World News Perform At KOLA For Independent Venue Week: Live Review
World News, live at KOLA. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne
World News are cooking up their debut album, and Friday’s previews of unreleased tracks promise exciting headlines on the horizon.
In the spirit of Independent Venue Week, an annual seven-day celebration in support of independently owned and grassroots venues, World News embarked on a mini UK tour. Stopping on Friday night at KOLA in Portsmouth, they performed to a growing collective of fans, and locals teased out in support of the live music community.
Named one of our emerging artists for 2026, TOPNOTE hopped on a train to see what World News had in store. Read our review of the set below, and find all the best pictures over in our gig gallery.
Rory Evans of World News, performing at KOLA in Portsmouth for Independent Venue Week. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne
Support for the night came from Aqualine, a fledgling five-piece who won us over with a truly infectious stage presence, visibly enjoying themselves throughout a tracklist of almost entirely unreleased, attention-grabbing tunes. Their songs followed World News’ tendency to branch off into prolonged instrumentals, often with a touch more angst, and their Kurt–Cobain–Matty–Healy–inspired frontman had enough natural charisma to keep things from feeling too awkward between guitar changes.
It’s fair to say the Portsmouth crowd were fairly subdued; perhaps to be expected for a sodden Thursday night in January. Word News walked on stage to warm applause, and the four-piece quickly eased in. With their pinstripe suits and rhythm guitarist Jack Tollman’s distinctive red fisherman hat, the band are creating a signature look that’s understated but effective.
It’s a direct nod to the influence of their sound, a melange of late 70s and early 80s swirling guitars, layered vocal harmonies and pure jangle. Their music is nothing short of compelling, with an ability to transform three guitars into a driving force of retro-fuelled escapism that feels nostalgic, without sounding dated. Rory Evans’ bass is refreshingly prevalent across many of the songs, particularly ‘Don’t Ever Meet Your Heroes’. He picks up and puts on a papier-mâché brain with little context for the third song, presenting an intriguing visual that is never fully articulated.
World News enter their flow state most effortlessly towards the latter half of their songs, evidenced in ‘Don’t Want To Know’ and ‘Lend Me Your Brain’ – surprisingly not the song chosen for the papier-mâché headgear. But they’re not a copy-and-paste artist, with ‘Coming Up Roses’ in particular featuring a strong and memorable vocal from lead singer Alex Evans. Each performance is slick as can be, though sometimes the energy can begin to feel flat – likely an easy fix with a setlist adjustment.
“Their music is nothing short of compelling, with an ability to transform three guitars into a driving force of retro-fuelled escapism that feels nostalgic without sounding dated.”
The loudest reaction of the night came from Alex’s suggestion of a Holy Trinity, remarking that this performance was their first in Portsmouth, the band formed in Brighton, and they’d previously played in Southampton… when enthusiastic boos spilled across the room. They redeemed themselves quickly with the introduction of what could be labelled a breakout tune of sorts, ‘The Tinman.’ But perhaps the largest tool in their arsenal was unleashed too soon, or at least without as much fanfare as it could have benefitted from.
Understandably, a band gaining fresh attention would want to avoid the risk of being labelled a ‘one hit wonder’, or seen resting on their laurels. Listening to World News make their way through their set, it’s clear this is simply not the case, though many listeners, including myself, found their way to the band through the track prefaced with ‘it’s kind of popped off’. It would be great to see World News embrace their secret weapon in the form of ‘The Tinman’ and build up its introduction, save it till the end, or perform an extended version of its captivating instrumental, without fear of it overshadowing the rest of their set.
“Friday’s previews of unreleased tracks promise exciting headlines on the horizon. World News are a band who’ve fine-tuned their musical talents to well and truly justify a place on our ‘ones to watch’ list. Now the task is letting the world *in* to ‘World News’.”
Good-natured heckles are acknowledged and laughed about, but there’s generally little chatter coming from the stage – though in fairness, the KOLA crowd didn’t seem especially chatty. World News more often presented a cool, polished front (apart from drummer Malte Henning, whose expressions gave life to the set). Their stage presence was strong if not layered with showmanship, and the head-bopping audience seemed happy enough to watch them get on with it, even if there weren’t whoops and cheers.
*
Currently cooking up their debut album, Friday’s previews of unreleased tracks promise exciting headlines on the horizon. World News are a band who’ve fine-tuned their musical talents to well and truly justify a place on our ‘ones to watch’ list. Now the task is letting the world in to ‘World News’ – whether the stories behind the songs, or those who made them. With a name so evocative, you’d expect plenty.
Jack Tollman of World News. Image credit: Paddy Whidborne