By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Friday 18 September, tour runs through 1 December 2026

Setlist: Tonight; Like A Motorway; Spring; Glad; You’re In A Bad Way; Shower Scene; Who Do You Think You Are?; Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi); Pale Movie; Brand New Me; Mario’s Cafe; Take Me To The Pilot; Only Love Can Break Your Heart; DJ; Stormtrooper In Drag; He’s On The Phone/7 Ways To Love; Nothing Can Stop Us; The Last Time

Never has a band understood its fans better and reflected it back.

• Read on for reasons including why this should be au revoir to Saint Etienne not adieu

Opener Tonight is a case in point. Sample lyric: ‘Maybe they’ll open with with an album track, a top 5 hit no turning back. … This could be my life. This could save my life.’

But all good things must come to an end and, after more than 30 years releasing records and touring, tonight is Saint Etienne’s last London gig on a tour which currently climaxes in December 2026.

We’ve seen them at gigs we can remember on Pompey seafront late 90s, London Palladium in their 00s pomp, 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Bristol more recently. There may have been others. Saint Etienne have always had the tunes to be a band to celebrate with rather than to rub whiskers and admire.

Our favourite film of this year so far is Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal’s The History Of Sound and it includes a version of folk song Silver Dagger (listen below) which is the basis for the emotionally devastating Like A Motorway given an early electronic airing here.

We think Portsmouth Pyramids late 90s was the 1st time we ever saw Saint Etienne and we’re disappointed band banger Sylvie makes way in the set tonight for the for us inferior Mario’s Cafe but that’s a minor gripe.

Lead singer Sarah Cracknell is joined onstage by the marvellous Debsey and there are so many of our favourite pop treats to enjoy tonight including the peerless Pale Movie, You’re In A Bad Way and Who Do You Think You Are? adorning this greatest hits set like baubles on the sparkliest of Christmas trees.

Their biggest hit (watch and listen below) is interpolated with the classic He’s On The Phone here but was actually recorded under a different name because the band thought it too cheesey to be a Saint Etienne song.

Throw in an obscure cover by the band’s beloved Gary Numan – Stormtrooper In Drag – and it was a quintessentially Saint Etienne evening with Sarah missing her cue making The Last Time the last song tonight rather than the perhaps more upbeat and intended Nothing Can Stop Us.

Sample Adam and The Ants-inspired lyric: ‘And 30 odd years later, we seem suave and refined. We’re not the dandy highwaymen you might expect to find.’

1 of our favourite gigs of the year so far and so many more than 7 ways to love a band that after more than 30 years we’re ready to say au revoir but not adieu to.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Saint Etienne Tickets
• Have you seen Saint Etienne before and what did you think of them? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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