IDLES Light Up Bristol's Queen Square For Their Saturday Block Party

Queen Square, Bristol

2nd August 2025

Photography by Sam Wilson (@samuelwilsonphotography)

David Sturgess

David Sturgess is a writer/designer/musician based in Bristol. When he’s not designing the latest issue of CLUNK magazine you might find him putting his Journalism MA to good use.

IDLES close out their Bristol Block Party weekend with a wild homecoming performance and support from Grove, Scaler and more

Having lived in Bristol much of my adult life, no one act has really defined the city like IDLES. For the last 6 months “IDLES BLOCK PARTY” has loomed large on billboards across town, promising one of the standout events of the summer.

Lovingly curated, the lineup consisted of Bristol staples Grove and Scaler as well as acts from far further afield, with Madrid’s Hinds and NYC’s The Voidz adding a dash of the exotic to the otherwise homegrown lineup. A truly delightful performance from Hinds really kicked the afternoon into gear, as the band smiled and laughed their way through what was quickly turning into a perfect summer’s afternoon.

Despite great performances from Grove, Scaler and The Voidz, the more abstract, abrasive vibes on show didn’t always align with the energy of the crowd, or the time of day. All acts however, deserved their place on that stage and did not disappoint.

As the headliners drew closer, Bristol’s historical Queen Square had become the perfect staging area for an army of filthy, rabid, raving punks. Many would be forgiven for not knowing that the square itself had been the site of one of the bloodiest massacres in British history. The brutal response by the government to the 1831 reform riots resulted in much of the square being destroyed and a death toll which some historians think could have been in the hundreds.

It is pretty sobering to think that almost 200 years later, this beautiful tree lined square would be the site of another movement entirely. Chants of ‘Viva Palestina’ echoed between 15,000 strong choruses of “Dirty Rotten Filthy Scum,” “Mother Fucker” and “Fuck the King.” At times a moving and beautiful experience, the barrage of screeching, down-tuned guitars, gut-wrenching bass and hammering drums was inescapable.

I have long felt my moshing days were behind me, but it’s a hard pretty hard thing to avoid when the crowd keeps getting parted like Moses and the red sea, at frontman Joe Talbot’s behest. The only real course of action was to dive in head first and enjoy the ride. Talbot’s command of the audience created one of the best crowd responses I have seen in recent memory, second only to the likes of a certain Manchester-based legacy act.

It is abundantly clear the impact the band’s music has had on the throngs of IDLES cultists that crammed shoulder to shoulder into the bustling square. For the uninitiated, it would be easy to think IDLES tees were being handed out on street corners like free sweets, with the amount of merchandise being proudly adorned by the public on the lead up to the event.

At £35 a pop (£75 if you were looking to cop yourself a hoody) you don’t have to be a math-a-magician to imagine that amount of money filling the IDLES paypal after this weekend. For such an anti-capitalist, anti-establishment band like IDLES, I did find this a tough pill to swallow at times and served as a stark reminder that they call it the music industry for a reason. That being said, having instantly drenched myself in a not-so cheap pint of lager as soon as the band hit the stage, a fresh tee would not have gone a miss. There is nothing quite like spilling £8.50 over yourself only to head straight back to the bar for round 2.

Packing a solid set of songs into an hour and a half is no mean feat for any band, but IDLES managed to produce hit after hit after hit, delivering on the crowds sky high expectations every time. For my money, IDLES BLOCK PARTY was a truly well deserved homecoming worthy of a band that have struggled through tiny Bristol basement venues to some of the biggest stages in the world. Having seen their rise from their first album to now, songs of which I still knew like the back of my hand, it really is incredible to see what they have been able to achieve in the eight years since the release of their debut ‘Brutalism.’

Like most bands that find any semblance of success, you’re about as likely to find someone who hates them as loves them (particularly if you are native to Bristol). But if one thing is abundantly clear from Saturday’s performance, they don’t give a flying fuck what you think. No review could really do it justice. Like one of your mate’s naff uni stories, you simply had to be there and you can only pray they return year-on-year as a raucous appetiser to Bristol’s already superb festival itinerary.