Anyone who managed to place their hands on tickets for the Reef gig at Rock City knew they were in for a good night of music as the band played the entirety of their 1995 debut album in its 30th anniversary year....
As the West Country veterans tear through Feed Me, Naked and Good Feeling they quickly hit full tilt and the crowd is loving it. It doesn’t take long for people to start jumping up and down and for a few pints to go flying.
Of course we must give consideration to the fact that these guys are now in their 50s, but when they start playing, everyone on the floor can you feel it? Yeah definitely. And Reef mean it. They know it really matters. And anyone who thinks that Reef aren’t as good as they were back in the day... Well, some people were born to criticise, and they can forget it, because Reef are here to set the record straight.
Lead singer Gary Stringer is absolutely on form tonight and he’s taking every opportunity to whip up excitement in the crowd here at Rock City Nottingham - a venue, and a city, which he says he loves and of which he speaks very complimentarily. They finish off the rest of the Replenish album with a few highlights being the title track and Choose to Live. The songs still feel fresh 30 years later.
The gig has been great so far, and one obvious stand-out is the 2023 addition of Amy Newton as lead guitarist. She’s a little younger than the guys, and she’s fresh and full of energy. She replaced Jesse Wood (son of Rolling Stones musician Ronnie Wood and ex-husband of Fearne Cotton) who moved on from Reef in 2023 after 10 years with the outfit. Newton is a great guitarist and she’s racing through riffs and chugging out power chords all night long. Luke Bullen might be fairly new to Reef but his drumming is a good fit for the band. And founder member Jack Bessant’s basslines are deep and rumbling - he’s got the full-on ZZ Top big beard look.
The band leave the stage for a brief pause before returning with Stone for Your Love which opens the second half of the gig. It’s got a chunky riff, and it’s a great track to get things pulsing again. Without hesitation they go straight into the brilliant I Would Have Left You Babe and crowd-pleaser Higher Vibration.
Place Your Hands is of course the song that everyone knows and loves the best. It feels triumphant and upbeat, which it is, but it was actually a song that Gary Stringer wrote after his Grandfather died.
This takes the form of a huge crowd singalong as you would expect.
Next up is Summer’s in Bloom which is full of late 90s enthusiasm for life. These five songs are really something special and while New Bird and Yer Old and a cover of They Won’t Be There for You don’t quite hit as hard, or feel as good, they end with a roaring rendition of Come Back Brighter.
Reef didn’t reinvent anything tonight, but they didn’t need to; they paid tribute to their debut album and reminded the Nottingham middle-aged rock crowd what a great live rock show feels like. As the gig ends and people spill out onto Talbot Street everything I’m hearing is positive and upbeat. We’ve seen a great live band rock the place and we’ve all been smiling loads.
Reef performed at Rock City on 16th October 2025.
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