Benjamin Clementine performed his 'Back To Basics' Tour at Adelaide Festival Centre's Dunstan Playhouse on 15 October 2026, presenting solo piano and vocals in a stripped-back concert setting. Rating: 5/5.
Review by Markus Hamence – Benjamin Clementine: ‘Back To Basics’ Tour. Performance date: Thursday 16 October 2026. Adelaide Festival Centre's Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide, South Australia.
One voice. One piano. Plenty of room for the extraordinary. Benjamin Clementine’s Back to Basics show at Adelaide’s Dunstan Playhouse on 15 October puts an artist with a wonderfully unconventional musical language front and centre. And with Clementine, 'basics' is a deliciously understated word for what he brings to the table.
The British singer, pianist and composer inhabits a space where classical influences, chanson, soul and poetry rub shoulders. There is elegance here, certainly, but also an unruly streak. His music has sharp edges, unexpected turns and an emotional openness that gives it character well beyond a beautifully delivered melody. Trying to tuck him neatly into a genre feels like asking a wild garden to respect a fence.
“Clementine gives elegance a rebellious streak, threading poetry through music with a mind entirely of its own.” - Markus Hamence
That voice is central to the fascination. Resonant, expressive and unmistakably individual, it gives his writing both grandeur and vulnerability. His vocals ranges from roaming to soaring in a second. His phrasing has the freedom of someone following a thought wherever it needs to go. Words carry weight; the musical spaces around them matter.
The piano is equally integral to that identity. Clementine’s compositions allow delicacy and drama to coexist, with a theatrical sensibility running through their shifting shapes. This is music that rewards attention, revealing its personality through the relationship between language, rhythm and feeling.
Having won the 2015 Mercury Prize with At Least for Now, Clementine could hardly be described as an undiscovered talent. Yet his artistic independence remains a considerable part of his appeal. There is something deeply attractive about a musician whose work feels so firmly governed by his own imagination.
“There’s velvet in that voice and fire in the writing - Clementine makes a beautiful home for both.” - Markus Hamence
For his Australian debut tour, the stripped-back premise makes artistic sense: give the songs space, bring the audience close and let the individuality speak. Adelaide’s Dunstan Playhouse provides the setting for that encounter. The stage was draped in white, the piano, white, the stage floor itself, also washed with white vinyl AND Clementine dressed all in black was the striking focal point of it all. Visually, it was a masterstroke. That stark contrast gave him the presence of an ink mark on a fresh page, ready to become poetry. There was something wonderfully gallery-like about the setting, with Clementine both the artist and the artwork.
Benjamin Clementine’s artistry lives where music meets poetry - raw, restless and gloriously his own. Humble, thoughtful and supremely talent, you must experience this man's work in your lifetime.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Follow Benjamin Clementine Online
See our Gallery from the performance courtesy Leo Hiraga
Reviews
