No frills, no fuss, just rocket-fuelled brilliance

Elbow, Manchester Arena

THEY’VE certainly come a long way since their first gig in a Rossendale pub in 1990.

The Bury band have retained their original line-up and the five-piece have also retained their drive to make cracking tunes with no frills and no fuss.

You won’t see Guy Garvey, Mark Potter, Craig Potter, Pete Turner and Richard Jupp gracing the pages of Heat magazine and they’re not likely to be the subject of the latest News of the World splash.

But when they walked on to the stage at the sold out Manchester Arena, 17,000 people knew exactly who they were.

Kicking things off with The Birds, the opener from new album Build A Rocket Boys, they had the audience in the palm of their hands from the word go.

As they soared through tracks old and new, with many from the 2008 Mercury Prize winner The Seldom Seen Kid, the spectacular light show flicked and danced accordingly.

Singer Guy Garvey dedicated Mirrorball to Cyril Boon, father of Inspiral Carpet keyboardist Clint, who passed away on Friday.

Members of the Halle Youth Choir joined the band on stage for set closer One Day Like This to stunning effect.

Band members even played their own trumpets for a rousing rendition of Starlings.

References to Manchester peppered the two-hour set with Garvey regularly telling elated crowd members how pleased he was to be performing in his home city.

There were no elaborate costume changes, no scantily-clad backing dancers and no cover versions.

But when you’ve got five albums worth of top-notch material, a charismatic frontman and a team of superb musicians, there’s really no need for gimmicks.