Morcheeba have always inhabited a sunnier, pop-leaning hemisphere of the trip hop genre compared to contemporaries like Massive Attack, who explored a darker, dub-infused atmosphere, and the dusky, film noir palette that characterised Portishead.
The band’s warmer disposition is on display tonight as red flowers ornament the stage with the backscreen projecting a floral theme that is redolent of the artwork for their latest record Escape the Chaos released in May 2025 through 100% Records. The relaxing tableau is completed as the band glide through a nostalgic setlist, escorted seductively by Skye Edwards’ glowing stage persona, and smooth, sultry vocals.
A blood-red moon looms over the stage as the first stridulating notes of ‘Trigger Hippie’ open the band’s set to rapturous applause. This was the first song the Godfrey brothers wrote with Edwards who they recruited as singer some 30 years ago. Her soft vocals and the downbeat, atmospheric melody instantly grips the audience in hypnosis.
After beginning the night’s proceedings with their 1995 debut single, they deliver the first taste of what will be five songs from their critically-acclaimed sophomore record Big Calm: the lilting reggae-inspired ‘Friction’ which provokes the crowd into a twisting motion. Throughout the evening, Edwards looks resplendent as she is adorned in blue tartan finery which, she tells us, she made herself, and crowned in a flamenco-style hat. Persistent stage backlighting of Edwards’ body casts a mesmerising silhouetted figure like a phantom goddess stalking the stage to the rhythm of her own sensuous vocals.
Three tracks from the latest album make the cut during a night that is, for the most part, a trip down memory lane. The first of them is ‘Call for Love’, a song that, when released, marked 30 years of Morcheeba. It’s a heartfelt and somewhat uplifting song and evidence that the band still has something new and interesting to offer after three decades.
During ‘The Sea’, an ever popular mainstay of their live repertoire, Edwards surfaces elegant texture and soulfulness while also exhibiting a powerful execution of vocal restraint. Instruments and voice combine to create a perfectly balanced musical symbiosis which Edwards’ personifies through her magnetic but calculated stage presence.
Both Edwards and guitarist, Ross Godfrey, displayed a chilled camaraderie with the audience, leading them in numerous episodes of gleeful audience singalongs and aerobic arm-waving during the band’s poppier songs like ‘Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day’ and ‘Part of the Process’.
A wonderfully funky cover of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ worked similar magic for crowd participation.
Following a lengthier than usual pause between main set and reappearance for an encore, the crowds hoots and howls for more never abating during interlude, the band return for two more songs which bridge the 27-year chasm between old – the contemplative and emotional ‘Fear and Love’ – and the new – 2025’s ‘Bleeding Out’ with its swirling guitars and theatrical live performance. The juxtaposition showcases a band still evolving their sound and not content to stand still. But still radiating with glimmers of sunshine.
Dan Adshead
