Artist: Idlewild

Venue: Koko

Town: Camden London

Date: 17.10.25

With thirty years treading the boards, Idlewild show no signs of fading away, more so they have possibly released their most impressive album. Simply titled Idlewild it is easy to say the latest is best but for the Scottish favourites, the impressive reviews shout heartily from atop a mist covered munro overlooking a birch filled glen! Yes, I may be overdoing the hyperbole but isn’t it simply a more wholesome world with Idlewild back in such fine fettle?

Frontman Roddy Woomble nowadays resides on a small island, Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. In the past he has surfed the Rock lifestyle and now has the mindset and safe haven to contribute to his songwriting skills with calm abandon, along with disconnection from the modern world, breaking itself in two throughout the rest of the country.

He now has the enjoyable part of touring the record and reigniting the mutual fondness between this band and its devoted fanbase, clearly evident at the show I witnessed in Camden on the 17th October. Full to the rafters of the many floors of this beautiful Victorian (Just) Theatre, it is a just venue to hear Idlewild music performed with a stage backdrop displaying a view into a tree canopy straight from the new album front cover, adding to the pastoral feel that ebbs through some of the songs.

Each song is greeted like an old buddy with arms reaching aloft as each refrain begins a new tune, arms stretching out long enough to shake hands with each song as if it would clasp each person's outstretched fingers. The band are on safe ground, there is nothing they could play that would cause dissatisfaction and I am sure the bar was quiet as no one dared fight through the tightly squeezed audience while this “magical” experience was happening before their very eyes.

The band enter to mood enhancing blue hues which is the main colour for the show adding to the atmospheric vibe, launching straight into “Roseability” from the 2000 album 100 Broken Windows, the band take their positions. As is customary spring heeled guitarist, Rod Jones, on stage left spends much of his time at an altitude one foot off the ground or just about to take off, he is in contrast to  the measured movement of Roddy Woomble strolling the stage as if on the beach of his Scottish Island home.

There are a handful of tracks from the latest long player with “Like I had before” up second before possibly Idlewild’s best known song “You held the World in your arms” which charted Top 10 on release and stands as the quintessential Idlewild song, capturing their style, musicality and sensibilities in one. Its message of “enjoy the time you have” was not lost on the energetic crowd still moshing as they did when seeing the band for the first time 20 years before.

“A Ghost in the Arcade” and “Love Steals Us From Loneliness” were an evening highlight with mass vocal participation, a heartfelt moment for many there. The songs from The Remote Part edged the reaction but the whole experience went to demonstrate the importance of this band not just to Scottish Music but also to all those who devotedly follow this band religiously. The night finished triumphantly with “In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction,” thrilling the sweaty throng dissolving into one mass of writhing bodies, past caring just sharing the love.

Koko Setlist

Roseability

Like I Had Before

You Held the World in Your Arms

Little Discourage

It's Not The First Time

Live in a Hiding Place

Interview Music

Actually It's Darkness

Stay Out of Place

American English

Make It Happen

Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)

A Ghost in the Arcade

I Wish I Wrote It Down

(I Am) What I Am Not

El Capitan

When I Argue I See Shapes

Love Steals Us From Loneliness

Encore:

Everyone Says You're So Fragile

A Modern Way of Letting Go

A Film for the Future

In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction

Idlewild website

Review and photos by Dan Reddick