Reviews

The problem is his new material. The World Is Yours isn’t the most captivating of his albums and amidst the beer swilling huddles of rowdy 30-somethings, there is more talking and less dancing happening in the crowd.

Ian Brown (c) Shirlaine Forrest

Luckily, there were some unconventional and unexpected guests in the shape of three Shoalin Monks performing martial arts, as in the video for Sister Rose. It’s a brilliant live spectacle, which makes a welcome break, but the moment is spoiled by the struggle to see the stage, and it’s not quite the same watching on a big screen, is it?

Thankfully, after this interlude, Brown reappears as the showman he really is. Dolphins Were Monkeys finally delivers the rock ‘n’ roll ethics we were waiting for and the grooves just keep coming.

The highlight, somewhat unsurprisingly, was I Wanna Be Adored’, though not for the expected reasons. It was top not because every man in the room was singing along like they’d wrote it personally, but because it summed up the realisation of what this man and his music will always mean to Mancunians.

Ending his homecoming with the ever brilliant F.E.A.R., he’d done enough to retain his place as the indie king of Manchester and perhaps even the country.

And though his vocals may have faded at certain points or if he might have mumbled incoherently thanks to the venue’s bad sound, it makes little difference to his iconic status tonight.