35 years on from the birth of The Lightning Seeds, the band are on a victory lap around the UK. We headed to their Nottingham stop – the legendary Rock City, of course – to revel in swirly synths, bright pop melodies and plenty of nostalgia...
Before The Lightning Seeds took to the famous Rock City stage, we were presented with another Liverpudlian export, Casino, we offered us some sunshine-filled, northern soul funk. These guys are pure fun, and got everyone grooving and all loosened up ahead of the main event.
There’s a fair bit of excitement about these guys, and it definitely has something to do with the warmth they emit. Dillon Kenny’s are fantastic – oozing with soul. Despite the very clear Motown and northern soul influences, the four-piece sounded fresh, and provided a nice bit of saturation to a gloomy November evening.
The night begun in earnest with shimmering synths and Life’s Too Short, from their fifth album Tilt. Ian Broudie’s echoes of "I’ve got the feeling" reverberated around the venue as this infectiously danceable electronica track welcomed everyone into the joy – a celebration of 35 years of The Lightning Seeds.
This gig gave an opportunity for fans to get back in touch with some other fantastic tracks eclipsed by the mammoth success of songs like The Life of Riley, Pure and Three Lions. Fans were able to dance through their discography, from 1990's Cloudcuckooland to their 2022 release See You in The Stars. Behind them, the band’s iconic strawberry emblem flashed in various designs, calling back to the album cover of their 1994 record Jollification. The colourful motif perfectly reflected the light and carefree atmosphere created by the jangly pop goodness on display.
Ian is a man of few words, unless they’re sung. The set was rarely interrupted, apart from the odd thank you for any "I love you Ian!"s that were hurled across from the audience. Despite being a veteran indie rock sensation, he seemed genuinely quite humbled by these words of encouragement, which was quite sweet really.
Ian is a man of few words, unless they’re sung
The band brought not one, not two but three covers on the road with them for this tour. The first was their rendition of The Byrds' You Showed Me. Their version of this track includes a heavy handed dose of swirling synths and Broudie’s gorgeously airy vocals, creating a really mesmerising experience. The second, though, had a little bit more crunch to it – Wreckless Eric’s Whole Wide World with some driving guitar riffs and rock and roll sensibility.
Somewhere around this time, I could just about make out Ian whisper over to Martyn Campbell on bass, “My back’s killing me!” Broudie is 66 now, but there’s not a terrible amount of evidence that would point towards this in the quality of his vocals. He sounded great throughout. While nobody was doing backflips on stage, the set was tight and a whole lot of fun – it was all about the music, and revelling in some psychedelia-tinged 90s memories.
The Lightning Seeds first big success came with dreamy pop track, Pure. It’s familiar cascading synths and gushingly cutesy lyrics make this song a firm favourite for so many people. This song marked the start of something really beautiful for Ian Broudie, as he recognised in a rare interlude of speech. Given the starry lyrical themes, and the gentle swaying rhythms of the track, its one best enjoyed under a mirrorball – something Rock City was happy to oblige with.
Those memories would only continue to flood in for longtime fans as the set headed towards some
of the band’s heavy hitters. The audience became a choir of “ooohs” for Lucky You – one of the
band’s biggest singles. Fan favourite Sugar Coated Iceberg provoked a similar response, as did Life of Riley, the final track before the encore. It was beautiful seeing the real life Riley Broudie on stage enjoying this one with his dad. Now the band’s manager and guitarist, Riley is in the band and appears to love every minute of it.
Before disappearing and leaving the people of Nottingham to their Thursday night, The Lightning Seeds came back onto the stage to give a jubilant performance of Marvellous, an upbeat banger, with the perfect sense of grandiosity for an encore.
Toning it down before bringing the energy back up again though, Broudie broke out into an acoustic version of Be My Baby, first popularised by The Ronettes, before thanking the crowd and breaking out into a song I’m sure a lot of people were crossing their fingers for... Three Lions. In the summer months, you’d struggle to avoid this one, but even without the World Cup in action, it’s clear why the streets of Nottingham were full of drunken chants of this incredibly catchy tune. It’s simple, it’s effective and the sense of unity it provokes is heart-warming whether you care about footballs rolling into nets or not. It’s only right to include this triumph within the dazzling discography of a truly brilliant band.
The Lightning Seeds performed at Rock City on 14th November 2024. You can read our review with Ian Broudie here.
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