Skindred Ignite The Tivoli A Welsh Homecoming of Pure Chaos
- Desh Kapur
- Oct 26
- 3 min read
The Tivoli, Buckley, October 23rd 2025
IMAGES MATTY BEZ / WORDS DESH KAPUR
There’s something truly magical about The Tivoli in Buckley. A venue steeped in Welsh rock ’n’ roll history, it’s one of those rare spaces where the walls seem to hum with the echoes of gigs gone by. It’s intimate, raw, and gloriously unpolished — a proper grassroots venue where bands and fans stand almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Places like The Tiv are the beating heart of live music, the breeding grounds of tomorrow’s legends, and the lifeblood of communities that thrive on sound, sweat, and shared experience. And when a band like Skindred — Wales’ own ragga-metal heavyweights — takes to its stage, it feels less like a gig and more like a homecoming.
By 7:30pm, the place was heaving. Fans packed every inch of floor space, desperate to get the best vantage point for their reggae-tinged metal heroes.
Opening the evening with fierce authority, SNAYX (pronounced “Snakes”) smashed into the stage at The Tivoli, Buckley with the ferocity of the bastard sons of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and The Prodigy. This Brighton/Sheffield punk-grime trio’s bass player, Ollie Horner, drove through the set with a brutal, dirty low-end that shocked the room into motion — thick, distorted, unrelenting. Their live reputation was confirmed tonight: three musicians generating a wall of sound without the need for a fourth, and every beat and note aligned with the chaos they crave. Reviews call them “punk, grime, hip-hop and dance… mashed together” and built around a “heavy bass driven sound” — all of which was fully realised onstage.
When the lights dropped and the Newport powerhouse strode onto the stage, the roar that followed could have registered on the Richter scale.
Skindred wasted no time in igniting The Tiv with a sonic firestorm. From the first blast of “Thunderstruck”, the room erupted — a frenzy of limbs, voices, and pure adrenaline. Frontman Benji Webbe, ever the charismatic ringleader, commanded the crowd with a mix of swagger, humour, and heart. His ability to turn chaos into communion is something few frontmen can match.
The setlist was a showcase of everything that makes Skindred one of the UK’s most unique live acts — a collision of heavy metal riffs, punk ferocity, dancehall grooves, and electronic swagger. By the time “That’s My Jam” hit, the crowd was split into sections, each hollering their part of the chorus in what felt like a joyful, chaotic competition. It was unity through noise — the kind of communal madness that only a Skindred show can conjure.
In one cheeky moment, Benji sang the opening lines of Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, prompting a collective groan from the Welsh crowd. His quick retort — “Fuck dat!” — drew laughter and cheers before the band crashed headlong back into their heavier material, proving once again that humour and heaviness can coexist perfectly.
All night long, The Tivoli pulsed with energy. Mosh pits opened and closed like living things, and fans — young and old alike — threw themselves into the chaos with grins plastered across their faces. As the night drew to a close and Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” drifted from the speakers, the sentiment felt almost too perfect.
Because truly, nobody does it better than Skindred. In a world of overproduced tours and sterile arenas, this was the real deal — sweat, sound, and soul in a legendary venue that deserves to be cherished as fiercely as the music itself.
Long live The Tiv. Long live Skindred.
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