Idlewild live in Oxford review: “We were last here back in 1998. It’s the only gig we ever played topless”

Welcome to another edition of Woomblewatch. We followed the migratory path far south of the usual habitat to witness Idlewild live in Oxford. Safe in a hiding place of twilight colours and silhouetted branches, Roddy Woomble ventured close to the limelight, hardly ever retreating to the customary shadows as he, the band and the grateful fans rocked out to a delightfully dynamic set spanning thirty years.

14 April, 2026: Idlewild live in Oxford at O2 Academy

A very interesting decision kicked off the show. A quick scan of the setlist indicated that the band were confident that this 30th anniversary tour was for longstanding fans. Not just because of the prominence of belters from the first three albums, but also because they played their biggest hit single, You Held The World In Your Arms, first. First! Like, what are you playing first, Bryan Adams, Summer of ’69? How about you, Taylor Swift, Shake It Off? First!! Love it!

Second up was Like I Had Before, the second song from Idlewild’s newest album, Idlewild. It slotted in to this vintage set effortlessly because it has an older-era Idlewild sound.

Every photo pit experience has unique highs and lows. Questionable lighting and a catastrophic lens failure should have made this one of the worst, up there with Third Eye Blind being entirely shrouded in dry ice (twice! You’d think one of us would have learned the first time).

Still, some things are more important than pin-sharp photos. Tricksy Hobbitses. False! That’s right, sometimes…occasionally, rarely, enjoying the moment is more important than documenting it. Especially when you find yourself doing the thing you love to the soundtrack of your youth. When I Argue I See Shapes opened with those notes that meant everything, mixed with memories of SHAPES scribbled on class notes, yelled across the playground and blasted before nights out and, well, Idlewild gigs. It was even more special to find out later that our partner-in-crime from those memories 28 years and 200 miles away was in the Oxford crowd for this bucket list moment too! (SHAPES!)

The title track of 2019’s Interview Music was greeted warmly but it could only hope to be a warm up for the ever-popular Roseability. No matter how many times ‘Gertrude Stein said that’s enough,’ the fans were ready to chant back for more – including some more often than the song intended. We can forgive them for briefly forgetting the cadence of a 25 year old song, of course!

Truth be told, we were a bit off our game too, still feeling the aftershocks of Oxford’s laudable-in-theory but baffling-in-practice traffic control measures. Whether by accident or design, the reality on the road resembled Frogger meets meets GTA V. Everyone in Oxford with a scooter, moped, or death wish was out in force on this random Tuesday night, and the non-player character spawn point centred on the O2 Academy. Having been within shouting distance of the venue over an hour earlier but thwarted by bollards at every turn (or lack of), we’d long since hit our limit. Imagine you’re doing the driving theory hazard perception test but for real, in a van, in reverse, at night, with cars illegally parked on both sides and everyone’s ordered Deliveroo.

Watching the time tick away and gazing longingly at any sign for not-Oxford, the only force stronger than embracing defeat was the setlist.fm fuelled hope of experiencing two of the most immense powerhouse Idlewild songs at the same show.

You see, dear reader, over our decades on Woomblewatch, we’ve reliably encountered two distinct concert archetypes. One is the Hannah Fisher/Waverley Steps/Take Me Back To The Island variant; the one that will break your heart while repairing your soul.

The other type of Idlewild show is the all-out, let’s live for this moment, post-punk-indie-rock spectacle of When I Argue I See Shapes or I Am What I Am Not. Having them both on the same bill was impossible to miss. Worth it. So worth it.

“Where’s the Spandex?”
– Fan

“That’s a very un-Oxford thing to heckle!”
– Roddy Woomble

Having two guitarists propelling themselves off the wedge monitors and throwing shapes in unison served as the perfect foil for Woomble’s poet’s soul to perform comfortably. Not in the shadows as usual, but not forced into the spotlight either.

Instead, he positioned himself at a right angle to the audience. To the uninitiated it could have seemed unusual or even insular, but in reality Woomble remained fully attuned to the dynamics of the crowd. Whenever the energy or volume exploded, as at the crescendo of Love Steals Us From Loneliness, Woomble shared a gentle smile and pivoted to sing with – and to – the fans.

“Some nice old-school Idlewild t-shirts in here”

Roddy Woomble

Despite another nod to their recent tenth album by playing Stay Out Of Place, the set was primarily a mixture of greatest hits and high energy early album cuts. A quarter of a century hadn’t blunted the impact of the immense singalong American English or Actually, It’s Darkness.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising if the energetic guitarists Rod Jones and Allan Stewart held the deciding votes on the setlist, judging from their visceral enjoyment of the raucous selections. Consequently, the ‘we love you Allan, we do’ chanting fans on the Allan side of the stage were loving life too.

Sometimes it takes the unexpected to prove a point that was too obvious to notice. As Luciano Rossi beautifully layered up the intro to El Capitan, a single and instantly obeyed ‘shush’ signalled just how closely the audience had listened until then, as well as how high octane many of the tracks had been. There had simply been no need or space for chatter. As it should be.

El Capitan was also the exception that proved the rule in the method of repetition. We’re generally advocates for ‘why play one extended jam when you can play three songs in that time?’ [naming no names Danny and the Champions of the World], but Idlewild had us eating our words here. Those words being “hoping to see the future in your pictures of the distance, hoping to see/the future looking at pictures in the distance, hoping to see/the future in your pictures, hoping to see…” and we soon became convinced that the future should be soundtracked by that hypnotic beauty forever.

But we mustn’t dwell. We can’t, not today. Not on Allan Stewart day. The Allan fan club on the third row fully lost it as he dropped to his knees then pounced as he and Jones stalked the stage amidst the controlled chaos of 1998’s A Film For The Future.

This reignited a new variant on a common debate here at Music Closeup HQ; is When I Argue I See Shapes better now Woomble sings it in his own accent rather than his youthful Americanised post-punk drawl? Obviously not, because it’s not possible to improve on perfection. However, A Film For The Future has seen the same vocal shift, so you can decide for yourself.

A?

Or B?

_{::Adds Idlewild at Barrowlands to the bucket list, just below seeing Idlewild with My Chemical Romance. We said what we said::}

“We’ll play this and then we’ll play a few more.”

Roddy Woomble

A ‘few more’ constituted more joyful singalongs and pogoing to late ’90s and early ’00s gems like Little Discourage and I’m A Message (an extra gift that wasn’t on the printed setlist).

Then finally, sadly, the end was nigh and it was time to join in for the final time. The habitual set closer, In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction, ended things on a somber and thoughtful note. As the resonating notes ebbed away, the crowd dispersed, uplifted, ready to manoeuvre those chaotic Oxford streets.

Idlewild live in Oxford setlist

1. You Held the World in Your Arms
2. Like I Had Before
3. When I Argue I See Shapes
4. Interview Music
5. Roseability
6. (I Am) What I Am Not
7. End With Sunrise
8. Love Steals Us From Loneliness
9. Actually It’s Darkness
10. Stay Out of Place
11. Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)
12. American English
13. I Wish I Wrote It Down
14. Live in a Hiding Place
15. El Capitan
16. A Modern Way of Letting Go
17. A Film for the Future
    ENCORE
18. The Bronze Medal
19. I’m a Message (not on the printed setlist)
20. Little Discourage
21. In Remote Part/Scottish Fiction

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