The Sunshine Underground played their first show in nearly 10 years in Manchester last night – check out footage and the full setlist below.
Last year, the Leeds indie-dance band revealed that they would be returning for a huge one-off show in their hometown this summer at Kirkstall Abbey, and with two days to go until the reunion, they played an intimate warm-up show in Manchester.
They took to the stage at Gorilla last night (July 23), in their first full live performance since they played the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on December 10, 2016.
They opened the 17-song set with ‘Wake Up’ and performed all 11 tracks from their 2006 debut album ‘Raise The Alarm’, albeit in a different order from the record.
The band also aired five songs from 2010’s ‘Nobody’s Coming To Save You’ – ‘Coming To Save You’, ‘Here It Comes’, ‘We’ve Always Been Your Friends’, ‘In Your Arms’ and ‘The Messiah’ – as well as ‘Start’ from their 2014 self-titled album.
They closed the main set with their breakthrough single ‘Put You In Your Place’, before returning for an encore of ‘The Messiah’ and ‘Raise The Alarm’.
Check out footage from the show below.
The Sunshine Underground’s Manchester setlist:
‘Wake Up’
‘Commercial Breakdown’
‘Dead Scene’
‘Coming To Save You’
‘Here It Comes’
‘Panic Attack’
‘We’ve Always Been Your Friends’
‘In Your Arms’
‘The Way It Is’
‘Borders’
‘Start’
‘My Army’
‘Somebody’s Always Getting In The Way’
‘I Ain’t Losing Any Sleep’
‘Put You In Your Place’
ENCORE:
‘The Messiah’
‘Raise The Alarm’
The band will now head to their adopted hometown of Leeds for a huge reunion show at Kirkstall Abbey tomorrow (July 25), celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘Raise The Alarm’.
They will perform the album in full alongside songs from across their back catalogue, with White Lies, Hard-Fi, The Futureheads, The Twang and The Whip also appearing. Find any remaining tickets here.
Announcing their return last September, the band wrote: “Well, would you look at this… The Sunnies are coming back together for a special one-off reunion. Saturday 25th July 2026, live at Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds.”
“As anyone who was there the first time around will know, the Leeds shows absolutely went OFF, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do it all over again! See you next year, it’s gonna be one of them days.”
The Sunshine Underground formed while studying in Telford in the early 2000s, before relocating to Leeds. They became closely associated with the “nu-rave” scene and released ‘Raise The Alarm’ in 2006, a record that has also been reissued on limited-edition vinyl via Dance To The Radio to mark its 20th anniversary.
Three further studio albums followed, but after releasing ‘Luminescent’ in 2016, the group announced their split, saying that “ten years on from our debut album feels like the right time to draw a line under what has been an absolute blast and look to new musical adventures”.