Editors

Tonight I’m at the Leadmill and hopefully not for the last time. The venue is very reassuring that they’ll still be around for a very long time yet but they are in court later this month as they continue to fight its new landlord over the eviction notice that was served on them when their lease expired in March last year. Thankfully they are protected by the Landlord and Tenant Act and this is why they are in court as only a court can end their tenancy.

Meanwhile the Leadmill is still here doing what it does so well and remains my second favourite venue after Rock City.

 

The support band tonight are Wings Of Desire from Stroud. Who are supposedly a duo consisting of Chloe Little and James Taylor but they are out in force tonight rocking up at the Leadmill as a five piece wielding a pair of guitars, drums and a bass alongside Little on keyboards. The smartly dressed Taylor in a shirt and tie has one of those guitars as well as the lead mic. 

 

All of which creates a very big, layered sound. At one moment you’re thinking shoegaze then the next you’re hit with a wall of percussion and guitars. They are very good and a decent fit for tonight’s headliners, Editors. 

Editors have developed their sound over the years and today we get the full range. There was plenty from their latest record ‘EBM’ such as the opener ‘Strawberry Lemonade’ and ‘Picturesque’ with the classic oldie ‘An End Has a Start’ sandwiched in between.

 

Tonight is a warm up before they become the first band to play to a capacity crowd at the re-opened Brixton Academy after it was closed following the fatal crowd crush back in December 2022. Then they’re off to do a festival in Spain.

The band are excellent tonight and as always they switch up their set list. While I remain unconvinced by their cover of ‘Killer’, tonight they revisit the likes of ‘Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool’, ‘Formaldehyde’, ‘Ocean of Night’ and to my delight ‘Bricks and Mortar’ which appears just before the set ending ‘Papillon’.

 

An encore that gives us ‘The Weight of the World’ and ‘A Ton of Love’ climaxes with a version of ‘Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors’ that starts with the first verse done slow, acoustic and moody before the rest of the band join in to finish it and us off.