Heatwave? What heatwave? As London swelters, Empire Of The Sun's frontman takes to the stage in sequinned gown - and Samurai hat. Read our review...
With hands, phones and water bottles all held aloft, it felt as if a huge open-air festival set had been moved indoors.
Published: 19:15 BST, 25 June 2026 | Updated: 19:15 BST, 25 June 2026
Live gigs in the middle of a heatwave can be challenging, but Australian dance act Empire Of The Sun proved the perfect tonic as they launched their latest tour with their biggest-ever UK headline show.
With frontman Luke Steele a commanding figure in Samurai headgear and a sequinned jacket, it was a captivating start to a three-night London residency.
On record, the band have won over legions of ‘Empyreans’ with their tuneful synth-pop. Their 2008 singles, We Are The People and Walking On A Dream, have both been streamed a billion times on Spotify .
Live, they are a meatier proposition: against a colourful backdrop of digital screens, lasers, strobe lights and confetti guns, they played with the verve of a vintage funk or disco ensemble.
The way of the Samurai: Empire Of The Sun frontman Luke Steele commands the stage at the first of the band's three shows in London this week, at Alexandra Palace
With co-founder Nick Littlemore now a non-touring member, singer and guitarist Steele was backed by a band that included two members of Mercury-winning UK indie-rock group Gomez, guitarist Ian Ball and drummer Olly Peacock, both of whom added fresh layers to the band’s dreamy psychedelia while keeping a tight grip on beats-driven basics.
The band’s most recent album, 2024’s Ask That God, featured heavily. Music On The Radio was accompanied by dancing monsters and a guitar face-off between Steele and Ball.
Play some old! Empire Of The Sun's set on Wednesday drew heavily on the band's 2024 album Ask That God - but there was still time for fan favourites like We Are The People
But it was the older tracks that prompted the biggest singalongs, with We Are The People a highlight.
With hands, phones and water bottles all held aloft, it felt as if a huge open-air festival set had been moved indoors.
Empire Of The Sun’s London residency continues at Alexandra Palace on June 26 and 27. The band play Piece Hall, Halifax, on June 28 and Fairview Park, Dublin, on June 30 ( ticketmaster.co.uk ).
Born in Washington DC, educated in Liverpool and now based in London, Ngonda is a soul man for the ages. ‘I wish I could wake up in 1964,’ he says, and his slick second album looks to Motown and Stax for inspiration. He channels The Four Tops on Burning Temptation and Marvin Gaye on Mr. Train Conductor. He plays SMK Live, Milton Keynes, on Sunday and, at 32, will be carrying the soul torch for years to come.
Collaborating with dance acts such as The Chemical Brothers, Orton’s blend of synthesised beats and acoustic guitars saw her crowned the queen of ‘folktronica’ in the late 1990s. Fragile and languid, The Ground Above is cut from a different cloth. Backed by pianist Sam Beste and Radiohead’s touring drummer Chris Vatalaro, her voice cracks and breaks on a vivid song-suite that owes more to jazz than pop.
Returning to music after taking a nine-year sabbatical to raise her daughter, the Texan is one of country’s most compelling songwriters. Mick Jagger covered one of her songs, Bramble Rose, and she’s still a romantic at heart, despite nursing the bruises of old affairs. She sings of her doubts about a new relationship on Finest Feelings, and celebrates life’s simple pleasures on Someone To Watch The Band With Me.
To have the two greatest Cello Concertos on one CD would be a bargain, even if the performances were less good.
In a career spanning 39 years so far, German cellist Alban Gerhardt has become very popular in this country; and here he has British conductor Andrew Manze with him.
The Elgar is a beautiful performance and fortunately the days are long gone when foreign soloists were distrusted by our critics, Elgar was one of the great European composers.
Gerhardt’s Dvorak is also very fine: I could complain that some rhythms in the West German Radio SO are not crisp enough, but in general Manze and his soloist do well.
In a note, Gerhardt says his boyhood influences in these concertos were Rostropovich for Dvorak and du Pré for Elgar, but he has since speeded up a little without losing intensity.
I first encountered Grace Davidson as provider of stratospheric high notes for some of our best professional choirs.
For some time she has been a soloist. I was slightly disappointed by a Schubert recital on CD but she is much more at home here, with Julian Perkins on harpsichord or organ.
They begin and end with Purcell, Davidson adding apt decorations in ‘I attempt for love’s sickness to fly’ among six songs; Perkins plays a suite with the theme Britten used.
Campion’s ‘Never weather-beaten sail’ and Arne’s ‘Where the bee sucks’ are lovely, Perkins adds an Arne keyboard sonata, and so are songs by Humfrey, Blow and Eccles.
In Handel’s ‘O sleep, why dost thou leave me?’ Davidson does not quite match the breath control of John McCormack on the word ‘wandering’, but she sings it very pleasingly.
