“The first album Skindred released went to number… FUCK ALL,” recalls Benji Webbe, his booming voice and outfit vying with one another in the volume stakes, as he introduces You Got This midway through his band’s set.
This has certainly been a year replete with more treats than tricks for Skindred. You Got This is, of course, the inspirational title-track from the band’s ninth album, released in April, earning them their first Number One album, which, decades into a career, is unheard of.
The Newport band playing Halloween shows is, however, more of a fixture in their calendar, though they’ve traditionally been in smaller venues in other parts of the country, like Norwich and Wolverhampton, in recent years. This time around, however, London’s Alexandra Palace has been transformed into a haunted mansion on a hill – though admittedly it already resembles that anyway, hill and all.