Ladytron

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 22:09:50 +0000
music

I saw Ladytron perform in Digital, Newcastle last night. The last time I saw them was, I think, at the same venue, 18 years ago. Time flies!

Back in the day (perhaps their heyday, perhaps not!) Ladytron ploughed a particular sonic furrow and did it very well. Going into the gig I had set my expectations that, should they play just these hits, I'd have a good time.

The gig exceeded my expectations. The setlist very much did not lean into their best-known period: the more recent few albums were very well represented and to me this felt very confident. The lead singer, Helen Marnie, demonstrated some excellent range, particularly on some of the new songs. Daniel Hunt did a lot of backing vocals and they were really complementary to Helen's: underscoring but not overpowering. I enjoyed nerding out watching Mira Ayoro's excellent wrangling of her Korg MS-20. One highlight was an encore performance of Light & Magic, which was arguably the "alternate version" as available on the expanded versions of that album or the Remixed and Rare companion.

I thought I'd try to put together a 5-track playlist for a friend who attended the gig but isn't super familiar with them. As usual this is hard. I'm going to avoid the obvious hits, try to represent their whole career and try to ensure the current trio each get a vocal turn in the selection.

They actually released their latest album, Paradises, yesterday as well. One track from it is in the list below.
I'm Not Scared by Ladytron Kingdom Undersea by Ladytron Blue Jeans by Ladytron He took her to a movie by Ladytron Transparent Days by Ladytron
(If you can't see anything, the bandcamp embeds have been stripped out by whatever you are viewing this with)