Streets /The Mitchell Brothers/Kano : Plymouth...
The Flux Capacitor – as everybody knows – is what makes time travel possible. What makes time stand still are the senses: a smell; a taste; an album that perfectly soundtracks the moment you first heard it. The Streets’ ‘A Grand Don’t...
Big Day Out : Sydney Olympic Park
“We are The Hives from Sweden!” shouts a sweaty Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, having just disposed of his dinner jacket to the side of the main stage at Sydney’s Big Day Out. “It’s a COLD country. And THIS,” he motions to the hot sun...
Streets : Dry Your Eyes
A friend of NME's went to see [/a] recently and was a bit taken aback. It wasn't that the 2,000 people packed into Manchester Apollo were bouncing for Britain, that's expected. But, apparently, they were also singing every word back at Mike...
Streets/Dizzee Rascal : New York Irving Plaza
Bartenders at Irving Plaza are used to popping Heinie caps and pouring shots of Jack down the throats of the hipsters who typically gather here to see the latest hyped garage rock act. Not tonight. Tonight the place stinks of cheap perfume worn by...
Streets : Manchester Apollo
So let's get this out of the way before we start. Streets ' live show isn't - to be brutally honest with you - especially good. Oh, it's genius alright. Mike Skinner - in the prophet of the people, king of telling-it-like-it-is stakes - has hit...
Streets : Fit But You Know It
Cue husky Lisa I'Anson-style voiceover: "Meet 25-year-old Birmingham-born, London-based Mike. Mike's been drinking non-stop since he arrived in Ibiza for his annual 18-30 holiday four days ago. And he's got his eye on one of the reps…"...
Streets /Goldie Lookin' Chain/Lady Sovereign :...
If there weren’t no Streets there’d almost definitely be no Lady Sovereign. An 18-year old pocket sized MC (she’s a self-declared "ragga midget" ) who looks like Mike Skinner’s still-teenage sweetheart, gets her jewellery from Claire’s...
Homelands : Winchester Bowl
24th May 2003 Homelands is not so much a festival as an excuse to get as off-your-tits as humanly possible. When NME arrives it's only 1pm and people are already dancing around the car park and trying to buy pills off their own reflection....
Streets : Bristol University
Ah, the irony. On his year's-end victory lap tour, gap-toothed suburban street poet Mike Skinner finds himself playing the live room of Bristol University to a room full of beered-up rugby jocks and bulging trust-fund wallets. We're definitely not...
Streets : Weak Become Heroes
One of the most remarkable tracks off a remarkable album, 'Weak Become Heroes' is Mike Skinner's beautiful, bittersweet testament to dance culture. It's rave Proust, no less, with a takeaway and a tune triggering a torrent of vivid flashbacks from...
