Royal Albert Hall, London
Wednesday, 28 October 2026
The tale that Steven Wilson told on stage this evening, was that the Royal Albert Hall has such a long waiting list for various events wanting to take place in the building, that he had to book the venue a whole 2 years in advance… with no definite idea of what he’d actually be performing or promoting, for this pair of back-to-back shows over 2 consecutive evenings. Once again, he publicly stated this to be his favourite venue in the entire world, and that he was so pleased to finally be back, with him not playing there since 2018. His most recent live performances were in Australia back in November of last year, which was the final leg of The Overview world tour. The promotion for that album was completely finished, and with a brand new album not yet released, then here were this pair of dates caught in between touring phases. In fact, they were the only planned live dates he had for the entirety of 2026.
Steven Wilson took the bold decision to make these gigs far more special than just a get-together for him and the regular musicians that make up his band. With plenty of pre-planning, this event was going to feature an orchestra & choir, and in particular would be performing the full The Overview album, along with the band, and with newly expanded musical arrangements. That these would be one-off shows that are not intended to have any recorded audio or video content scheduled for future public release. In other words, if you want to experience it then you simply have to be there. Needless to say that it piqued the interest of his fan-base around the world, and you had people making plans to travel in from right around the globe. Fair enough, it’s not like I personally live thousands of miles away from the venue, and as a fan of Steven Wilson’s past work, with also thoroughly enjoying seeing him on the previous The Overview tour, then I too made plans to travel down to ‘that thar London’.
I’m not too sure what I was expecting from the show, other than to see Steven Wilson stretching his musical imagination further, by letting someone arrange his existing compositions, to then be performed by classically trained musicians. And hopefully during that process, ‘enhance’ them so as to show them off in a different light. I’ve listened to other artistes and bands, likewise incorporate an orchestra in to live shows, and it often ends up where the orchestra play second fiddle (pun intended) to the band, with their place in the final mix sounding almost like an after-thought. Usually these occasions can be a bit under-whelming, where the band remain the dominant sound through-out, while the orchestra can be heard at times, yet on more occasions they tend to get buried in the mix. Regardless, I very much wanted to see this show, and to finally experience an orchestra in the highly renowned Royal Albert Hall. If any band/orchestra fusion project can be achieved to a high standard, then surely this has to be the building where it will work best.
The 2 planned special events took place over the 28th & 29th of October, and I attended the first of these shows. I had watched an interview with Steven Wilson, during which he said there would be a few song selections that would change across the 2 gigs, as he was aware that some people had purchased tickets for both nights, and he wanted to make things a little different for each occasion. The 5-piece band took to the stage, and Steven announced that the orchestral section would take place during the 2nd half of the show, and for this first part, it would be just him and the band. He also said that this part of the set had no planned set list, which, by the way, I seriously struggle to believe that in all honesty. Yes, there may have been some song choices that could be interchanged at any time, but essentially the songs chosen from his back catalogue to perform over these 2 evenings, were all played on his previous tour. Yet there was some new material too during the mid-section of the first set, made up of the 3 new songs from his forthcoming album that had recently been released to the public as singles. Therefore this new music wasn’t completely unfamiliar to the sold-out audience that had assembled in this magnificent room.
So for night 1, the band opened up with Luminol. It’s a huge fan-favourite, originally from his massively respected album, The Raven That Refused To Sing. Essentially, you cannot go wrong opening up a set with this number. It’s a lengthy track in excess of 12 minutes, but it gives the band a great workout, and they played it marvellously. I was delighted that Steven chose to include some brand new songs from his soon to be released new album, Requiem for a Village, and the first of these was the title track. It’s a great song with so many varying prog elements within its construction. You could feel the excitement in the air, when the band commenced publicly playing these songs live for their very first time. This was followed by On Chapel Slope, which is probably my least favourite out of this trio of tunes, but likely it will grow on me far more in the future, when heard properly within the context of the full album. The last of these newer songs was represented with A Basket of Bees, which is probably my favourite from this batch. I love the acoustic/folk side to it, and then how it changes completely for the mid-section.
