1,429 SUEDE, Bath The Forum, Tuesday 17th February 2026

 

Well, that didn’t go as I’d planned… but, as ever, let’s begin at the beginning…

Either eager to show that it wasn’t a one-off last hurrah, or, as I suspect, more like not giving a crap what anyone thinks of them right now and just writing and releasing what the hell they feel like, 90’s glam sleaze auteurs and Bowie disciples Suede managed to top their stunning return-to-form 2022 album “Autofiction” with last year’s brilliant “Antidepressants”. Unlike its unlucky predecessor (which lost out by a hair to Editors’ similarly redemptive “EDB”), “Antidepressants” topped my 2025 Album of the Year ballot by some considerable distance, continuing the powerful and strident dynamics of “Autofiction” but merging them with a more brittle, claustrophobic cold war feel, inviting for me comparisons with 70’s post punk greats such as Magazine, Comsat Angels and even Joy Division in the process. A trip to see this material in full force and effect was pretty darn essential, then, so we booked for the Bath date, midway through the early 2026 tour.

Rachel was able to join us this time (having had to give up her ticket last time, gig 1,271), as was old buddy Beef, so we set off in good time to arrive just after 7 p.m. doors and catch a highly promising support in goth-tinged post-punkers Bloodworm. All going well, until we hit a massive pothole 3 miles North of Bath; I initially continued driving, but it quickly felt like I was driving on gravel, so pulled over into the Walcot RFC club entrance off the road, to discover a blown-out front tyre. Bollocks! A 10 minute wait to get connected to Green Flag then turned into a 1½ hour wait for the technician to arrive; to be fair, he was excellent and got us turned around quickly, but it meant we actually got going again at 8.45, exactly the time Suede were due onstage. Bugger! To pour salt onto the wound, I then fucked up our directions, pulling into the side road next to the Forum in the belief that it led to the big open-air car park, only to find it was a cul de sac full of the band’s coach convoy! Wasted a good 5 extra minutes extricating the car from this bollard-lined side road before detouring around the ring road to eventually park up. Double Bugger! 

Thus we made a frantic entry to the gig at 10 past 9, just as Suede were kicking into the 6^th number on the set (our arrival ensuring we’d missed a couple of potential highlights in newie “Dancing With The Europeans” and the evergreen anthem “Trash”). Rach hit the loo and I squirmed my way down the front, pitching up 3 or 4 rows back, house right before the sardine-tight crowd prevented further forward progress. So our first number, the jagged off-kilter hobnail boot-stomper “Personality Disorder” was followed by the stark ballad “Pale Snow”, the band already changing up the mood and tempo of the set between fast and slow, anthemic and introspective, light and shade. And singer and mainman Brett Anderson, as ever, was everywhere; already Sweaty Bretty after barely half an hour, he was running across the stage like a demented puppy, on and off monitors, in and out of the photo pit, in everyone’s faces (literally, for the barrier folks!), constantly demanding more from himself, the audience, and his splendidly proficient if slightly anonymous bandmates. No, Brett was leading the charge, his performance so good I was actually livid that I’d missed so much of the set, conversely being unable to settle into the gig and really enjoy myself. Damn that fucking pothole!

Thankfully, a brilliant, sweeping “It Starts And Ends With You”, the actual mid-point of the set, snapped me back into the room. Brett’s vocals, a little ragged and off-key during an earlier “Outsiders” (legacy of all the physical effort, I guess), were better, powering a roof-raising audience singalong. This heralded an absolutely tremendous set section; a soaring “New Generation”, the hushed build of “June Rain” leading to a bleeding-raw choral crescendo, the careering punk rock double of “She Still Leads Me On” (my overall highlight of the set) and a moodier, pseudo-Goth “Shadow Self”, then a quite beautiful “High Rising”, delivered voice and piano only, Brett’s deep sonorous vocals partly delivered off-mic to a pindrop-hushed audience.

The slashing glam riffery of oldie “Metal Mickey” and another soaring singalong in “Beautiful Ones”, Brett going crowd walkabouts in my corner to kick this one off, rounded off the set, Brett praising the Suedeworld crowd with the comment, “Bath, you have been beautiful!” One encore only in “The Only Way I Can Love You” ended a 1½ hour performance, of which we missed 5 songs and 25 minutes. A quick squirm to the front and a polite shout got me a list, then I ran into friends Jo and Andy Ashley separately for quick chats before meeting Rach and Beef at the merch, briefly apologising to the Bloodworm boys for missing them, before a happily quieter journey home. Suede on great form then, so on reflection I’m glad I got to see what I did!