Skindred Launch Their Phenomenal New Album ‘Smile’ With An Intimate Gig in Kingston!

Skindred Launch Their Phenomenal New Album ‘Smile’ With An Intimate Gig at Pryzm in Kingston!

So, it was a rainy Summers night in Kingston and the fans had turned out in their droves to Skindred’s intimate album launch show! Taking place at Pryzm, a local institution normally more of a nightclub, It was the hottest ticket in town and the fans were out in force. And of course, it was an absolute sell-out!! With just a mere 24 hours since the release of Skindred’s long anticipated new Album, ‘Smile’, the venue was buzzing!

And as the lights dimmed and the sounds of AC/DC and then the Star Wars theme song rung out across the venue, the atmosphere was at fever pitch, and as Skindred took to the stage, to the floor shaking bone rattling ‘Set Fazers’, to say that they were on fire was a huge understatement!! With Benji wearing his first outfit of the night!! His signature black floor length python coat and cool shades, complete with rainbow-coloured police badge and sequins, the usual theatrical glamour for which he is so well known and loved! With the effortlessly cool Mikey Demus on Guitar, Arya Goggin on drums with his awesome blend of grooves and balls to the wall heavy metal drumming and the awesome Daniel Pugsley on bass, the Skindred crew were on top form!

As the band played track after fabulous track from their new album as well as a few of their old favourites, ‘Smile’ took the audience on a joyous invigorating journey from the hard-hitting in your face regga-metal anthems for which Skindred are so well known and loved into rock-pop, dub and even a bit of electro!! Their 8^th album and their first release on Earache Records was proving to be an absolute masterpiece! It really was the whole package! Listening to the album on route to the gig, what stood out was that this album literally has it all! There’s music to dance to, music to headbang to, music to let your crazy out too, hell it’s just mind-blowingly great music!! Another thing that really stood out was the complexity of the songs. They are much more, well, complex and intricate than earlier material and they demonstrate just how much Skindred have grown and evolved as a band. The lyrics are raw and uncensored and speak with an honesty that really seemed to resonate with the audience. And the sound is rawer too!

But Skindred didn’t just play songs from the new album, they treated fans to some of their classic and most loved tracks, such as their classic 2007 track, ‘Ratrace’. Catchy as hell with it’s heavy metal guitars, and heavy rock sound and Benji’s frying vocals!

One of the absolute highlights of the night was ‘Kill The Power’ from their album of the same name. It began with Benji talking about how his Mum died when he was 7 years old and his Dad 4 years later. He then went on to talk about how he was raised by his brother Clifford. According to Benji, Clifford asked him one day, what he wanted to do when he grew up and Benji said, ‘heavy metal’! Apparently this wasn’t Clifford’s idea of a good career choice and so it accumulated in a rather a lot of audience participation as with a bit of encouragement from Benji, the crowd chanted, “Fuck Clifford!” and the band erupted into ‘Kill The Power’.

Shortly later, Benji changed into a new Jacket emblazoned with the word, Unity! A word that that sums up the ethos of Skindred perfectly! Skindred are all about bringing people together and bring people together they did!! The obvious gratitude and fondness that Skindred feel for their fans is clear to see and it was heartwarming!

As Skindred played track after track to a joyous reaction from the audience, it was really impressive just how tight this band are! The dynamic between them was simply stunning and they looked like they were having such a great time together, like a family, they just seemed to bonce off each other effortlessly!

A special mention has to go to the venue who really looked after the fans! Although as expected when you get so many hot dancing jumping bodies together, it was as hot as hell, but the endless supply of water and the care they gave was impressive to say the least!

It’s no surprise that since it’s release just one day before the album launch, that ‘Smile’ was flying off the shelves with the CD version hitting number 2 in the amazon best seller charts and it’s not hard to see why!!

With tracks like, ’If I Could’, showing a lighter side to Skindred, with sensitive emotionally driven lyrics, showcasing a softer vocal from Benji, which they blended beautifully with heavy rock guitars and a beautiful drum sound, which just reminded the audience that whilst Skindred will always be a band to party to, they are first and foremost four incredibly talent musicians! This is such an incredibly catchy song and radio friendly beyond words!

Tracks like, ‘L.O.V.E. (Smile Please)’ were an irresistible bit of summertime in a song and I’m sure will be a summertime anthem for many years to come! Full of feelgood with it’s easy raggae vibes!

After a glorious rendition of their party classic, ‘Gimme that Boom’, Skindred left the stage be it briefly, very briefly! But things were left undone as no Skindred gig is ever complete without their song ‘Warning’ and that’s because ‘Warning’ even though it’s a great song, comes with something extra special that the fans had been waiting for all night long! It comes with the ‘Newport Helicopter’, that magic moment where the entire crowd wave their clothes around their heads and generally just let their crazy out!! And this time Benji even gave out extra sparkly waving ‘things’ to those fans who didn’t have enough clothing to swing in the air like “they just don’t care!”

And then it was a wrap!! So to deafening applause Skindred left the stage to a “see you at Wembley” from Benji!! And see them at Wembley we will!!

Setlist:

Set Fazers
Ratrace
Sound The Siren
That’s My Jam
Pressure
L.O.V.E.(Smile Please)
Jump
Kill The Power
If I could
Nobody
Gimme That Boom
Warning

Photos and Review by Louise Phillips