Lauren Mayberry kicked off her US tour in San Diego this week with a cover of The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ – see footage below.
The Chvrches vocalist is playing a 24-date North American tour over the next five weeks and launched it on Tuesday (January 28) with a show at San Diego’s House Of Blues. See the full list of North American tour dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
Towards the end of her main set, she played a tender version of Richard Ashcroft and co.’s indie anthem, which was originally released on their classic third album ‘Urban Hymns’ in 1997. Sitting at the piano for the intro, Mayberry takes to the centre stage as the full band comes in, letting her vocals rip at the song’s trademark “Have you ever been down?” refrain.
See footage of the performance here:
Later in 2025, Mayberry will embark on a run of six headline shows around the UK, which will kick off with a hometown show at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom on March 20.
Dates in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds will follow, before the run wraps up at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on March 26. Find tickets for those shows here.
Mayberry has made something of a habit of playing cover songs at her solo shows in recent years. Among her previous choices were Nena’s ‘99 Luftballons’, Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’, The 1975’s ‘Paris’ in Paris and the Spice Girls’ ‘Viva Forever’ in London.
She also made her US TV solo debut last month on Jimmy Kimmel, playing ‘Something In The Air’ from her debut album ‘Vicious Creature’. In a three-star review of that album, NME wrote: “With ‘Vicious Creature’ Mayberry attempts to make sense of all the things she “couldn’t or wouldn’t write in the band”, as she shared with NME.”
“Within that safe space, she discovers a spectrum of previously unexplored emotions with free rein to play outside the boundaries of Chvrches’ electronic soundscapes.”
On going solo after a decade’s worth of music with her main band, Mayberry told NME in 2023: “For any frontperson in a band, but especially a woman, as soon as you say the words ‘solo material’ people get very upset with you. I feel like every second sentence is, ‘I’m not breaking up the band, guys, however…’”
“But we’re lucky enough to have fans that care so much that they don’t want it to break up. I feel grateful, but I’m trying to be reassuring to them – ‘Just give us a couple more years guys, it’s going to be fine’.” The band last released ‘Screen Violence’ in 2021.
