Crowd’s standing ovation as Halle gets the Elbow

Elbow and the Halle, Bridgewater Hall, for the Manchester International Festival

If the best popular music is a celebration, everyone in Manchester - and far beyond - must be lifting a glass to Elbow.

The Bury quintet's gig at the Bridgewater Hall was the latest triumph in a year that must have surpassed even their own high expectations.

What made last night's concert even more special was the band's collaboration with the Halle Orchestra, described by Elbow singer Guy Garvey as the “first Manchester band”.

Make no mistake about it - this was an awesome, spectacular gig; a unique union of the old and new which sold out long ago, and another coup for the festival organisers.

As the audience enters the hall a film shows the band having a drink in the nearby Briton's Protection and being summoned back to play the concert. The conceit reinforces Elbow’s reputation as a bunch of regular guys who have somehow fallen into a big vat of good fortune.

But like a duck on water, it's never as easy as it seems. Elbow have spent 18 years honing their skills, and regular blokes don't win a Brit award, Mercury Music Prize, Ivor Novello award and the Freedom of the Borough of Bury all in one year.

For all that, the band seems as fresh-eyed and thrilled as their devoted and growing following. Perhaps the truth is that these are people with a talent for making the ordinary seem extraordinary.

Their appeal seems universal: if there was a board game called Elbow, it would say "for ages 8-80", such was the range of last night's audience.

The gig with the Halle was a revelation, more so than their recent TV special with the BBC. This time the orchestra (and choir) got inside the skin of the music to become an integral part of it, altering its basic structure, rather than being grafted on top of it. Conductor Joe Duddell deserves the highest praise for interpreting the music, drawn from all four of their Top 20 albums, in this way.

Under his baton, Elbow's music sounds as if it was always written with full orchestral backing in mind: a tender woodwind introduction to "Mirrorball" brought tears to the eyes; an oompah coda to "Weather to Fly" and thunderous crescendoes to "Starlings" added to the general pleasure of hearing the songs accompanied by sweeping violins, glistening harps and celestial choirs.

There were the favourite singalongs too, of course:: "Grace Under Pressure", sung in Gregorian chant style by the Halle Youth Choir, and "One Day Like This", belted out by an all-standing crowd.

This could genuinely be described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, drawing the longest and loudest standing ovation I've ever heard; one well deserved.

Let's hope, in the universal spirit of the band's music, that it is released as a DVD so that the many who couldn't get in can share the experience.

For those who can't wait, tonight's second Elbow/Halle gig is being screened live at Castlefield: gates open at 6pm. Take the hint.