Kula Shaker – Manchester Ritz 12/2/26

Kula Shaker – Manchester Ritz 12/2/26

Wine experts will often say that often their favourite tipple of choice will get better with age.  I am no longer a drinker but I have to say the 2026 vintage of Kula Shaker is very much to this Ulsterman’s tastes! I have been a fan of the band for a long time, right back to pre Kula Shaker days when they were called The Kays. Their psychedelic groove with a modern Britpop twist has been taken to some dizzying heights with the release of their new album ‘Wormslayer’ which sees them at their most adventurous yet.

The band obviously have great confidence in this new record by treating this sold out crowd with three tracks from the album at the start of the set (Lucky Number/Good Money/Charge Of The Light Brigade) and these three tracks, all released as singles, sound massive. When singer/guitarist Crispin Mills throws in a bit of The Stone Roses classic Fool’s Gold whilst looking to the sky in homage to Mani, the bass player who passed away late last year….well, I have to say it brought a lump to my throat and a tear to the eye.

The visual aspect of the show is a psychedelic projection brought courtesy of a San Francisco crew, The Mad Alchemist Liquid Light Show – a show that Grateful Dead would be proud of which suits the trippy feel of their sound incredibly well. What also suits the evening is the journeys back into the band’s back catalogue ranging from the title track of their previous album Natural Magick to a couple of prime slices from the Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts album, namely Shower Your Love and Sound Of Drums both of which are elongated tonight to the crowd’s delight!

Kula Shaker are a four piece which brings a feeling there is space for each musician to show their prowess. They are joined for a number of songs with an Indian lady (I think was called Tripiana but I could be wrong) who had a voice that was so pure and beautiful that it has to be heard to be believed. The normal part of the set ends with an epic seven and a half minute version of the title track from the new record, Wormslayer and the band leave the stage.

We are treated to a four song encore (well even though this Mancunian crowd is rather blissed out, I feel that they could have become rather less blissed out if the band hadn’t have returned to the stage!). First up is the best song named after a road since AC/DC told us about the Highway To Hell, 303 which is a road that leads to a more spiritual and mysterious place than the one Bon and Angus informed us of back in 1979! Next up is another classic from their 1996 classic debut K, the rock/dance classic Tattva with it’s beautiful Eastern promise. Their cover of Hush, originally by Joe South but brought to so many rockers of a particular vintage by Deep Purple in the mid 1980’s and finally Govinda which has absolutely every member of this audience on their feet and singing every single word. They give the audience a bow and leave the stage. Kula Shaker will be touring France, Belgium and Germany but fans in the UK can see them at both the Belladrum (Inverness) on 30^th July and Kernowfornia on 5^th September!