Tim Minchin
The Paladium, London
5th July 2025
Tim Minchin, armed with a full rock band and entourage, brings his Songs The World Will Never Hear 2025 tour to London’s Palladium and brings the house down in the process.
Take aways from tonight’s show with Tim Minchin include (in his words): art is supposed to be flawed, we are just monkeys in shoes and we’re all just atoms. There are other insights but the main take away for this reviewer this man is a genius with an almost unfair amount of talent for singing, piano, humour, with just the “right” amount of philosophical and scientific geekiness.
As a fan of Tim Minchin for around 20 years now, it’s criminal that this is the first time I’ve seen him play live. The current tour, Songs The World Will Never Hear 2025, is essentially a delicious round up of some of his best work, peppered with (sometimes satisfyingly lengthy) anecdotes, delivered in his inimitably frank and conversational style. It’s impossible not to like him or want to spend time with him in a pub or around a dinner table.
Through the filter of his unique, irreverent humour, we’re taken on a journey through key personal moments of Minchin’s life: meeting his wife, his brother being cheated on, his parents’ love for each other, and having children. Much of it is poignant and heartfelt, but throughout there is an edge; a cheeky side eye, twitch of the shoulder, eye twinkle that tells you something seriously funny is coming. Often shocking, always hilarious.
There’s Lullaby, perfectly expressing the utter confusion of knackered new parents dealing with a screaming baby. Confession, a song that manages to get across strong messages about feminism, human rights and environmental issues ludicrously juxtaposed against the chorus “Fuck I love boobs though”. And then there are the love songs, poignant and full of clever observation about life, people, insecurities, vulnerability and passion. Growing love is compared to a tumour (You Grew On Me) followed by a moving tribute to his wife early in their relationship (I Wouldn’t Like You).
He sings about resisting advances of women whilst on tour (I’ll Take Lonely Tonight), his relationship 20 years on – “I know everything about you”, and a sentimental song about his parents (Apart Together), which he prefaces with the observation “Marriage means committing yourself to the person you love most just to watch them decay”. Amongst these are highlights from Matilda and Jesus Christ Superstar, where Minchin can be a rock star, showing off the sheer power of his voice, whilst sending them up at the same time.
There are two show stops which only serve to draw us closer to him. The first is where he gets a line wrong, attempts to carry on and then throws his hands up, admitting that if he carries on he’ll be obsessing about it for the rest of the song. The second is where he casually tells us that he received news of the death of a friend today, stressing the importance of carrying on with life – the show literally must go on. He continues but is clearly overwhelmed now that he’s addressed his emotions. Anyone in the audience who didn’t love him already does now.
The highlight of the encore is unexpectedly White Wine In The Sun – a Christmas song delivered in July, which he justifies as we’re in the second half of the year now. You don’t need to have been born in Australia to feel the sentiment of this one; it has meaning for everyone and never fails to make this reviewer’s chin wobble.
The finale, a giant singalong to Dionne Warwick’s That’s What Friends Are For, underlines (if it wasn’t clear already) that the core message running throughout this show is love – for his wife, kids, family, friends, the planet – wrapped up in his inimitable, sharp, and so clever, sense of humour. Try and catch one of his shows if you can, you owe it to yourself. Especially if you’re a romantic geek who likes a bit of a laugh.
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All words and photos by Naomi Dryden-Smith. Louder Than War | Facebook |Twitter | Instagram | portfolio
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