Live Review | Texas Light Up The Amphitheatre at Bristol Sounds

Texas

Bristol Sounds

27th June 2025

Photography by @nadineballantyne, @hollybradleyphotos, @ajstark_

Charlie Pinhey

Music journalist & online sub-editor for CLUNK Magazine based in Bristol. Fumbling around on social media trying to tell people about my interviews and reviews. Follow me @charvawritesstuff

Texas bring nostalgic memories and classic tracks for their confident headline set at Bristol Sounds Festival

This review will be my fifty second article I’ve written since starting my project of writing an article a week for a year(ish), and, as there are fifty-two weeks in a year, this will be my last article I write under this project. It’s poetic then that this article is a review of Texas at Bristol Sounds, as listening to ‘Black Eyed Boy’ is one of my first memories of existing.

Texas lit up the amphitheatre on Friday night with Sharleen Spiteri taking to the stage with a striking avocado coloured guitar that gleamed off the stage lights. “You’re not going to be in for an easy ride,” she jokingly declared after taking a beat to allow the cheers to reach the appropriate volume after opener ‘I Don’t Want A Lover’.

Later, she would playfully assert herself more to the initially reserved crowd, quickly washing away any bitterness for missing out on Glastonbury tickets. “Do you want a bit of music, or do you want to stand and talk?” It was just the right level of sharpness some needed to wake up from the happy-go-lucky ballads of support, Turin Breaks.

As the band moved through their set, Spiteri’s understated comical edge struck the right balance between building energy in the crowd and also making the set feel more intimate, as if just watching a friend have a good time on stage.

An interlude organically came when Spiteri was asked by a fan if she could do the ‘pick trick’. Which led to ten, or so, minutes of Spiteri and guitarist Tony McGovern halting the set to compete with each other flicking picks with their heels and catching it again. McGovern got a massive eruption when he managed to complete the trick much to Spiteri’s dismay.

Twists of nineties haze were delivered at the right moments, with tracks like ‘In Our Lifetime’, from 1999’s ‘The Hush’, interspersed with some newer tracks such as ‘Mr Haze’ and ‘Hi’ released in 2021.

‘Black Eyed Boy’ was nothing short of spinetingling. It’s a track that fizzled and snapped more live with its engine of a snare and kick drum provided by Michael Bannister. Spiteri’s vocals for the verses were velvetier than on record and for the choruses she was brooding, displaying more layers of anger and heartbreak than on record.

“You know the game”, said Spiteri referring to the band’s inevitable encore, “We’ll go over there. You’ll cheer and then we’ll come back.” And come back they did with ‘Inner Smile,’ where the song’s main hook, ‘Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!’, rung out across the harbour from everyone and I could once again feel more childhood memories unlock in my mind.

Texas are on heavy rotation for me again, just as they were when I was a toddler…It’s funny how music finds you again.