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The street scene at the Palladium in London’s Soho outside before the concert

Before the juggernaut that is the Nathan Carter latest tour show commenced a friendly usher told people sitting in the stalls that “dancing in seats is allowed but not in the aisles”. So you got a fair indication of the anticipated reaction of the fans later. And sure enough this was a very relaxed and feelgood affair in the room with the audience responding extremely well and entering good naturedly into the spirit of what was a very entertaining evening. When the usher further asked, “any rubbish?” moving about collecting litter in a break after the warm up act had departed the stage, a lady within earshot of where I was sitting simply deadpanned – “only my husband.”

The evening opened with a brief set by The Reels, a lively six piece who trotted through some staples of trad & Irish pub classics including ‘Whiskey in the Jar,’ ‘Galway Girl,’ ‘Dirty Old Town’ and the peerless ‘Grace’. But the lead singer was unlucky to break a string on his guitar. No pressure to change a string and make it look casual as you stand on the stage of the Palladium. Fair play to him and it was a feelgood start to the night in the end with ‘The Hills of Donegal’ a great way to close this opening portion.

On the road… the Nathan Carter tour truck parked outside the Palladium

Carter, a Liverpudlian who lives in Ireland where he has built a very substantial and loyal following, is a people pleaser and certainly entertained us generously with his 7 piece band that included a two piece horn section, a keys player who tripled on saxes and whistles, fiddler, lead guitarist, bass guitarist and drummer.

Carter also played piano and accordion – here he is with incredible 19-year-old fiddler Patrick Bell.

Carter climbed 8 steps to a platform high above the extremely wide stage at the beginning.

The band were pretty loud and managed to pull off the feat of switching between the country, factoring in more trad material, to pivot to rock and pop at ease.

Carter’s creamy, very pure tenor voice is instantly persuasive – I’ve heard him live a few times over in Ireland in Fermanagh in venues as different as an Enniskillen castle courtyard outdoors by the river Erne and inside still on the town’s island in the cathedral.

This was another scale entirely and what a venue: one of the greatest spaces in London theatreland, a shrine to variety that has hosted some incredible showbiz names since the early part of the 20th century.

And Carter was more than up to the challenge of stepping up to the mark. There was a bit of humour. “If you don’t enjoy the show I’m Daniel O’Donnell,” he quipped. Highlights included Smokie’s ‘Gypsy Queen’ which was also a treat on his tremendous recent Garavogue Live in Sligo recording. There’s a new album out later in the year featuring songs Nathan has written with Guy Chambers, no stranger to performing in top London jazz clubs like the Pizza not far away on Dean Street in Soho, and who wrote the classic ‘Angels’ for Robbie Williams. We got the unfazed by material goods song ‘Priceless’ from that collaboration and hymn of contentment ‘Doing All Right’ as a sneak preview.

Nathan Carter at the London Palladium with his band on 6 March 2026 as the country crossover singer embarks on his Priceless tour.

Later I liked the version of Rod Stewart Vagabond Heart 1990s era song ‘Rhythm of My Heart‘ – the stage at that point of the set bathed in a dazzling emerald green light that found Nathan playing electric piano Fender Rhodes [check footage from a 2025 concert held in Inverness in the YouTube video above]. The 35 year old country chart topper wasn’t averse to doing a bit of jigging about the stage, not taking himself too seriously, the Scouse wit regularly surfacing definitely a plus point, whether doing drop kicks, choreographing a scuttling scissor-like motion with other members of the band, or pulling off a kind of a zany highland fling or Riverdance twirl around these famous boards.

‘Caledonia’ was the most gorgeous of the ballads in the Scottish section and then he got down to the serious business of blowing kisses to dancers at the front of the stage. He even got knickers and thongs thrown on to the stage by some of the ladies in the audience I kid you not and much tickled made some fun of this quite expertly. “Hope they’re clean,” he mused, as he scrupulously checked the items over.

The band has a fine bass guitarist from Sligo called Keelan Kelly whose birthday it was. And during the evening the crowd happily sang Happy Birthday to both Keelan and later a still game lady called Agnes who turned 90 and who Nathan welcomed to the apron of the stage. A very nice touch.

The main guitarist was John Pettifer “from County Liverpool” as the singer noted who took a number of effective solos. In the rock and roll section drummer Sean O’Reilly from County Cavan demonstrated that he has an incredibly powerful voice in addition to his drumming skills and produced one of the evening’s best bits singing ‘Lucille’ that had segued into the classic from ‘Whole Lot of Shaking Going On.’

There was plenty of glitz later as a shower of golden confetti dropped from the upper reaches of the theatre towards the end. Everyone went potty for ‘Wagon Wheel’ the song that Carter told us started his whole career.

I’m a sentimental kind of person and a sucker for a great melody especially when it has a Celtic lilt and the song I took back with me afterwards leaving the theatre when “the lights of London are far behind, the thoughts of homeland are crowding my mind” was Carter’s suitably misty eyed take on Patsy Cavanagh’s ‘Home To Donegal’ first recorded by Mick Flavin in the 1990s which was beautifully sung last night. It appeared on Nathan’s Live at the Marquee Cork album issued more than a decade ago. And as at Cork Nathan asked audience members to get their mobiles out, put their lights on and wave them in the air.

“This is my homeland, the place I was born in,
No matter where I roam it’s in my soul,
My feet may wander a thousand places,
But my heart will lead me back home to my Donegal.“
– Patsy Cavanagh

He’s a different class and certainly worth hearing on this new tour. The horn section – a trombonist and trumpeter – add plenty to the sound and the fiddler is a joy to listen to. But Carter is born to sing, no plan B and the main attraction. He made the Palladium feel like it was his front room.

The tour continues at the Alvaston Hall Hotel in Cheshire on Saturday 7 March, and then reaches the Stables, Wavendon on the 8th. See Carter’s website for full details of these and further concerts.