Review by Damien Doherty for MPM
The haunting eastern tinged intro of Mandylion heralds the arrival of Dutch legends The Gathering to the stage for the first night proper of the Mandylion Anniversary 2026 tour in the magnificent surroundings of the Shepherds Bush Empire, London. This charming 1903 Edwardian era theatre hosted Charlie Chaplin in its early years, and spent most of the post war years as the BBC Television Theatre before being converted to a live music venue in 1994.
The band had a sold out run of anniversary concerts in Nijmegen last August where they reunited with singer Anneke Van Giersbergen, also the lyricist for the album, who left in 2007. Although not confirmed as rejoining the group proper, she is also on vocals for this tour, previous singer Silje Wergeland having left the band towards the end of 2025.
And it is clear from the audience interactions tonight that everyone is delighted at her return, truly the classic voice of The Gathering. Like the return of Mike Portnoy to Dream Theater it’s elicited a brief round trip from the Northwest of Ireland for an unmissable occasion, and I’m not alone as there are fans that have flown in from all over Europe tonight.
It’s loud and heavy out of the gates with Eléanor, Hans bringing the power with the double bass drum blast beats, and the energy doesn’t let up as the band strikes into Fear the Sea. In Motion #1 enters with the familiar keyboard motif from Frank, before the guitar and bass come crashing in. Moving to the Nighttime Birds album we have what is probably my favourite Gathering track, On Most Surfaces, a song that moves from crushing riffs courtesy of René and Jelmar to gentle keyboard refrains, and a cool bassline from Hugo, all underpinned by Anneke’s soaring vocals.
“We expected London to be wonderful but not this wonderful” extolls Anneke to the grateful audience. A change of pace next as we have the trippy Broken Glass from the Souvenirs album, the spacey Waking Hour off 2006’s Home, and the prog Probably Built In The Fifties from How to Measure a Planet. Analog Park is an atmospheric tour de force, heavily electronic but with a hefty hefty guitar interlude.
A reprise to In Motion#2 returns us to the final tranche of numbers from the Mandylion album. Leaves really showcases the range of Anneke’s vocals, and she then steps off the stage for the instrumental Sand and Mercury, before the set is finished out with Strange Machines of course. As the unmistakable opening riff plays, she retakes the stage once again to rapturous applause. The entire house is singing and dancing along with her and it’s the highlight of the nights performance. And then it’s exit stage right, for now.
Anneke notes that their boat doesn’t leave until tomorrow so they may as well play a few more songs as the band retake the stage – well if you insist then! The Mandylion catalogue being exhausted at this point, we are treated to Travel and Saturnine before the final farewells. It’s been truly wonderful to see this definitive lineup in the flesh. For them the tour continues in Europe until September before they cross the Atlantic for South America in October.
Photography by Artur Tarczewski
