O2 Academy Birmingham, 5th April 2025
Life has been pretty busy lately. It has taken longer than I wanted to share another concert adventure (and there has been plenty of them).
A very significant one was finally getting to see Skunk Anansie last month. I first discovered them through the Mission Impossible soundtrack back in1996. These were the carefree days of being a uni student back in Latin America. It was a formative time for this music nerd. I was mainly listening to grunge, alternative and electronic music as well as developing a taste for lesser known artists. Movie soundtracks were one of the routes to find them.
Weak, the track featured on the soundtrack, blew me away. Skin’s incredible voice, perfectly enhanced by the melody, at times soft and others an explosion of emotion, was something I had never heard before. They started becoming bigger and videos like Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) occasionally circulated on main music channels. I was lucky to get my hands on the CD for Post Orgasmic Chill, a treasure I found in a local record store and had to buy immediately.
I completely lost track of them for a while, but hey, life happens! Even after I found out they were still around and touring, I kept missing them. This year was my chance to fix it.
I knew a few people going to both the Nottingham and Birmingham dates and eventually decided to aim for the latter. After hitting luck with Unleash the Archers earlier this year, I decided not to be put off by both dates being sold out.
It took a few attempts until I was successful in getting my hands on a pair of standing tickets for the O2 Academy in Birmingham.
As usual I put together a playlist to psych myself up for the day. It was great to see the band still plays the classics. I would finally have the chance to see those songs performed live!
So Good was listed as support act. They had a few fun songs and were fairly entertaining but it’s not a band I would go back to listen to.
Skunk Anansie were amazing. Charlie Big Potato, the second track of the setlist was one of the highlights of the night for me. A perfect blend of electronic music and heavy rock. Loved it when Skin hit a high note right after the bridge and stayed on it, emphasising what was already an emotional track.
Other classics like Weak and Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) also had Skin leaning into the vocals on key moments. The night was not short on crowd interaction. Skin enthusiastically jumped over the barrier a couple of times to sing with the crowd. She was not shy to encourage us to join in and, when we did, it put a big smile on her face.
From the newer material, I loved Lost and Found, which they performed a few days prior to the live release. It started with a soft soulful vibe which gradually developed into the raw emotional soundscape Skunk Anansie is known for. Perfect way to close the show.
I was incredibly touched by the kindness of the fans. A couple of them noticed my white cane, and kept an eye out in case it got a bit moshy. When Skin approached the barrier, they also let me know so I didn’t miss it.
Venue Accessibility
- O2 Academy Birmingham offers free essential companion tickets
- Priority access can be organised via email before the day of the event
- Both essential companion / priority access requires proof of a valid ticket and evidence of disability
- More information is available via O2 Academy Birmingham website Access pages
For this occasion, I only organised priority access. The venue normally requests an order number. I am pleased they accepted ticket numbers from my Twickets purchase.
On arrival, staff were helpful and easy to locate. They guided my friend and me to the entrance and made sure we got into the hall safely.
Ticket Resale Platform Accessibility
- Twickets and TicketSwap both offer fan to fan ticket resale via both app and website.
- Both platforms allow setting up alerts on via email and mobile phone notification.
- Twickets does not support dark mode or detect if the device is setup to have large font size. Contrast is poor.
- Twickets handles payment for ticket resale and leaves it to the fans to send the ticket separately
- TicketSwap supports dark mode, large font and its fairly user friendly.
- TicketSwap allows fans to upload the ticket, once it’s sold, the transfer happens within the app.
Despite the challenges with accessibility, I decided to sign up for alerts on both platforms, to maximise the chances of getting tickets.
After a few failed attempts, I managed to secure two standing tickets via Twickets. Shortly after, the seller transferred the tickets to my email. I was in!
Getting to the venue
Travel was quite straightforward this time, for a change. I decided to get an early train from Coventry to Birmingham New Street. This would leave enough time to grab a quick bite before heading over to the venue.
I didn’t request assistance at the station, since I can navigate my way around far better in the lighter months of the year.
The venue is just over 10 min walking distance from New Street station. Since I had organised priority access we didn’t have to arrive super early. I got there closer to the time of doors opening to meet my friend. We still managed to get quite close to the front.
The gig also presented the opportunity to try out a new gadget, the Eyebeam Cane Lamp I found it to be quite powerful and reliable. It comes with several light modes, brightness and space covered by the beam are also adjustable. It really helped with navigating through the crowd and finding the way back to the train station. Added bonus was the strobe mode, a good party trick to impress people around and make new friends.
I preferred it to the Ambutech Pharos cane light which was less powerful and was often coming off from its base.
What an amazing night it was. I will remember it for a long time. Glad to have persevered in seeing Skunk Anansie. Totally worth it!
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