The last time Brendan Yates stepped foot on a UK stage, he wasn’t sure whether he’d ever get the chance to do so again. Preparing to drop curtain on their globe-trotting Time & Space album cycle at London’s 800-cap ULU on March 13, 2020, the Turnstile frontman and his bandmates realised they had been caught off guard by the rapid, exponential escalation of the COVID crisis. With each fresh report that flickered across their cellphones and hotel TV screens, it seemed like the unthinkable was unfolding. Flights home had been arranged for the next morning. That night, they would throw everything into a raucous 16-song set with the frisson of a party at the end of the world. “There was this looming mystery,” says Brendan. “I remember standing on the stage wat...
