Reviews

So was their reunion tour’s arrival at Manchester Central a homecoming? Richard Ashcroft seemed to think so, as he dedicated Life’s An Ocean to “Happy Mondays, New Order, Joy Division, The Smiths, Oasis…”, much to the appreciation of the crowd.

Yet listing Mancunian musical heroes was never going to be enough to make this a heart-warming, group-hugging welcome back for the four prodigal sons. For that, they needed a performance to place them alongside those names.

The Verve

They never even came close. From Ashcroft’s hideous Rhydian-esque haircut, through his charmless hollering of song titles in place of any audience interaction, and out to the obstreperous decision to include the full reprise on a lumpen Stormy Clouds – which supplied five minutes of the most self-indulgent pomposity seen on a Mancunian stage this year - there were few moments to even get excited about, leaving the crowd flat.

It didn’t help that there’d been a bizarre decision to only use the big screens sparingly, presumably in an attempt to let their music speak for itself – a particularly poor choice given that the staggeringly bad sound muddied every song and made their cacophonous epics almost indecipherable.

It was the songs from Urban Hymns that formed the backbone of the show and, barring a fine On Your Own, it was these which provided what highlights there were, simply because of their use of an acoustic, rather than electric, lead.

Lucky Man rang out above a rattling drum kit to provide some sunshine, while Sonnet and Velvet Morning gave glimpses of what could have been - the latter saving the show after the unveiling of a dire new track, Sit And Wonder.

Inevitably though, the biggest cheer of the night accompanied the opening strings of the set-closing Bittersweet Symphony, which, of course, means it was Mick and Keith, rather than Richard, Simon, Nick and Peter, who stole the show. It must be something that galled the four, particularly as people streamed out of the venue during the encore, having had the nostalgia trip they had come for.

And that’s the point. After nearly a decade away, The Verve thought they were here to pick up where they left off, while their audience thought they were here to wallow in the past. Had they approached this like Take That did, showing a wonder that anyone was even still interested, they might just have succeeded.

As it was, self-importance and arrogance made for predictable disappointment. If this was a homecoming and a final attempt to latch onto Manchester, it failed.