FIELD NOTES: Patti Smith and her band, London Palladium, 12th October 2025
Patti Smith and her band, London Palladium (image: Damien Wilkinson)
Horses at the Palladium: Patti Smith’s Golden Jubilee
Fifty years ago, Patti Smith released Horses, harnessing the primal spirit of rock and roll and jettisoning it into the heart of the New York punk movement. Her alchemy of street poetry and raw power has spent the last half-century echoing through the underground.
To celebrate this milestone, Smith and her band arrived for a two-night residency at the legendary London Palladium. Fittingly, the first date fell on a Sunday night—synonymous with the venue.
Patti Smith and her band, London Palladium (image: Damien Wilkinson)
Part I: The Resurrection of Horses
Despite a health scare earlier in 2025, Smith appeared in incandescent form. She launched immediately into a full rendition of Horses, subtly re-sequencing the tracklist to maximize the live dynamics.
The set began with a blistering "Gloria." After that infamous, defiant opening—“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”—the band shifted into overdrive, repurposing Van Morrison’s classic through a jagged, New York lens. The momentum never wavered. Defying her years, Smith stormed through the album with the same snarl and sincerity of her heyday. This first half was crowned by a thunderous "Land", a performance so visceral it had the Palladium crowd on its feet long before the interval.
Part II: Lineage and Legacy
After a brief breather, the band returned without Smith to pay homage to their roots. They delivered a searing medley of Television classics—"See No Evil", "Friction" and "Marquee Moon"—a nod to the DNA shared between Smith, Lenny Kaye, and the late Tom Verlaine.
The band itself—Lenny Kaye (guitar), Jay Dee Daugherty (drums), Tony Shanahan (bass/keys), and Smith’s son Jackson Smith (guitar)—carried decades of rock and roll mileage, providing a telepathic, rock-solid foundation for Patti’s return to the stage.
She reappeared with a caustic reading of The Byrds’ "So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star", followed by the hypnotic "Dancing Barefoot." The emotional peak arrived with "Because the Night". Smith took a moment to recount the song’s origin—her lyrics grafted onto a Springsteen blueprint while she waited by the phone for her future husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith. “Love is a ring, the telephone,” she sang, a line that still rings with heartbreaking clarity.
The Finale: Power to the People
The encore brought the inevitable call to arms, "People Have the Power". The stage filled out as Smith was joined by her daughter Jessie on keyboards and a surprise guest in Johnny Depp. While Depp’s appearance seemed to divide the room's energy slightly, it couldn’t dampen the song’s enduring purpose.
Patti Smith and her band with guests Johnny Depp and Jessie Smith, London Palladium (image: Damien Wilkinson)
As the curtain fell on a poignant night in this historic venue, one couldn't help but echo a former Palladium stalwart: "Didn’t she do well!"
Seat: Royal Circle, Row D
SET 1
Gloria
Redondo Beach
Free Money
Birdland
Kimberly
Break It Up
Elegie
Land: Horses / Land Of A Thousand Dances / Gloria (reprise)
SET 2
Television medley
So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
Dancing Barefoot
Peaceable Kingdom
Because The Night
ENCORE
People Have the Power
