Having devoted a goodly part of his life to drinking the black stuff, it seemed appropriate that Gary Lightbody should raise the pint of Guinness that officially kicked off this year’s Arthur’s Day party. After reluctantly handing his still three-quarters full glass to Master of Ceremonies Colin Murray – that would never happened back in the early days! – he strapped on an acoustic guitar and, accompanied by fellow Patrolman Nathan Connolly, launched into a rendition of ‘Crack The Shutters’ that featured at least 1,000 backing singers.
The Storehouse was even more delighted to hear ‘Chasing Cars’ and ‘Run’, two songs that have somehow managed to survive the unspeakable indignities that assorted X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent contestants have inflicted upon them.
They were mere curtain raisers though for a spine-tingling ‘Set The Fire To The Third Bar’ that had Maud Reardon – for once not In Cahoots – performing the Martha Wainwright role with theatrical aplomb.
Reckoned by Colin Murray to “smell better than anyone else backstage” – the dirty old man! – Reardon nailed it again with her band, a ten-legged pop/rock/folk beast who earned their place on tonight’s bill courtesy of winning the Guinness Our Thursday’s competition.
A huge deal for a band who were still playing bars in their native Brooklyn before the competition, Maud In Cahoots more than rose to the occasion with a set that in ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Push Me Under’ boasted two songs that Florence and Marina would kill for.
It’s easy to take a swipe at Westlife, but they do the MOR pop thing better than most and know how to wring every last squeal out of their mainly female admirers who don’t seem to mind that they’ve been recycling the same song for the past 12 years.
Also eliciting quite a few squeals were a re-energised Manic Street Preachers whose all-killer, no filler half-hour kicked off with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ and finished with the crowd-pleasing double-whammy of ‘If You Tolerate This’ and ‘A Design For Life’. In between we had ‘(It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love’ illustrate just how fine a record their new Postcards From A Young Man collection is.
A tough act to follow, but despite the handicap of Simon Neil’s new bleach blonde barnet and beard – what was he thinking? – Biffy Clyro managed it with an arsenal of mosh-inducing tunes that delighted fans and alarmed security in equal measure.
Arthur, me old mate, here’s to many more!