Skunk Anansie – Rock City, Nottingham – 3rd April ‘25

4 days ago

*Skin of Skunk Anansie at Rock City Nottingham, Photo by Carrie-Anne Pollard*

After nearly 10 years since Skunk Anansie released their last album Anarchytecture, next month The Painful Truth will be delivered to the world. The band are out in full force, making their way across the UK and Europe over the next few months. Tonight it’s Rock City’s turn.

The room is full to the brim as So Good are finishing their set. We manage to catch the last song, which mixes pop elements (including back up singers and choreography) with quintessentially British punk undertones. It’s great to see the crowd embracing such a young, fun, self described ‘brat pop’ band. The new generation is nigh.

After a short intermission, it’s time for the main event. Skunk Anansie take to the stage. Kicking straight into This Means War, frontwoman Skin stomps around, her big personality and even bigger voice filling up the room. For the next two hours Skunk Anansie delve into each of their seven albums, including choice cuts off The Painful Truth. Songs like new single An Artist is an Artist sit snugly alongside the cream of the crop spanning the past three decades.

God Loves Only You is probably more important now than it was when released back in 2010, with lyrics ‘our world is changing ‘cause your God loves only you’ carrying the message Skin introduced the song with. Monologuing about Christian nationalists picking on people weaker than them, Skin emotes ‘This is not a political statement, this is a statement about basic human empathy’ before rallying ‘We all deserve to live our fucking life. When we all come together we will fucking crush the fascists!’.

The mid set one-two punch of Secretly and Weak is an absolutely incredible choice by the band. As soon as the strings kick in, the crowd goes wild. Secretly shows off the beautiful range Skin possesses, while Weak has the whole room singing at the top of their lungs.

Instead of the usual ‘one more song’ encore, why not have five? A few more sneaky new tracks are highlighted, but it’s the fan favourite Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) that stands out.

With the current state of the world, Skunk Anansie’s messages are just as relevant now as they’ve ever been. Songs like Yes it’s Fucking Political highlight ‘negative are all your views, so you can prop up your fake cool’ and ‘yes it’s fucking political, everything’s political’. While set closer Little Baby Swastikkka asks ‘who put the little baby swastika on the wall?’ and describes youths getting swept up into fascist ideals with ‘You rope them in young. So small, so innocent, so young. So delicately done, grown up in your poison’. This band have been setting an example since 1994, and with a new album on the way, they show no intention of stopping any time soon.