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Ed O'Brien tells the Barbican about Shakespeare and David Gower
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Photo: Steve Gullick · press photo, TransgressiveEd O'Brien stopped his show at the Barbican Hall in London on Friday 16 October to talk about a summer that shaped him, when he saw a Shakespeare play at the Barbican and watched the cricketer David Gower make a double hundred. Mark Worgan, reviewing the night for The Upcoming, puts that innings at 215 against Australia, by his own count.
The London date of the An Evening With... Blue Morpho tour sold out within a day of going on sale. “Incantations” opened the night, and it ended with a reprise of the same song, then “Brasil” and “Obrigado”.
Worgan heard folk, jazz, afrobeats and blues in the set, with detours into Brazilian samba. He gives the singer ESKA a leading part from first song to last, lifting O'Brien's quieter passages. On “Obrigado” her voice put him in mind of Pink Floyd's “The Great Gig in the Sky”. Dave Okumu's guitar gave the songs drive and funk all night.
Worgan argues that O'Brien gets less credit than Thom Yorke or Jonny Greenwood, though Radiohead would not be Radiohead without him. He left feeling he had been given a short look into O'Brien's soul.
Songs the review names, in the order it names them (not a full setlist), Barbican Hall, London, 16 October 2026
| # | Song | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Incantations | opened the show |
| 2 | Sweet Spot | – |
| 3 | Teachers | – |
| 4 | Solfeggio | – |
| 5 | Blue Morpho | – |
| 6 | Sail On | from Earth, the review says |
| 7 | Incantations | reprise, near the end |
| 8 | Brasil | – |
| 9 | Obrigado | closed the show |