LIVE REVIEWS
It’s unusual for Sault, the elusive group headed by Little Simz’s past collaborator InFlo, to take the stage. So when All Points East revealed that they would be leading the opening day of this year’s festival (August 15), the excitement spread immediately. Even though they hinted at a global tour in 2023, their only live appearances to date were at London’s Drumsheds, where they delivered a sold-out extravaganza. This night, then, promised an experience no one wanted to miss.
The line-up throughout the day was stacked with strong names like Kirk Franklin, Sasha Keable, Nao, Ms Dynamite, and others. Sadly, every one of these sets was squeezed into a messy three-hour stretch, creating painful overlaps all across the park. After 6 pm, only Main Stage East stayed active, leaving festival-goers with a single option: to watch the headline run of Sault, Cleo Sol, and Chronixx. The latter two, both tied to the mysterious group, each had their slots as well as time performing with the collective.
Nothing quite sets us up for Sault’s epic five-hour showing, which proves both overwhelming and tangled. Dancers and a choir appeared cloaked in burnt ochre robes, resembling travelers from a fictional desert world, surrounded by sand, dunes, and golden-lined rocks. The production had serious funding – a full orchestra with piano, strings, harp, and guitars filled the soundscape, and in the middle of the crowd sat a dusty pyramid that most people ignored. Whispers carried through the audience about the spectacle’s grandeur, with one nearby voice remarking, “Doesn’t InFlo still owe Little Simz £1million?”
The pyramid stage design during Sault’s All Points East 2025 set. Photo credit: Jennifer McCord
Whatever meaning this grand production was meant to communicate was hard to grasp. The leading figures, who looked like InFlo and Sol, seemed to be chasing something, yet it was never clear exactly what. Perhaps it was freedom, since the lead vocalist echoed the refrain of ‘Free’, with additional nods to self-discovery and healing, but the storyline stayed muddy and difficult to follow.
Energy picked up once Sol and Chronixx emerged early in the performance, both in beige suits and reflective shades, slipping into the first act. Alongside the cloaked ensemble, they played through a range of Sault songs that stretched across all twelve albums. Fans were treated to hidden treasures like the mesmerizing ‘S.O.T.H.’ and emotional ‘Pray For Me’, alongside more recognizable tracks such as ‘I Just Want to Dance’ and ‘Why Why Why Why Why’. For many in the crowd, though, the event played more like a quirky encounter than the immersive artistic showcase Sault seemed to be aiming for.
It took nearly two hours for the night to loosen up, and that turning point came courtesy of Chronixx. His uplifting reggae and radiant spirit shifted the whole space, people skanked along to ‘Smile’ and swayed to ‘Likes’, and suddenly the atmosphere felt celebratory again. Once he exited, Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) appeared out of nowhere in a strange yet brilliant surprise. Over chirping bird sounds and glitchy electronic noise, he reshaped ‘Umi Says’, spinning across the stage in a checkered drape, embodying the song’s spirit of liberation with almost comic exaggeration.
Chronixx performing at All Points East on Friday, August 15. Photo credit: The pyramid stage design during Sault’s All Points East 2025 set. Photo credit: Jennifer McCord
After four relentless hours of spectacle, Cleo Sol finally claimed the spotlight for her whole performance. The shift was instant, her gentle voice floated across Victoria Park, drawing hips to sway and couples to curl into each other, the entire air easing at once. She shone in glittering silver cocktail wear, moving gracefully with the poise of someone fully aware of how badly we needed this release. ‘Rose In The Dark’ carried an almost ironic weight as she sang “Hold on a little longer / It’ll be alright”, mirroring exactly what the crowd had been doing throughout the marathon. Closing with ‘Know That You Are Loved’, she stood atop the glowing pyramid while voices from the crowd echoed every lyric back to her, delivering the emotional peak of the evening.
She tried to squeeze in ‘Why Don’t You’ as an encore, but curfew struck, the lights snapped on, and the moment ended abruptly. The intention was clear, to unveil the breadth of Sault’s world through an unconventional showcase, yet the finale, like the beginning, left more questions than answers. For a group as rare on stage as Sault, a little less mystery and a little more music might have made their All Points East appearance truly measure up to the highs of Drumsheds.
Sault played:
‘Glory’
‘Free’
‘Let Me Go’
‘Over’
‘I Just Wanna Dance’
‘Warrior’
‘Faith’
‘Up All Night’
‘Son Shine’
‘Masterpiece’
‘Why Why Why Why Why’
‘Stop Dem’
‘Black Is’
‘Pray For Me’
‘S.O.T.H.’
‘T.H.’
‘W.A.I.’
