Impressions of the first UK Massive Ego Tour (3rd Sept – 6th Sept 2026)

Formed in 1996, UK synthpop/electronic dark­wave band Massive Ego emerged from the New Romantic reviv­al known as Romo. They have main­tained a strong pres­ence on the European altern­at­ive cir­cuit, appear­ing at many festivals.

This year marked their 30th year in the music busi­ness, and to cel­eb­rate, they announced their first-ever head­line UK tour and released a fab­ulous new album, Symphony Of Flies. This was a mini-tour of four fab­ulous nights in Nottingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, and London. Due to com­mit­ments, I could only attend Sheffield (my homet­own) and London. I'm going to review the Sheffield show, as it was so spe­cial for me. Photos are from both shows.

The Silent Era

Doors opened and in came the beau­ti­ful goths as the night star­ted with dark, goth­ic rock band The Silent Era. The London-based four-piece band delivered an atmo­spher­ic, goth­ic-infused per­form­ance. Frontwoman Bri com­mands the stage with her strong, beau­ti­ful vocals and emo­tion­al, the­at­ric­al pres­ence. Such a great start to the evening!

LARVA

LARVA (aka Marc Martinez) is an accom­plished elec­tro-indus­tri­al musi­cian from Spain. I hadn't heard of Larva before, but when I saw Marc ready to per­form, I knew it was going to be a great experience—and it really was. He has an intense and ener­get­ic pres­ence, with a very goth­ic met­al, hard­core, and death met­al sound. A great performer.

Dead Lights

Dead Lights are an inter­na­tion­al duo: front­man Saul from the UK and drum­mer Richard from the Netherlands. They have cre­ated their own blend of monu­ment­al synth bass­lines, gritty sounds, and elab­or­ate vocal arrange­ments. The glam-goth band always gives a very ener­get­ic per­form­ance, and tonight was no excep­tion. Saul nev­er stands still, and wear­ing his plastic jack­et and face mask, it must be hard work. Another fab­ulous performance!

Massive Ego

Now it was time for Massive Ego. Frontman Marc Massive is an excel­lent show­man and vocal­ist who engages with the crowd right from the off. He looked amaz­ing in his black attire, wear­ing his barbed wire crown. Olly Frost on elec­tric drums also looked fab­ulous in his black lycra, he def­in­itely suf­fers for his art, as I've seen the wounds on his hands after a gig! Lloyd Price is a fab­ulous key­board play­er, and last but def­in­itely not least, Porl Young is a very tal­en­ted guitarist.

The night kicked off with the fab­ulous My Death Song, fol­lowed by one of my favour­ites, For The Blood In Your Veins. An oldie but good­ie, Not Without Consequence, was a great sur­prise, and things just got bet­ter and bet­ter as we heard more songs from the new album, like the bril­liant In Your Own Darkness and the fast-paced Hit The Kerb Running. Their cur­rent single, Broken Tomorrow, was excep­tion­al, even without Boy George. I Idolise You, the song that you could say changed their lives, is always a crowd-pleas­er. Kate's In A State, from the Beautiful Suicide album, slowed things down a bit.

More great songs fol­lowed before Spectacle Of My Own Making, which was just sub­lime. All too soon, it was time for the last song, Haters Gonna Hate, which had fant­ast­ic crowd participation.