant and the star of the show possesses an absolute bazooka of voice that rattles the building’s girders.
She is a frenetic, energetic and tireless performer, criss-crossing the stage with kicks and whirls, in turn mischievous, coquettish, winsome or downright filthy.
She also has a catalogue of superb songs infused with an native Irish wit, that blend country and dancefloor disco, full of sing-along melodies and searingly honest lyrics about love, shame and self-image – delivered with almost theatrical emotion and drama.
There are several showstoppers, including last year’s hit, ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’, ‘Running/Planning’, ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight?’ (sung as a duet with Conlan) and the encore ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!’, which has the whole audience swaying back and forth in a country two-step. CMAT is impressed. “For a Monday night that is f***ing mind-blowing,” she tells us.
The show ends with the anthemic ‘Stay For Something’ but not before a rousing anti-Reform message and a call to free Palestine, reminders the artist is aware of the power of her platform – both to entertain as well as challenge.
We last caught CMAT in action at Brighton Dome on 20th November 2025 – Read our review HERE.
CMAT:
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – vocals, guitar
Holly Carpenter – fiddle, violin, vocals
Colm Conlan – keyboards
Jack Wolter – guitar, vocals
William Bishop – bass
Daniel Vildósola – pedal steel, guitar
Hannah Morgan – drums
CMAT setlist:
‘Janis Joplining’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘I Don’t Really Care For You’ (from 2022 ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ album)
‘No More Virgos’ (from 2022 ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ album)
‘When A Good Man Cries’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘Tree Six Foive’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘Have Fun!’ (from 2023 ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ album)
‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘Coronation St’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album) OR ‘Rent’ (from 2023 ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ album)
‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight?’ (from 2023 ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ album)
‘Running/Planning’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
(encore)
‘Euro-Country’ (from 2025 ‘Euro-Country’ album)
‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!’ (from 2022 ‘If My Wife New I’d Be Dead’ album)
‘Stay For Something’ (from 2023 ‘CrazyMad, For Me’ album)
We were there and it was FANTASTIC!
Glad you enjoyed it Dawn.
It was a great evening ! They are brilliant entertainers. The only blemish was the seemingly obligitory dig at Reform and the usual Palestine claptrap. Half the crowd were very much less than impressed. I know of no British people that make comments about Irish domestic politics, and the well known anti-semitism of Ireland looked in danger of rearing it’s head. They are fast running out of Jews in Ireland so perhaps she thinks it good come and start on ours?
I don’t expect younger tourists and visiting artists to understand the UK, but I would suggest that they stay in their lane and stick to entertaining rather than clumsy cheap attempts at rabble rousing.