Primal Scream celebrated 25 years of their classic ‘XTRMNTR’ album at London’s Roundhouse last night (Monday December 8).
Read More: Gary “Mani” Mounfield, 1962-2025: baggy bass hero whose melodies made the Madchester movement
The band played their 2000 record in full, performing the likes of ‘Kill All Hippies’, ‘Swastika Eyes’ and ‘Shoot Speed/Kill Light’ before breaking out some of their biggest songs including ‘Loaded’, ‘Movin’ On Up’ and Rocks. You can view footage below.
‘XTRMNTR’ marked a major departure for Primal Scream, as they embraced a harsher, more provocative sonic palette that drew from industrial, hard electronic and noise rock sounds. The Chemical Brothers and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields were involved in the production, while late Stone Roses bassist Mani shared songwriting credits with the band for the first time. The former did not appear at last night’s gig and recently performed a run of shows with MBV.
The record also saw the band grapple with dark political themes, taking aggressive stances on government ideologies and self-serving global power structures on tracks like ‘Swastika Eyes’, an assault on authoritarianism and the corrosive effect of corporate greed.
Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream performs onstage during a concert at The Roundhouse on December 8, 2025 in London CREDIT: Lorne Thomson/Redferns
The show saw the likes of tracks like ‘Keep Your Dreams’, ‘Insect Royalty’, and the Shields-referencing ‘MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill ‘Em)’, played for the first since 2000.
Primal Scream also broke out ‘Blood Money’ for the first time since 2001.
Primal Scream tore the roof off the Roundhouse last night.@RoundhouseLDN @ScreamOfficial #gigs #camden #primalscream pic.twitter.com/0VgmhfbwkK
— camdenist (@camdenist) December 9, 2025
On its release, NME rated the album 9/10 and wrote: “Meet the new year, same as the old year. Radicalism doesn’t pay, complacency’s at an all-time high, so keep your head down, smile for the cameras, mind your language and stick to the Third Way. The music scene’s not so hot, either. That we could do with a fully plugged-in, turned-on, fucked-off Primal Scream at this point is hardly front-page news; for ‘Exterminator’ to pulverise the senses with quite such righteous, incendiary beauty most definitely is.”
The record went on to be named by NME as the second-best album of 2000, it picked up the Best Album award at the 2001 NME Awards and later landed at Number Three in our Albums of the Decade list.
Primal Scream played:
‘Kill All Hippies’
‘Accelerator’
‘Exterminator’
‘Swastika Eyes’
‘Pills’
‘Blood Money’
‘Keep Your Dreams’
‘Insect Royalty’
‘MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill ‘Em)’
‘Swastika Eyes (Chemical Brothers Remix)’
‘Shoot Speed/Kill Light’
‘Jailbird’
‘Loaded’
‘Movin’ On Up’
‘Country Girl’
‘Rocks’
The band’s former bassist Mani – who was a member of Primal Scream from 1996 until 2011 – died at the age of 63 last month.
Frontman, Bobby Gillespie recently shared the story of when he and Mani met Joey Ramone, describing it as “like a scene from a movie” which took place during the recording sessions for ‘XTRMNTR’, and specifically as they were finishing off the psychedelic track ‘When The Kingdom Comes’, which would go on to be released as a B-side on the ‘Accelerator’ single.
“Whilst we were mixing the song there was a knock at our studio door and I answered it only to find the one and only Joey Ramone @ramones standing there,” Gillespie said.
“I invited him in and introduced him to the band – you should have seen Mani’s face – for once he had nothing to say – him and the others were all dumbstruck by Joey’s presence.”
Primal Scream initially shared a picture tribute to Mani on Instagram, while the band’s bassist Simone Butler wrote: “Truly in shock at this. An incredible loss to everyone who knew and loved him. The moment u met Mani u loved him. The most brilliant and wickedly sharp sense of humour and the biggest heart and generosity. The smile in that first pics was so absolutely him. He called me his scorpio bass sister. My heart is breaking for his boys, family and loved ones. Was meant to see him tmro in Manchester.
“A terrible and sad loss. An amazing person, so so loved by everyone all over the world X just heartbreaking.”
The band then played at Manchester’s Warehouse Project and paid tribute to Mani by performing ‘I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have’ in his hometown, in front of a huge backdrop depicting the bassist.
Others to have paid tribute to Mani since his passing include Ian Brown, Oasis, Peter Hook, My Bloody Valentine, Richard Ashcroft and Zak Starkey.
The post Watch Primal Scream celebrate 25 years of the classic ‘XTRMNTR’ at London’s Roundhouse appeared first on NME.
