All I can say is the audience here are remarkably generous. Last time I saw the headliners play London, the support bands were brutally bottled off for the merest of slights. Tonight, however, everyone is cheering what is, to put it one way, not one of the greatest bands DiS has had the misfortune to witness. Angels Fight The City are dreary dad-rock, fronted by what could possibly be Guigsy’s less interesting younger brother. And (disaster!) their timing sucks ass. One senses that their bass player’s top – embued with the words ‘Who said things can only get better?’ – must be rhetorical.

Of course it doesn’t help them that they are succeeded by a band as ace as Hooker. With minimum fuss and maximum impact, the power trio take the stage, then the audience, by storm. Armed with a voice even more banshee-like than Corin Sleater-Kinney, singer/guitarist Zoe McVeigh belts out songs that grind and ache with the sharpest of edges. Actually, Hooker sound more like pre-S-K troublemakers Heavens To Betsy, if only they’d learnt to play their instruments properly. And if our ears were bleeding by the end of the night, the big grins besmurching our faces said it all.

Photo by Jyoti