The Zutons

Another band reforms to tour another “classic” album. Fortunately, this time it was The Zutons, indie favourites of the Noughties, reuniting to celebrate their debut album Who Killed…the Zutons?, an audacious stew of psychedelia, blues and garage rock influences.

As the Liverpudlian outfit ripped into the galloping, swampy rock’n’roll of Zuton Fever, taut and torrid thanks in part to Abi Harding’s frenzied saxophone, it was clear how much their playful invention had been missed. Rather than zip through the album chronologically, they followed up with the escalating maelstrom of Dirty Dancehall to round off an electric opening salvo.

The 60s-flavoured indie rock’n’roll of Havana Gang Brawl and the jaunty country canter Remember Mew are more conventionally conceived genre pieces but typical of their magpie creativity. The moody blues of Not A Lot To Do provided an effective change of pace and the dynamics shifted again with the urgent appeal of Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love?

Other set highlights operated by stealth, including the voodoo blues rock of their debut hit Pressure Point and the tightly coiled stomp of You Will You Won’t, with the boisterous crowd taking up the chant and not letting go.

Rather than go out all guns blazing, the four original members gathered stage left for campfire country lament Moons and Horror Shows, secure in the knowledge they still had their ace to play – the glorious Valerie, taken to a wider audience by Amy Winehouse, but delivered here in its hearty original incarnation by a pining Dave Mccabe.