- It's impossible to look at Thursday night's Wiley show at Roundhouse without thinking back to Skepta's gig at Alexandra Palace in December. Both are elder statesmen of grime playing their biggest London shows to date almost immediately after releasing the most commercially and critically successful albums of their careers. While Skepta's show sold out almost instantly, Wiley's took a little longer, despite the smaller capacity and Wiley's status as a founder of grime. But this was to be expected: I can't think of another artist with such a well-documented history of no-shows in their hometown.
I got into Roundhouse at 8.30 PM. Logan Sama was on the decks and Scratchy and Discarda were swapping bars onstage. Wiley was due on at 9 PM, but at 9:10 PM there was still no sign of him. Ten minutes isn't much of a delay in live music, and at any other gig no one would have batted an eyelid, but a friend turned to me and echoed a concern that was probably rippling through the 1,700-strong crowd—surely he has to turn up this time?
Moments later, the house lights went down and "WILEY" flashed up onscreen in bold white letters. They flickered out of focus and were replaced by a series of film clips of Wiley's early days, reminding the audience of his history. A recorded sample from an old Skepta interview signalled the start of "Speakerbox," and then suddenly Wiley was onstage, bounding around ferociously to a track that felt like it had been written for that exact moment: "I've achieved tings I was dreamin' of / step on the stage / start reelin' off." The room exploded—I'm not sure I've ever seen so many drinks in the air at one time.
It's no surprise that there were guest appearances during the show, but I didn't expect quite so many big names. Wiley performed his new (and potentially final) album, Godfather, almost in its entirety, with all the featuring artists joining him onstage, including JME, Frisco, P Money, Newham Generals and Devlin, who put in a particularly great performance on "Bring Them All / Holy Grime." Skepta's cameo got a huge reaction from the crowd, though his cut on the album ("U Were Always, Pt. 2") is more of a slow jam, so the moment was less boisterous that you might imagine. My personal highlight was Ghetts, who didn't let a dodgy microphone interrupt his destructive, razor-sharp delivery on "Bang." At one point, Beats 1 presenter Julie Adenuga joined Wiley to present him with "Noisey's Greatest UK MC" award. This kind of thing might have seemed silly in another context, but there was a sense throughout the evening that here was a man finally getting his dues, surrounded by so many of his fans and peers.
Wiley only deviated from Godfather on a couple of occasions. Near the end of the night he played his 2007 hit "Gangsters." Immediately after, he paused for a second, hyping the crowd and encouraging the widening of a mosh pit, before running off stage. Then came the intro of Stormzy's latest banger, "Big For Your Boots," followed by the grime young gun himself. As well as his new single, he played his 2015 smash, "Shut Up." Wiley then returned for one more track before introducing Solo 45 to perform "Feed Em To the Lions." After a quick goodbye, and an apology for all the no-shows, Wiley was gone. It felt like an odd ending to a fantastic performance, and the crowd thinned quickly, confident that there wouldn't be an encore. As if aware of the speedy dispersal, Wiley ran back onstage for one final tune, much to the delight of those slower in their departure. Moments later, when it was all definitely over, a huge crowd of sweaty, satisfied grime fans poured out into the arctic Camden night.
Photo credit /
Vicky Grout
