The Streets

The Streets, Mike Skinner’s project from Birmingham, lands at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on 5 June 2026. Since Original Pirate Material (2002) and the narrative sweep of A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004), Skinner has shaped a sound that threads UK garage, rap and electronica with tightly observed storytelling. Tracks like Dry Your Eyes, Fit But You Know It and Blinded by the Lights pinned everyday scenes to beats built for late buses and night walks, a style he carried through The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, Everything Is Borrowed and Computers and Blues before a pause and a restart in 2017.

The 2023 album The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light extends that line, pairing club textures with a diaristic eye. On stage, Skinner moves between formative cuts and newer material, keeping a conversational flow that snaps from punchlines to snapshots. It’s grounded in UK club culture and built on rhythm, hooks and detail, with Skinner as MC and narrator, steering the room from first bar to last. A focused run through two decades of The Streets, set in a venue that knows how to carry his voice.