At The Barrier’s favourite fop-poppers, Barbara are half way through their Spring ’26 tour. They’ve got an album to promote, a raft of new songs rolling off the presses and they’re cooking with gas. We boarded the Barbara barge as it moored in Bristol Docks…

THE LOUISIANA

If you’re lucky enough to be a resident of Bristol, you’ll be in the know already. The Louisiana may, from outward appearances, look like any other street corner pub – albeit one with a distinctive Southern Colonial appearance – but, around these parts, it’s something of a legend.

It began almost by accident, back in 1996. A fire at another Bristol venue prompted a pair of local promoters to ask if they could use the upstairs room at the pub for the show they had planned – and the Louisiana floodgates opened. During its first week of operations, The Louisiana hosted shows by Placebo and Super Furry Animals. It soon gained a reputation as an incubator for upcoming talent and the list acts that have cut their teeth on the Louisiana’s stage over the years makes awesome reading indeed.

Amy Winehouse, The Chemical Brothers, The Scissor Sisters, The National, Florence and the Machine, Coldplay, Muse, George Ezra – they’ve all graced The Louisiana – several of them on more than one occasion. It’s more than likely that there’ll be another name added to that list of glorious Louisiana alumni. Many here tonight will be saying: “When Barbara played The Louisiana on the evening of Friday 15th May 2026, I was there…”

THE 85ERs

Barbara have tried something a little different for this year’s Spring Tour. For each city they’re visiting, they’ve made a request for a local act to put themselves forward for a support slot and it’s a plan that seems to be working well. If the treat they’d lined up for us in Bristol can be considered as any sort of guideline. The 85ers – friends of Barbara keyboardist Henry Tydeman from his days as a student at Bristol University brought a considerable following along to the show in their own right. The ensemble draw their membership from the crew of the Portishead lifeboat and they sing SHANTIES!

Shanties and Barbara – a match made in heaven!

SHANTY TIME!

What’s more, songs like Haul Away Joe, John Kanacker, Mingulay Boat Song, Drunken Sailor, New York Girls, Bound for South Australia and Donkey Riding (and the 85ers did them all – one after the other) sound so very right when they’re being performed just a beam’s reach away from the quayside of Bristol Dock. It seemed as though everybody in the packed room knew the words (and actions) to every song. And, when there’s a team of accomplished harmony specialists like The 85ers setting the pace, the only option is to sing along – lustily, lavishly and loud. And so we did. What a way to warm up!

By the way, they’re called The 85ers because the Portishead lifeboat is an Atlantic 85 boat; 8.5 metres in length, with a top speed of 35 knots. That’s fast.

CENTRAL SERVICES RESUME…

This being a Barbara headlining show, the interval entertainment was, once again, provided by the eclectic Tydeman playlist. That’s a pleasure that Barbara have to forego when they’re opening for the likes of Paul Weller or Kid Creole but, tonight, we were once again able to enjoy the madness. The themes to Top Cat and Captain Scarlet, a refreshing burst of John Kongos, Duelling Banjos and a snippet of I Left My Heart in San Francisco were all present and correct, before the fanfare of Michael Kamen’s Central Services announced Barbara’s imminent arrival onstage. “This is the biggest-selling show of tour,” Henry had told me, and it sure looked that way. This was almost a Barbara home match!

As I’ve already alluded, Barbara have a string of high-quality new songs that they’re currently in the process of road-testing and they kicked off this Bristol show with one such example. The Lycra We Live In is another Barbara stormer, well worthy of deeper investigation. I love the time change and the hilarious stand up/crouch down routine that the band have incorporated into their performance of the song.

Tolerant Nation, a song that made its appearance on Barbara’s 2025 debut album was next and they were knocking up such a lather that John had to slip out of his jacket – even at this early point in the show! Special mention here goes to bassist Jack Hosgood who really nailed his punchy, funky bass solo, before the band dived straight ahead, into Property Owning Democracy. And nobody needed second bidding to supply the obligatory “Bop, showaddy…”

WHAT! NO BUBBLE MACHINE?

