Idlewild, Manchester Club Academy

are a great band. Entering their fifteenth year of existence, they’re still producing good, solid albums that get, by and large, positive reviews. The key, however, seems to be in that the band aren’t producing albums that sell well – or at least sell as well as 2002’s ‘The Remote Part’. Which is why the band are playing in the basement of Manchester’s Academy rather in the main venue as they did a few short years ago.

The band’s latest offering, ‘Post Electric Blues’ is a much rockier affair than the indie-pop that gained them such popularity earlier on in the decade. The band have aged, and their record collection shows that more than anything else, with the band almost embarrassed by their admittedly primitive early, punkier releases. But make no mistake, when lead singer Roddy Woomble walks on stage, he’s still the coolest man in the room by an absolute mile, and his lyrics are still as beautiful and poetic as ever. He commands the stage with ease, thanks largely to his irrepressible charm, dashing good looks and an appreciative crowd.

It’s perhaps the crowd themselves that define the gig best, consisting mainly of thirty and forty something’s, many of which probably saw the death of Oasis as something to be mourned. Despite the huge gulf in popularity, Idlewild have always been a much more gifted band than their Mancunian cousins, but they share a very similar relationship with their public. Whereas many people certainly enjoyed Oasis’ later works, it was still always the ‘Wonderwall’ stuff they were paying to see, and the case proves to be true here. Though newer songs like ‘Post Electric’ certainly garner a warm response from the crowds, it’s still the classics that get them jumping, literally so during ‘Live In A Hiding Place’’s bizarre impromptu front-row pogoing.

In fairness, the band themselves seem to recognise that the classics are what pay their wages and their set is packed full of forgotten gems, all of which are greeted with fervour – even the slower, inherently depressing grounds of ‘Quiet Crown’ and ‘Bronze Medal’. As the band conclude their three song encore, it hard not to think that the band deserve better than this, that the arena tours that once felt certain for them should have happened. But it’s telling that when Woomble tells the crowd that ‘We should be playing upstairs next time we’re here’, it sounds more like a wish than a promise.