Michael Kiwanuka’s Brixton Academy gig was first postponed back in March 2020, but not for the reason all the others were. At the start of the month, a few weeks before COVID shut down live music, Kiwanuka – who would win the Mercury Prize for his eponymous third album six months later – cancelled the South London gig just hours before stage time after contracting laryngitis. For subsequent reasons known all too well, it couldn’t then be played for another two-and-a-bit years.
There have been countless gigs in 2022 so far that have been rescheduled from various lockdown periods in recent years, but few of the waits have felt as agonising as this one, and even fewer of the eventual gigs have carried the relief and pure joy that Kiwanuka’s show did on Monday night when he finally got to play it.