This first half was finished off with another lengthy number, the epic Ancestral from his universally acclaimed album, Hand. Cannot. Erase. Another mammoth fan-favourite that stretches close to 14 minutes in length. It’s a song of two halves, with the first being incredibly atmospheric, and the closing half becoming more & more frantic as it nears its end. It was a brilliant performance by the band, and a perfect way to close the first set. They had only played 5 songs, but with around close to 20 minutes of new material, they were on stage for about 45 minutes in total. It absolutely flew by, and perhaps felt somewhat short at the time, but now looking back in hindsight, it made total sense when there was a far lengthier 2nd set to come. There was a much-needed 30 minute interval to allow people to use the ridiculously limited amount of public toilets in the building. And for an audience that were probably around 85 – 90% male, now it was the turn of the men to have to contend with insanely lengthy queues waiting to get into the toilets. Yes ladies, revenge was finally served.
I managed to get back to my seat just in time while the orchestra were tuning up, and the choir were taking position on stage. The 30 musicians on stage were the Parallax Orchestra, who have been building up a fabulous reputation over the last decade, working with bands at the heavier end of the musical spectrum. They’ve played alongside bands such as Alter Bridge, Bring Me The Horizon, and Architects, etc, some of which they have actually accompanied at the Royal Albert Hall. So they are very familiar with working on both stage & in the studio with contemporary acts, and adding a different dimension to those artistes’ back catalogues, as well as being very familiar with this particular stage and the room. The extra vocals were provided by the Sansara Choir, which on this occasion featured 6 female and 4 male voices. Now there were an extra 40 performers on the stage, who were shortly joined by conductor Tom Richards, standing in for their regular conductor Simon Dobson. Simon unfortunately couldn’t attend these shows, yet he was responsible for writing the orchestral arrangements, so massive respect to him for what he accomplished working with the original compositions.
There were only 2 songs performed in the 2nd set, which is the full The Overview album. However these were both extended with longer instrumental introductions, some individual sections were also made longer, and the endings were vastly stretched out as well. So instead of the studio running time of the album being less than 42 minutes long, you had both pieces lasting over 58 minutes, with Objects Outlive Us clocking in at 33 minutes, and the title track The Overview now being a little more than 25 minutes. I know this because I was positioned right behind the sound & lighting operating consoles, and could see the running clock on a screen displaying the time-code. I really enjoyed the new vision of the album, especially the extended parts where it was mainly the orchestra performing on their own. You could hear the clever arrangements, using the existing musical themes in the song material, and playing around with them in a highly complementary manner. From a musical perspective, it all sounded rather damn good.
From a sonic perspective … some parts worked better than others. I’ve read other reviews and opinions from audience members, and some of them have commented that from their position in the crowd, they felt that it was perhaps a bit too bass guitar heavy, sometimes drum/bass/guitar featuring too prominently, or that on occasions they were struggling to hear the orchestra in the mix. As I mentioned earlier, these kind of events with electric rock bands accompanied by orchestras, don’t always pay off in the way that you hope that they will. And with that strongly in the forefront of my mind, when booking the ticket I deliberately chose my seat to be directly behind where the mixing desks were positioned. My logic being that if I’m in close proximity to the man controlling the entire sound mix, then hopefully I should be in one of the best locations to get an optimum top quality listening experience. Because if the sound engineer is happy with it, then I want to hear what he’s listening to coming back at him in the room.
In general, I found the sound mix to be extremely good. From my personal position in that room, I could hear everything pretty clearly and well balanced-out too. Yes, at times the orchestra did become a little buried when competing with an amplified rock band, and especially a one with an incredibly bombastic drummer. Even the perspex screens placed around the drum kit could only minimise so much, the thunderous drumming style of Craig Blundell. When the first song of the night started, I could hear the adjustments being made to bring the mix into a more balanced place, as there is a huge difference between sound-checking a band in an empty room, then mixing a performance when there’s over five thousand bodies now in there. It still took a little while for my ears to attune to that room, as it’s a very different environment for a band that more typically play the UK ‘hall’ circuit. But once I got familiar with the room’s natural acoustics, and those tweaks to the mix had all been undertaken, then the sound quality through-out the evening was highly enjoyable.