I never did get around to following up on John’s suggestion to get Mary, the venue’s owner, to tell me her Chris Martin story (“…you will NEVER look at a fruit salad the same again…”). It sounds intriguing… During Beryl – Barbara’s tribute to the iconic artist Beryl Cook – I found John’s peach shirt/tartan pullover combo quite distracting (a shame – it’s my favourite track on the recent album…). And the audience, already in a mood for singing after having been through The 85ers mill, emptied its collective lung once again, singing along to Master Narrative.

No encouragement was necessary to get the audience idiot dancing along to Isn’t She Strange, the new single – poised to hit the racks in just a couple of days’ time. They’ve got it off pat, that’s for sure, right down to detail of John donning his castanets to play along to Dean’s Espagnol guitar passage. From one of their newest songs, Barbara then surged straight into one of their oldest. Rainy Days in June was the first Barbara song I ever heard, and I still love it. Unfortunately, the bubble machine that Barbara had brought along, especially for the occasion, didn’t work but, in John’s words: “We got through it…”

INFLATABLE SAXOPHONE

Father Before Me is another of Barbara’s more recent songs and it was clearly familiar to the majority of the audience, many of whom were singing happily along. Tonight was Barbara’s first ever Bristol gig; Bristol might be new to Barbara but, it seems, Barbara aren’t new to Bristol! And, sticking with the newer material, the excellent Stag Do is another song making its debut appearance on this tour. It’s performance was highly appropriate, given the venue’s harbourside location and the preponderance of stag and hen parties running amok in the adjacent streets.

The story unfolds as ‘Kev’ and his mates head off to Spain; it’s another singalong and John led the way during the “Stag do – it’s what everybody does,” chorus, before breaking new ground with a solo on an inflatable saxophone and a bout of good ol’ male bonding with Dean as the confetti fell.

John drapes his arm around a blissful-looking Jack, as Dean plays one of his signature fluent guitar solos to add an extra sparkle to These New Communications. Then, John has the entire room clapping along to Pretty Straight Guy – a Barbara classic. Introduced as “the last song,” (it wasn’t, of course…) Mein Fräulein has been honed to absolute perfection. It’s a complex song, but Barbara have the details absolutely right – take the authentic 1920s sound of Henry’s piano as an example – and the effort has paid off – the audience loved it.

A FRANTIC ENDING

Barbara moved across to the side of the stage and hid unconvincingly for a few seconds before returning for the inevitable, thoroughly deserved, encore. Under Your Skin is yet another newbie and its a wonderful poppy affair with a real 1970s feel. Dean and drummer Lawrie shared the spotlight and I found myself thinking how well Barbara would have been received on Top of the Pops, back in the day. And, even though most – if not all – of the audience were hearing the song for the first time, we still all managed to join in with the “Is it true what they say about love?” refrain.

The evening ended on a frantic note. Waiting Outside Alone is promoted – from set opener to encore – and it’s a show-stopper, regardless of where it sits in the Barbara running order. Then, as a finale, The 85ers returned to the stage to join Barbara on the show’s final, final song, The Contented Commuter. The 85ers can rock as well as they can shanty! We all joined in, for the last time, pledging that: “We love to work on… (every day of the week).” We don’t, of course – we were fibbing on that one, but we’d all had a wonderful, wonderful time.

THERE’S STILL TIME…

If you haven’t yet caught up with Barbara on this Spring Tour, you’re missing a real treat. But, the good news is that there’s still time. The Barbara carnival arrives in the band’s home town of Brighton on Saturday 23rd May for a show at The Hope and Ruin, before going on to Gullivers in Manchester on 28th May and winding up at The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh on 29th May. Tickets are available here.

And – as for the Louisiana? I’ll definitely be visiting again. And the constant stream of high-quality artists that pass through the venue’s portals means that it won’t just be to hear the landlady’s Chris Martin anecdote, either!

Barbara: Website

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