“Good evening Manchester,” begins Liam Fray, as 25,000 people form a sea of raised hands. Although the Courteeners can happily fill medium-sized venues around the country, in or around Manchester – where they formed a band in childhood and slogged up from tiny venues – they are the biggest phenomenon since Oasis. The crowd – too young to have seen that band – sing the Gallaghers’ songs before the show and Fray’s band fill an Oasis-shaped hole with their distilled indie rock: part Strokes, part Libertines, brisk guitar anthems delivered in a strong regional accent, Wedding Present-style.
Fray doesn’t milk the local factor, restraining himself to one nasal “Manchester vibes in the area”. A sore throat may restrict the banter, but the effects on his singing are minimal, because the crowd bellow every word. The Morrissey-quiffed frontman’s a better and drier lyricist than he’s given credit for, at best conjuring up Fall-like diatribes about the horrors of human beings, from “goggle-eyed girls” to loud men with suntans.
One of his one-liners – “I’m only a paperboy from the north-west, but I can scrub up well in my Sunday best” – was famously tweeted by Andy Burnham, who is apparently here, hopefully not among those ignoring the warning “anyone with flares will be ejected” (that’s flares as in flame-emitting devices, not unfashionable trousers).
Over 21 songs-cum-singalongs, with the specially hired brass section inaudible, it gets rather formulaic, so gentler doomed-love ballad Yesterday, Today and Probably Tomorrow arrives at the right time. The Opener, as good a song as they have written, finds Fray singing “my heart is here”, despite a messy “affair with LA and New York, Dundee and Doncaster”.
“I’ve waited 10 years for this,” he says, before a celebratory Not Nineteen Forever sees band and audience savour their big moment.
- The Courteeners play the Isle of Wight festival on 14 June, Glastonbury festival on 26 June and T in the Park, Strathallan castle, Perthshire on 11 July. Details: thecourteeners.com.
