THE ENEMY: BRINGING INDIE NOSTALGIA TO THE SEASIDE

LIVE REVIEW | THE ENEMY w/ WE ARE SCIENTISTS, SHAMBOLICS & ALEX SPENCER | WINTER GARDENS, BLACKPOOL | 28th JUNE 2026 by Myles Pearson

There is something wonderfully peculiar about going to a gig in Blackpool. Perhaps it’s the Tower, which has a habit of appearing wherever you go. On Friday evening, it stood above the Winter Gardens while, underneath it, people filed through the doors of one of Britain’s great old entertainment venues to see The Enemy.

Blackpool’s Winter Gardens feels like a building from another version of Britain. Inside, tiled floors stretch beneath your feet, while enormous ceilings disappear somewhere above your head. There is grandeur to it, but not the intimidating kind. Generations of people have danced in it, drunk in it, laughed in it, and walked through it while looking for a good night out. Some buildings have history carefully preserved behind ropes and glass; others still let that history have a pint.

Before The Enemy arrived, Alex Spencer, Shambolics, and We Are Scientists. It made for a strong bill, as each set moved from one indie era to another. However, by the final changeover, attention had shifted firmly toward the stage. You could sense the band’s arrival simply by taking note of your surroundings. Anticipation hung beneath those enormous ceilings as the room braced itself for the first familiar chords of an incredible evening.

This was unmistakably a crowd of true Enemy fans. There was no waiting around for the biggest hits or politely nodding through the songs in between. From the moment the band appeared, every word seemed to come straight back at them. What I loved most, though, was the warmth in the room. These weren’t songs people had simply listened to over the years; they’d become part of their lives, and you could feel that affection in every word sung back towards the stage.

When ‘Away From Here‘ arrived, the response was enormous. For a few minutes, the room shrunk. The high ceiling was still there, and the tiled floors were still beneath us, but the distance between stage and crowd evaporated. Voices travelled upwards into the old building as Tom Clarke stood at the centre of it, conducting a song that no longer seemed entirely to belong to him.

That’s the curious thing about The Enemy. Their songs have always dealt in ordinary things. Towns. Jobs. Frustration. Wanting something more. They weren’t writing about some impossibly glamorous version of life, and perhaps that’s why their music has held onto people so tightly.

Nowhere was that clearer than ‘Be Somebody’. There is something beautifully straightforward about that title. It’s just three words that probably meant one thing when you were eighteen and something entirely different ten years later. Around the room were people who had grown up alongside these songs. Some will have become the person they imagined. Others probably won’t have. Most, like the rest of us, will have landed somewhere unexpectedly in between.

Then there is ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’. If there’s ever a place to hear that song, surely Blackpool wins. Outside stood a town built on the idea of escape. People have travelled here for generations to forget normal life for a weekend and eat chips beside the sea. Blackpool is grand and gaudy, beautiful and battered, ridiculous and strangely romantic, often all within the same hundred yards.

Inside, The Enemy sang about the places we come from and the strange hold they have over us. Nearly twenty years on, ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ feels different. The restlessness remains, but time has softened its edges. What once sounded like wanting to escape now feels almost affectionate, a reminder of how the places we once couldn’t wait to leave somehow become part of us.

The crowd seemed to understand that instinctively. Arms went around shoulders as voices cracked. People who had probably sung these words as teenagers were singing them again with another couple of decades tucked quietly behind them.

For all the nostalgia, though, The Enemy never felt like a museum exhibit. There was too much life in the room for that. Clarke and the band still attack these songs rather than carefully reproducing them. This wasn’t people standing politely while remembering how good things used to be. It was sweaty, loud and wonderfully communal.

Eventually, the lights came back up. I watched people finish their drinks and wander across those tiled floors toward the exit. Outside, Blackpool was still Blackpool. The arcades still flashed as the Tower stood, illuminating the rooftops. There was something almost cinematic about it. An old ballroom. A summer evening. A band singing songs written nearly twenty years ago. A room full of people who still knew every word. Some nights don’t need reinventing. They just need remembering.

Nearly twenty years on, The Enemy still belong on stage, and they’re not looking backwards. Their new album, Social Disguises, is out now, with the band joining Ocean Colour Scene across the UK throughout November and December. Listen to the new album, find your nearest date and grab your tickets via The Enemy’s official website. Tickets for their Coventry headline gig on 20th March 2027 are also currently on sale.