I was once given a couple of shots of flavoured vodka and I had no idea what they were going to be. The colour of it was odd for starters, which should’ve been a clue as to whether or not to drink it. Naturally being a sucker for a freebie, I thought it couldn’t have been too bad. Let me tell you now that garlic-flavoured vodka is not very nice. But for all the garlic, or curry, or dog turd vodkas in the world, there is strawberry, orange and Parma Violet, and in some musicvodka world, Goldrush are in the latter category.

They are yummy.

Watching Goldrush tonight is like being welcomed with open arms, promptly cuddled then pushed away again. “Are we looking at the same picture? I don’t think so.” The ‘new’ single is played early on, leaving other bits of effortless countrypop joy like ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ for later… a song which happens to have been played back when they were still called Whispering Bob.

With a disproportionably large amount of Oxford band members in attendance, there’s something happening in that city now which may be bubbling under at the moment but could blow up any minute, making you forget that the likes of Radiohead or Supergrass ever came from there. Whether or not Goldrush will be the ones on top of the pile remains to be seen.

“I let you down,” they sing near the end of the set. No, you never. The sound system might’ve done on a couple of occasions, but you did not. I have seen you play better, though. The brass section was a nice touch.

Like I said – taken in, cuddled, then shoved out onto the streets of Camden. And you can’t even go home and listen to their album, cos it’s not out ‘till September. Doh!

Live photos by Emma Porter