The night started off pleasantly enough with The Glass Ceiling, the first of the JD comp winning supporting acts. Clad in suit vests ala the current retro trend they present another strong example of the post-punk revival style (that’s what we’re calling it right?), with catchy rubbery bass tones and frequent staccato guitar riffs. At times when you think they’ll follow the typical format the tend to surprise, such as in Save A Life where they mixed your typical arpeggios with a minor/major same chord change. In terms of stage show they kept it fairly simple; switching from song to song with little banter, giving early comers entertaining danceable tunes as a good support act should.

In between the acts punters were treated to the eviction of a lady (a term used in the broadest sense) in a trench coat who had poorly been trying to pick pocket patrons during The Glass Ceiling’s set – big thumbs up to the nice lads in security.

The Shiny Brights, with a name even your grandma can’t help but smile at (like the Moldy Peaches, or to a lesser degree the Butthole Surfers), took to the stage next. Lead by inexhaustibly enthusiastic Wolfgang, they brought more of engaging stage presence though at the expense of less engaging songs. While Wolfgang brought strong vocals to the mix, his – œhead-turn to the left, attempt to play the other member’s instruments, and mumble banter’ act got fairly repetitive, which was not so great unless you needed rules for an impromptu drinking game. The other members were fine and their alt rock set worked well as a lead in for the headliners.

Just as the Prince’s corners were filling out You Am I took to the stage to welcome applause. Playing for a solid hour and a half, they kicked things off with Midget In a Nightclub before going on to other recent songs such as Erasmus. Of course that wasn’t at the expense of their earlier material, as always managing to cover a lot of territory from their 20 year career with Rogers and co easily moving through Rumble, How Much Is Enough, Damage, Beau Geste, Soldiers, and so on as the audience cheered on.

Tim entertained as always, e.g.: in between thanking the supports making a quip about the supports not being able to make him toast right; and half way through he set, garbed in a cowboy hat that kept falling off, he spoke of the difficulties of life on the road and how he feeds it into his song craft. So anyway… they finished the night off with the inevitable encore with Berlin Chair making its dutiful appearance, and The Piano Up in The Tree being a nice cap to a good night out.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE