Baxter Dury brings all his energy and new record, Allbarone, to Manchester. Support comes from Joshua Idehen.

All live photography by Dominic Walsh.

JOSHUA IDEHEN: AN ELECTRIC EMBRACE

As supporting acts go, Joshua Idehen is among the most arresting and effective seen to date. At times, he functions less as a warm-up and more as a compère, seizing command of the room. His core messages of love, unity, and communal strength effortlessly draw the Albert Hall into his energetic embrace. The bare-footed British-Nigerian poet bounds onto the stage, cheekily asking the intrigued Manchester audience to greet him with the intensity reserved for Dolly Parton.

Accompanied by DJ Ludvig Parment, he instantly ignites the party on a dark autumnal night. The Albert Hall setting proves eerily perfect for his sermon-like delivery; the upper floor pews are packed, and the backdrop of stained-glass windows lends a solemn, poetic-club resonance to the performance.

Future hits are clearly on the horizon for Joshua Idehen: Illegal Hit and All You Can Do Is Try strike a perfect chord, leaving the crowd suitably primed. His self-proclaimed “most controversial song,” Mama Does The Washing, reveals itself as a clever, biting metaphor for class structures. By the time he finishes, offering free hugs to a visibly growing fan base, the Albert Hall is aglow with rhythmic anticipation and warmth. This is an artist with a bright, burgeoning future, and tonight he provides the perfect, emphatic platform.

BAXTER DURY: THE NYLON PANTHER PROWL

Baxter Dury paces and stalks the stage with the calculated motion expected of a man whose spirit animal is, unequivocally, a panther—and a nylon one at that. His suit jacket, often shrugged off one shoulder, and the limberness of a man defying his years, project his trademark charisma and arch quirkiness directly into the music. He is not here to digress with anecdotes or opinions; they reside solely within his finely-wrought lyrics. For this audience, he has arrived to perform a deconstruction.

The performance tonight delivers the precise wit and sharply honed observation for which Dury has become widely acclaimed. This tour, celebrating his magnificent new album, Allbarone, is largely sold out, and the reason is immediate: the music hits with a visceral force, compelling those in attendance to dance and rave as the electro-punk beats reverberate through the floor.

I SAW HIS DAD…

Opening with Alpha Dog and Hapsburg, both from his Allbarone, the sense is immediate that his newest work has already been absorbed into the dancing core of the collective soul. There is a palpable appreciation for an artist who appears most at home when deconstructing social norms for the sake of his satirical assaults. Yet, beneath the onstage prowling and gyrating, there is an inherent, compelling humility.

Before his set, conversations in the crowd drift to recollections of “seeing his Dad, back when…” and a small fraction of attendees may have arrived out of pure curiosity. However, by the time the band swept through fan favourites Aylesbury Boy and I’m Not Your Dog from his previous works, every curious spectator had become a true convert.

A BOILING CRESCENDO

As the night develops, the suit jacket—surely woven from reinforced thread—is twisted and stretched to the limits of its fabric elasticity. The mic stand, transformed into a pole for the enigmatic Dury to cut loose upon, slides across the stage at the command of the relentless performer. The backing band, which carries the essential rhythmic heavy lifting, skillfully give Dury the spatial freedom to draw the audience in for closer, more fevered inspection.

Tracks from the latest album all sound fresh, rich, and lustily delivered. The Other Me and Kubla Khan receive resounding applause from a crowd now fully embracing the sonic mania. Cocaine Man, always a favourite, feels perfectly apt on this dark Manchester night. With arms aloft, the audience sway and cavort as Dury spits the reference of ‘Breakfast at The Berghain’ during the huge Return of The Sharp Heads. Mockingjay finds Dury at his mesmerizing, articulate best. Slowly but surely, the temperature had been dialed up, signaling the imminent, explosive crescendo.

ALL.BAR.ONE.EE

With any new album tour, predicting which tracks will translate best live is a risk, but of one thing, there is no doubt. The anticipation is thick regarding when the true highlight of the night would land. Allbarone is a pure, unadulterated banger. It contains everything a dance floor needs: driving bass, a cracking synth riff, piercing vocals, and an impossibly catchy chorus. Tonight, it didn’t just lift the roof; it tore it clean off the Albert Hall. A sea of smiling faces turned to one another, mouthing back the chorus: “ALL.BARONE.EE.”

By this point, the jacket was off, and so were the gloves. Dury, grinning, knew he had delivered a massive track. These are the rare moments at gigs where the crowd collectively wills the music never to end—this was one of them. As soon as it concludes, we head straight to the similarly immense Schadenfreude—like the man himself, it is smart, cutting, and all-too-honest. Coming immediately after the euphoria of “Allbarone,” it sounds all the more resonant.

THE PINNACLE PANTHER PROWL

And that is how you draw a main set to a close. Everyone present lusts for more. With one final, expectant prowl back to the stage, we get Mr W4. It’s a serene, necessary moment amid the madness of the set’s climax—a breather the crowd didn’t realise they needed. It was during this track that Baxter graciously acknowledged his brilliant backing band and support act.

As the gig draws to its inevitable conclusion, there is one more ace up that suit-covered sleeve: Baxter (these are my friends) remains Dury’s biggest track and sounds huge. The dance-party anthem brings a warehouse-style rave energy to the Albert Hall, ensuring the night ends on a euphoric, deafening high.

Baxter Dury intimately understands his people and the architecture of his performance. This tour, backed by an album that should be an undisputed highlight of 2025, will grant him the intense spotlight he so often seems to avoid but absolutely deserves.

Baxter Dury: Website / Facebook / Instagram

Joshua Idehen: Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram

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