Embrace

UEA LCR, Norwich

The boys from Yorkshire, once dubbed the white rose's answer to the Gallagher brothers, boast an impressive back catalogue and happily straddled the eras, jumping between hits from each of their five albums. Even more happily they omitted this summer's World Cup anthem World at Your Feet.

Ashes, Gravity and Nature's Law were predictable crowd-pleasers as was Come Back to What You Know - but you couldn't escape the feeling they were going through the motions.

Full marks for enthusiasm, with McNamara-the-elder possibly the most excited man in the room as he scurried around the stage, at one point declaring: “This gig is 103pc sold out.”

However, at their best Embrace are a band that should be filling stadiums - that's what their songs were written for.

Watching them in any other context is a bit like reading James Joyce on the back of a packet of corn flakes: it's still good but it's not right.