‘Wildfires’
‘This Generation’
Chronixx played:
‘Big Bad Sound’
‘Here Comes Trouble’
‘Exile’
‘Survivor’
‘Market’
‘Captureland’
‘They Don’t Know’
‘Don’t Be Afraid’
‘Family First’
‘Spanish Town Rockin”
‘Skankin Sweet’
‘Majesty’
‘Sweet Argument’
‘Way You Make Me Feel’
‘Resilient’
‘Eternal Light’
‘Tenement Yard’
‘Saviour’
‘Love Is On A Mountain’
‘Smile Jamaica’
Cleo Sol played:
‘Love Yourself’
‘Rose In The Dark’
‘When I’m In Your Arms’
‘There Will Be No Crying’
‘Things Will Get Better’
‘Reason’
‘Don’t Let Me Fall + Outro’
‘Promises’
‘Sunshine’
‘Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’
‘Blue’ (Unreleased)
‘Know That You Are Loved’
‘Why Don’t You’
LIVE REVIEWS
Arriving at The O2 for the first night of Radiohead’s London residency, we walk in under Stanley Donwood artwork lining the walkway and the lines of the band’s bleak modern chant “Fitter Happier” printed on a huge banner hanging from the ceiling of the former Millennium Dome. The moment instantly brings back memories of walking into Oasis’ Live “25” tour earlier this summer. This is the other major rock return of the year and the atmosphere carries a different kind of excitement, yet the intensity feels just as real. Instead of bucket hats and throwing drinks into warm air, we have cold weather and a slow shuffle through the night to gather in the dark. Toniiiiiight, I’m a pig in a cage on antibiotics.
It almost feels unreal that nine full years have passed since Radiohead’s last album, the rich and sorrowful “A Moon Shaped Pool”, and that they have not toured since 2017. In between, we have seen several side-projects, including Ed O’Brien’s overlooked but inspired solo run as EOB and the way Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood nearly recreated Radiohead’s spirit under a different name through the sharp jazz-rock of The Smile, as well as a wave of controversy.
After performing in Tel Aviv in 2017, questions grew louder about the band’s connection to Israel as the horrors of the genocide in Gaza intensified. Attention landed on Greenwood’s collaboration with Dudu Tassa, an Israeli musician who has played for the IDF, and on Yorke’s later comments responding to criticism. The guitarist had joined anti-government protests in Israel, where his wife is from, and the band recently made their views clear again by speaking out against Netanyahu’s regime, insisting that music should be something that unites people from every culture. That idea guides the show tonight, where there is no sign of protest or boycott.
The audience surrounds the stage, which sits in the center to create a more personal and absorbing feeling than most massive arena shows ever manage. A flickering vocoder opens the room and builds tension before the band walk out and jump straight into old-school territory with the raw guitar gloom of “The Bends” opener “Planet Telex”. It is one of many choices designed to thrill the crowd from a group not always associated with this kind of approach, and the packed venue screams back “everything is broken. why can’t you forget?” as a shared release against everything falling apart in the world around us.
With a “busking approach” guiding the tour, the band rehearsed more than 70 songs and have performed around 43 so far, so this is not the predictable hit conveyor belt of Oasis’ shows. It feels refreshing to never know what is coming next. The setlist leans heavily on the treasures from “OK Computer” and “In Rainbows” and gives equal space to the once-dismissed but now appreciated “Hail To The Thief”. It creates a kind of Radiohead-style hit parade, without “Creep” of course, and includes the occasional glammed-up oddity to let the show breathe.
There is the roaring political fear of “2+2=5”, the huge and aching sweep of “Lucky”, the pulsing electronic rush of “15 Step” and the joyful sing-along of “No Surprises” anchoring the early part of the performance. This section also includes “Sit Down. Stand Up.” with a new soft happy hardcore ending, “Bloom” from the fragile “The King Of Limbs” that now carries a brighter neon energy, and “The Gloaming” flowing into “Kid A”, giving the night a moment to sink before everything intensifies again.
There is not a single chance for a toilet break from that moment onward. From the gentle pain of “Videotape”, to the wild three-part surge of “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” into “Idioteque” and “Everything In Its Right Place”, to the guitar-driven “In Rainbows” songs and the massive first-act finale of “There There”, every moment lands exactly how a Radiohead fan would hope. The visuals also look spectacular.
Then we reach the reward of a seven-song encore that reads like fantasy on paper, complete with the newly viral “Let Down”, a playful return to “a song we wrote on a freezing cold farm in 1994” with the indie powerhouse “Just”, and the huge final blow of “Karma Police”. This show becomes the cinematic and artistic contrast to Oasis’ carefree chaos, capturing that feeling of “standing on the edge” and letting everything wash over you. The entire night carries a fierce energy and a well-judged sense of scale, offered with warmth and intention, and Yorke leans fully into his rockstar presence as the band rotate around the stage to engage each part of the arena. For a group that once cringed at the idea of “arena rock”, no one performs it better. A new album and another night like this would be welcome as soon as possible.
‘Planet Telex’
‘2 + 2 = 5’
‘Sit Down. Stand Up.’
‘Lucky’
‘Bloom’
‘15 Step’
‘The Gloaming’
‘Kid A’
‘No Surprises’
‘Videotape’
‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’
‘Idioteque’
‘Everything In Its Right Place’
‘The National Anthem’
‘Daydreaming’
‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’
‘Bodysnatchers’
‘There There’
‘Fake Plastic Trees’
‘Let Down’
‘Paranoid Android’
‘You and Whose Army?’
‘A Wolf at the Door’
‘Just’
‘Karma Police’