After being on stage for close to an hour, the band finished The Overview set, and of course exited the stage to rapturous applause and a standing ovation. The orchestra & choir remained in place, soon to be rejoined by Steven Wilson and his band, who then performed an unusual choice of Staircase from The Harmony Codex album. To my knowledge, I don’t think this had ever been played live previously, and this particular version worked so well with the orchestra. Out of the 3 pieces of music played with the Parallax Orchestra, I felt that this one worked the best, where you could really feel the presence of all those extra instruments. There was just the one encore on this evening, but I was very happy with what I’d heard & experienced. I love The Overview, and adored seeing the band play at the Newcastle City Hall on that tour, where the sound quality was easily among the very finest I’ve ever heard within that building. To see the band perform the full album one more time, was worth the time & effort of travelling into London to witness it. And to hear it done in this very special manner, being augmented with an orchestra & choir, and the songs rearranged in to a newly extended format … it was something that I’m so glad that I didn’t miss.
Steven Wilson’s band were magnificent once again. Craig Blundell is such a monster player, and his drumming always stands out. Adam Holzman on keyboards is a very fine musician, whose touch on both piano & synths is an absolute pleasure to listen to. Nick Beggs on bass is one of our greatest British institutions. Eccentric perhaps, even a little madcap, yet his playing style is so on-the-money, and he is always exciting to watch. And lastly, but by no means least, you have the amazingly talented Randy McStine on guitar. He has grown so much as player within this band unit, and his guitar tones are to die for. He’s not a conventional player, which make his solos really jump out from the norm, and his guitar tone on the ‘Heat Death of the Universe‘ section was stunning. I loved watching him play during this show, and I pray that he continues to work with Steven in the future. He’s such a brilliant find, and I hope he had a marvellous time the following night when Dave Gilmour was present in the audience. Now that’s something he’ll not forget in a long time.
As an after-thought, I am fairly confident that the entire show had the audio recorded. After all, it’s hardly the 1970’s and having to hire in the Rolling Stones Mobile truck studio, so as to record your next live album. Modern technology is fantastic, and can enable live recordings to be done at a touch of a button, as long as all the various instrument/vocal signals are routed out to a good processor, and a large enough hard drive to cope with the huge file sizes. I didn’t see any video cameras in position, so I’m highly doubtful if any full-scale concert video will come to light, other than the odd snippets of footage that have been used in official social media posts. Yet as for a live audio project that particularly focuses on the orchestra accompanied section of the show … I wouldn’t rule it out completely. I suppose that it is a possibility, as long as a suitable deal could be struck with the arranger and the various extra performers, which would likely be the only real hurdle. I’m sure if Mr Wilson has a couple of weeks spare in his incredibly busy diary, and that file is just sitting there on his hard drive … staring at him, then the temptation to have a play around with it might become too much. Just wishful thinking on my behalf (said with a glint in my eye, and my tongue firmly planted in my cheek).
SETLIST
Luminol
Requiem for a Village
On Chapel Slope
A Basket of Bees
Ancestral
– Interval –
Objects Outlive Us
The Overview
~ Encore
Staircase
MUSICIANS
Steven Wilson – Lead Vocals, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Keyboards
Adam Holzman – Keyboards
Nick Beggs – Bass Guitar, Electric Upright Bass, Backing Vocals
Craig Blundell – Drums
Randy McStine – Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Backing Vocals, awesome guitar tone 🙂
~ With:
The Parallax Orchestra (featuring founding members Will Harvey [violin] & Maddie Cutter [cello])
Tom Richards – Conductor
Simon Dobson – Orchestral Arrangements
Sansara Choir
[Our thanks to Alex Driessen for the photographs used in this review. Alex also attended the Royal Albert Hall concert and you can read his review HERE at Progwereld]
LINKS
Steve Wilson – Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
