Cast have had a blindin’ year in 2025 including the summer of a lifetime as they won over stadiums in the UK, Ireland and North America as guests to the newly re-formed Oasis.
The evergreen Scousers fronted by John Power are out in their own right with their “30 Years Of All Change” headline tour, celebrating three decades since they released Top 10, Platinum-certified debut album “All Change” which is full of hits in the shape of “Finetime”, “Alright”, “Sandstorm”, the timeless “Walkaway” and “Flying”.
That first album peaked at # seven in the UK chart and was the highest-selling album ever for Polydor records. It spent close to a year in the Top 40 and achieved Platinum certified sales.
London’s o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire is night 10 of this 15-date run which opened in Dublin at the end of October. Tonight [Saturday 22nd Nov] the tour stops in Manchester, and then a few days off before Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow and a home city show to close the tour at Liverpool Olympia on 5th December.
The sold out 2,000 capacity o2 Empire were treated to an extended set of 22 songs, including the two-song encore, after a superb set from young guns Pastel.
The Manchester-raised lads dropped their excellent debut album, “Souls In Motion” in January 2025. They were hand-picked to support Liam Gallagher at his huge Knebworth gig in 2022.
Cast’s London set opens with “Follow Me” and “Promised Land”, closing the main set with “Tomorrow Calls”, before the encore tracks, “Guiding Star” and “Free Me”.
I am happy they included recent fab singles “Poison Vine” and “Way It’s Gotta Be (Oh Yeah)”, both of which earned some of the strongest radio airplay of their career as well as a new flurry of international attention.
2026 is shaping up to be special too, starting with the release of the new album “Yeah Yeah Yeah” on January 30th – a record that Cast further previewed with the single “Calling Out Your Name”, which was not featured at this gig and featured PP Arnold on the record.
SETLIST
Follow Me
Promised Land
Sandstorm
Mankind
Tell It Like it Is
Four Walls
Fine Time
Back Of My Mind
Walkaway
Reflections
History
Two of a Kind
Alright
Way It’s Gotta Be (Oh Yeah)
Poison Vine
Free Love
Love Is The Call
I’m So Lonely
Live The Dream
Tomorrow Calls
ENCORE
Guiding Star
Free Me
While 2024’s “Love Is The Call” was praised for introducing a rejuvenated Cast, “Calling Out Your Name”, “Poison Vine” and “Way It’s Gotta Be (Oh Yeah)” all providence compelling evidence that “Yeah Yeah Yeah” will take Cast’s current era to a new peak.
John Power is still joined by fellow original members Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson (guitar) and Keith O’Neill (drums), and they recorded “Yeah Yeah Yeah” in Spain with the renowned producer Youth.
“Yeah Yeah Yeah” includes cornetto-patterned 12″ vinyl and two home-and-away CD variants, which complement two new Cast football shirts, which also feature the logo of their record label, the Manchester indie Scruff of the Neck, as well as that of their famed management company Creation.
I have nothing but praise for Cast’s flawless performance here, and that of the supporting band Pastel too I will say. One amusing moment when Pastel’s singer Jack Yates told the audience it was “great to be at Brixton Academy tonight”. Until his bandmate reminded him they were actually at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Casting [see what I did there?] my mind back to 1995 when this album came out, in the days when smoking indoors was ok, I remember when many gigs used to be accompanied by the smell of wacky backy!
But at SBE where I sat, it smelled of cough sweets and Vicks vapour rub! A reflection of the bitter wind and freezing temperature outside, and flu and colds season, or just the average age of the audience maybe.
I actually had a pocket full of Jakeman’s Throat & Chest menthol sweets, and a bunch of tissues with Olbas oil in them!! [Sex & Drugs & Olbas Oil…]
- In 2026, Cast will be part of the big outdoor gig in July at Alexandra Palace Park, London as guests to the marvellous Richard Ashcroft.
Photos by Liam Battersby
Words: Steve Best
