Steam rose from an in-the-round stage to dark, glitching beats. 650 Suedeheads checked their tickets. Either the Festival Hall’s Clore Ballroom had somehow been double booked with Skrillex or, on the first of their six-night South Bank takeover season, a very different sort of Suede was approaching.
A dramatically revitalised one, it transpired. “We are The Suedes,” singer Brett Anderson joked, as if playfully marking out a bold and celebrated new era for the art-rock legends. While their Nineties peers have been busy plundering Britpop-era catalogues for nostalgic stadium lagerthons, Suede have instead been reconnecting with the savage spirit that originally made them Britpop’s big bang in 1992.
