Ian McNabb at The Brunswick (18.4.2026) at The Brunswick, Hove.
The Icicle Works have been a special band to a group of us who did a training course together many moons ago. In 1987 we travelled from our Weston-super-Mare base to see them at Bristol Bierkeller and Cardiff University and in more recent decades we caught up with them at Shepherd’s Bush (2006) Empire and Islington Assembly Rooms (2017), with Brighton Komedia in between (2016). For me, six Icicle Works gigs in all, a solo Ian McNabb gig in a Southsea pub in 2013 which didn’t go well and a support slot with Big Country at Southampton 1865 in 2024.
His solo material hits some highs, with the 2025 album If It Wasn’t For the Music being the best in my mind and the 2019 album Our Future in Space also a cracker – I bought that CD for a fiver at the merch stand after tonight’s gig.
Tonight, four of us have driven from Chichester to Hove and enjoy chicken burgers and a few drinks in the pub part of the venue beforehand – worth booking. I’m on the alcohol free, amongst the excellent craft ale and IPA selection.
When the doors to the music room open I am delighted and relieved to see chairs – knees and general leg health issues continuing. It’s set up like a jazz club with eventually 95 punters cramming in (says the organiser). What a well chosen venue.
Ian McNabb plays his set in two halves. He’s in a calm and happy mood and the hushed audience laps it all up. These are enthusiasts in tonight. No chatter during songs and one woman is led out after failing to play by this crowd’s self-devised rules. “I’m trying to do a gig here” says Ian, in his soft scouse accent, politely annoyed. The stumbling woman is helped off her makeshift seat on the speaker base, and out.
The sound is stunningly good and Ian plays mostly on his acoustic guitars, including an eye catching twelve string, with some time on the keyboards.
Some of the solo tracks that have stuck on me in recent weeks, my insight notably boosted by a Spotify playlist, make the setlist: Camaraderie from the 1996 Merseybeast album; Makin’ Silver Sing and Our Future in Space, from that LP and the title track of his most recent album If It Wasn’t For The Music. What a great song that is. One to grace a tombstone – if it wasn’t for the music indeed – where would we be.
The set was of course, laced together with old Icicle Works songs. The brilliant rendition of Out of Season was memorable. Hollow Horse a necessity I guess and the anthem that is Understanding Jane, a single I still have, is a special one – nothing to do with my first wife…honest. Evangeline, another but never related.
McNabb’s voice sounded particularly good this evening and the whole ambiance of the gig was perfect for a solo performance.
After the gig we queued at the merch stand to pick up some memories. I got myself a signed copy of the Understanding Jane lyrics, along with a CD and had a photo with our man.
A very pleasant smiley evening.
I was moved to buy the Our Future in Space CD, perhaps jolted by the great line “She wants me to wear skinny jeans – I’m 57, for fuck’s sake, please”, a song about a demanding younger girlfriend.
Ian McNabb new album is out now entitled 65.
Gigs with Ivan 