THE SUBWAYS – BIRMINGHAM O2 INSTITUTE, 06.11.25

BY SHARI BLACK VELVET

2025 saw The Subways celebrate the 20-year anniversary of their debut album, ‘Young For Eternity’. To mark the event, the band released a career-spanning compilation album, ‘When I’m With You’. Consequently, their autumn tour, aptly entitled ‘The Subways For Eternity’, saw the band taking to the road to be with us all and continue the celebrations in music venues around the UK and Europe. 

Arriving at the O2 Institute shortly before doors, we were surprised that the queue was relatively short. Inside the venue, the floor looked quiet. Luckily, by the time the support bands, Blush Puppy and The Meffs, had both finished their sets, the room was a lot busier.

The quickfire, catchy-as-fuck garage rock drumbeat of ‘Oh Yeah’, instigated by Camille Phillips, marks the start of The Subways’ set. Billy Lunn’s electric guitar and Charlotte Cooper’s funky bass tones swiftly join in along with their vocals. The debut single from ‘Young For Eternity’ is the perfect way to kickstart the live show. 

“Good evening, Birmingham. It’s so good to be back. Let’s see those gorgeous hands in the air,” Billy says to the crowd. The audience don’t need to be asked twice. Charlotte is full of energy, bouncing around and throwing herself this way and that, hair flying all over the place. And the band’s infectious songs demand that. You’d be forgiven, or rather celebrated, if you did the same. 

Showing that was then, this is now, a marching band-like drumbeat begins ‘Black Wax’ from the band’s more recent ‘Uncertain Joys’ album, before some rocking riffage packs a punch. Billy and Charlotte’s vocals complement each other nicely.

“We’re here celebrating 20 years of being us,” says Charlotte to the audience before the flamboyant rock ‘n’ roll rapture of ‘We Don’t Need Money To Have A Good Time’. The audience is definitely having a good time, as their loud cheer at the end of the song shows. 

‘Passenger’s Side’ is a new song from the band’s new ‘When I’m With You’ release. “Unfortunately, it’s not a TLC cover,” Billy tells the audience. The song is sublime and much preferred to TLC. 

“Good evening, Birmingham,” says drummer Camille Phillips before her favourite song, ‘I Won’t Let You Down’. “I want to convince these guys that we have to still play this song, because it makes me so happy,” she says. She tells the audience to jump up and down, pogo and bounce to keep the song in the set. The song is a fun one to bop around to. 

Charlotte mentions working with Butch Vig on the ‘All Or Nothing’ album before the band perform ‘Kalifornia’, Billy tells the tale about writing ‘Mary’ for his mother when he was working at a hotel, how ‘Popdeath’ is eternally for Amy Winehouse, and how the dancey ‘Just Like Jude’ is his dad’s favourite song. The personable band politely thank the crowd after almost every song, always grateful for the positive response.

‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ is forever one of our favourites, while Billy tells the crowd how they prefer not to do encores and would rather just stay on stage before playing ‘Girls & Boys’. ‘With You’ is dedicated to the crowd, with the band revealing how they feel genuinely lucky to do what they get to do. Ending with the delightful ‘Rock & Roll Queen’, in which Billy gets the two sides of the audience to cheer as loud as they can, the band go out on a dynamic high. With The Subways on stage, in front of us, it is us, the audience, that are really the lucky ones. 

Older The Subways photos are HERE