Del Amitri’s songs have always had a degree of world weariness. ‘The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care,’ singer and songwriter Justin Currie sang on the band’s debut hit, Nothing Ever Happens, at the tail end of the 1980s. The song’s success catapulted the band into showbiz. After a Top Of The Pops appearance, audiences for the band’s gigs swelled overnight.

By Miles Salter

Currie’s demeanour has changed little. Introducing a rarely played song from Change Everything, Sometimes I Just Have To Say Your Name, he said ‘everything’s f*cked’, a two word dismissal of any happy ending for the world’s current trajectory: brutal climate change, war and the rise of A.I.

Despite this, Currie leads one of the best outfits in rock, and won’t give up just yet. The band clearly wanted to be good, and they were – in spades. Watching a Del Amitri gig is to take a little trip away from the gloom, a brief holiday from the darkness. The world may be on the edge of catastrophe, but here were five guys that sang and played their hearts out.

As one of the songs states, we ‘might as well go spit in the rain.’ There’s a ‘what the hell’ feel to some of their songs. Whiskey Remorse, one of two B-sides played on the night, reads like a joke. It’s about a guy who gets three wishes but ends up ‘wasting them to hell’.

Currie looked a little older. He’s 61. Grey hair framed his face. A very handsome man, he retains his good looks. His long term sidekick and lead guitarist, Iain Harvie, sported a brown 70s jacket, his greying long hair near a wispy moustache and beard. He could have been an Amsterdam pimp, ready to offer you crystal meth in a side street.

Guitarist Kris Dollimore stood stage left. Currie, Harvie and Dollimore were a great team, swapping the bass guitar or acoustic as the song demanded. Each sang a verse on Drunk In A Band, one of the final songs. Andy Alston (keyboards) looked like he could have been in the crowd at Antiques Roadshow. Drummer Jim McDermott had a cheeky chappy demeanour but clearly loved being in this band.

This was the opening night of the new tour. There were one or two modest cock-ups: Currie fluffed the words at the end of Whiskey Remorse, and there were one or two missed cues as the band exchanged looks and laughs. Alston’s new synthesiser made it sound like Daleks were in the venue, even if the band couldn’t hear it.

But this is a band I’ll never get tired of seeing, the only group I have seen in six different U.K. cities. Currie is a songwriting genius, welding soaring choruses with lyrics that can be funny, caustic or tender. The set ran from Tell Her This (the second best love song ever) to This Side Of The Morning (a happy go lucky song about a break up) to Missing Person (from 2021’s Fatal Mistakes album).

Currie’s battle with Parkinson’s has been well documented, and has opened up new avenues – he is now an author as well as a songwriter. To carry on is a kind of bravery. A new album is due in 2027. He is still – thank goodness – spitting into the rain.

Del Amitri played at O2 Academy Leeds on Monday 9 November 2026.