The Psychedelic Furs live at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea (30.10.2025) with Anja Huwe supporting.
It’s a tortuous drive along the coast from Portsmouth, where I was for Wednesday night’s gig, to Bexhill-on-Sea, in East Sussex. An endless trail of roundabouts, traffic lights and two lanes into one, all with queues. We made it to the De La Warr Pavilion though, and I’m glad I made the trip.
Before the venue opened at 7pm, we have a pint in The Compass, a lovely bistro style bar on the same road, nearly opposite. Parking next to the venue was easy and inexpensive at 6pm but look like it filled up quickly from then on.
Approaching this seafront, 1935, iconic, modernist building, it looks like an old Pan Am terminal. It’s due a refurbishment but inside the architectural lines are beautiful. There’s a relaxed bar upstairs, a record seller in the lobby, an outdoor balcony that’s a bit breezy tonight, with another bar downstairs. Many of the punters in the upstairs bar are artistically dressed, as if for a film festival – trendy place huh. The Furs do have that art school feel.
Despite the sprawling building, the venue itself is relatively small with a 1,500 capacity. It reminds me of my old school hall (that was built three years later I find), even the balcony where I am seated, at the rear (third row centre – eventually). It could be a scene from the Ramones’ Rock’n’Roll High School film. The difference is the lower, standing balconies to each side. Novel.
My photo makes it look further than it is to the stage but cameras not welcome up here so I stick with my phone and only snap a few to show I was here.
The support band was a particularly interesting one. I never did see 80s German goth rock band X-Mal Deutdchland but had a compilation LP with a few tracks on and they were a John Peel radio show regular. Tonight we have their singer, Anja Huwe, to entertain us.
A genuine treat to hear Anja Huwe and best of all the rendition of Incubus Succubus, the track I remember most from X-Mal Deutschland. (Link to Peel recording.)
My Psychedelic Furs history involves buying all the LPs, including the first four on cassette. (More here on my Furs in Pompey blog.) Then at the end of that tour was The Roundhouse gig where I ended up in the end of tour party with the band, where I found out I was born in the same hospital as bassist Tim Butler.
Hence my Psychedelic Furs bond is a firm one. There are only a few bands that can play absolutely anything and I know it. The set list tonight is a wander through tracks from the first to the most recent, eighth album. No room for anything from The Book of Days mind.
The confined nature of the stage was now enhanced by the lighting, making it all look even more like a school hall concert. No roving spotlights either, so that when any band members, notably bassist Tim Butler, went walkabout off to the sides they disappeared into the darkness, bar the glow from nearby phones.
No saxophone on this tour, following the death of Mars Williams, two years back. Perhaps a mark of respect and it is such a missing addition given how the sax flavours many Furs songs.
Richard Butler acts out the songs with his hand gestures and expressions – as I was seated I didn’t feel I should join in. He’s very mobile for 69 and his little jumps in anticipation of a song show he’s up for this. The voice is still the sound of a thousand smoked cigarettes.
President Gas, a favourite, is delivered early – no controversial mock salutes tonight. Other poppy tunes include Love My Way and Pretty in Pink and, while I enjoy these, it’s the rougher rasping numbers that are better as a live experience. There’s the chaos of Mr Jones from Talk Talk Talk and the slower strains of the brilliant The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll, from the latest 2020 album. Wrong Train is another belter from that album and that gets an airing.
The lighting at times uses the pink and green associated with the Forever Now LP and that deep purple colour of the 2020 Made if Rain LP. Quite minimalist though and I wonder if there is more unused equipment in the truck for the London Palladium tomorrow.
The poppy Pretty in Pink and similarly poppy but more urgent Heartbreak Beat round off the main set. The crowd has been quite calm but appreciative… and now they’re noisy. I imagine this is one of the more sedate venues on the tour.
The Furs return with the weaving, stop/tart of It Goes On from the second LP, Talk Talk Talk. (I failed to resist a t-shirt of that LP, downstairs at the merch desk.) Then the final beautiful offering…India. Starting with that slow build-up, Richard Butler using some percussion to mimic the unmistakable interference sound, then the rumble before the song gets in full flow with the frantic drumming and thrashing guitar. Great way to finish.
They’ll soon be back to the US where they live and I wonder when, and if, we will see them tour the UK again. Enjoy it while you can, eh?
Gigs with Ivan 