Live – Meryl Streek at The Hope & Ruin

Meryl Streek at The Hope & Ruin, Brighton, 4th February 2026

The lights go down, a news reel begins, the content is a bleak reflection of poverty and injustice in Ireland, and Meryl Streek makes an understated entrance onto the stage. The understatement however lasts for approximately 5 seconds before he begins the incessant pacing of the floorspace, only interrupted by forays into the crowd, all the better to get his message across at close quarters. While the songs are full of crucially bleak messages, there is none the less a sense of hope that emanates from them, a reminiscence of early punk days where the bands were often considered some kind of threat to society when for the most part they were simply challenging the oppression and inequalities of the world. Fittingly, Meryl is wearing a UK Subs T-shirt (subs an abbreviation of subversives rather than substitutes), the graphic providing the only hint of colour on stage save his signature bunch of red roses.

Swinging a hand held strobe to light his way, there is a clear and close bond between musician and audience, with a solid amount of time spent in the crowd and one of the happiest mosh pits you could wish to see, notably during Death To The Landlord. It’s a full-on, no-frills, frenetic performance and it’s impossible not to be caught up in the energy. Defiant, demanding and vitally important to the integrity of today’s music scene, we need artists right now who are prepared to stand up and shout about the craziness of the current political landscape; thankfully it appears that Meryl Streek still has plenty to say.

Pending tour dates here