Graham Nash. Photo by Paul Clampin. LONDON 2025-3 — Graham Nash. Photo by Paul Clampin.

By Paul Clampin, Rock At Night London

Live Review: Graham Nash with Peter Asher – London Palladium, London – October 19, 2025

On Sunday, October 19, 2025, Graham Nash, a voice of a generation, graced the London Palladium with a performance that felt like a heartfelt conversation across decades. Seated for his 90-minute set, Nash, now in his eighth decade, carried the weight of his legacy with grace, his voice still a clear, resonant thread connecting the idealism of the 1960s to today’s fractured world. The nearly sold-out audience of 2,285, predominantly Baby Boomers, leaned into every note, as if chasing the echoes of their youth.

Nash’s setlist was a tapestry of memory and meaning. Classics like Marrakesh Express and Bus Stop—born from his days with the Hollies and supergroup Crosby Stills & Nash—sparked smiles and soft singalongs, transporting the crowd to a time of tie-dye dreams and open roads. Our House, tender and intimate, felt like an invitation into a shared past, its simplicity piercing the heart. Yet it was songs like Military Madness and Immigration Man that struck the deepest chord, their lyrics ringing with a haunting relevance. Fifty-five years on, Nash’s pleas for peace—voiced with quiet urgency between songs—felt less like a hope and more like a prayer for a world still wrestling with the same old wounds.

Opening the night, Peter Asher, of Peter and Gordon fame, set the tone with a set that wove nostalgia with quiet reflection. His rendition of A World Without Love carried a wistful ache, its melody a mirror to Nash’s later calls for harmony. Asher’s covers, spanning the 1950s to 1970s, included Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend, delivered with a warmth that felt like an embrace, and Buddy Holly’s True Love Ways, its innocence a reminder of love’s enduring promise. Each song was a stepping stone, leading the audience toward Nash’s timeless reflections.

The Palladium, with its gilded elegance, seemed to hold its breath, cradling the voices of two artists who have long sung of love, loss, and the fragile hope for a better world. For those in the audience, the night was more than a concert—it was a reckoning with time, a chance to hold close the songs that shaped them, and a reminder that some dreams, like peace, remain worth singing for.