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It was suggested to me last night that the occasional bad review is no bad thing, because it keeps the band on their toes. This isn’t going to be one of them. On this tour, The Aussies have raised the bar so high it’s hard to imagine how they could ever get any better, but we’ve all said that a few times before and they always do.

To put this in context, I’ve been to a few shows for someone of my tender years, from Pink Floyd playing Dark Side for the first time in 1972 to the Stones last year and a few hundred others in between.  Last night’s show at Leicester de Montfort Hall equalled them all and surpassed most of them. Everything that has been already written about this tour is spot on.

The setlist:

Shine On 1-5
Learning to Fly
Money
Us and Them
On the Turning Away
Gunner’s Dream
Take It Back
Brain Damage
Eclipse

- interval –

Astronomy Domine
What Do You Want From Me?
Set the Controls
Time
Great Gig
Nobody Home
Pigs
Wish You Were Here
One Of These Days
Bricks 2
Comfortably Numb

- encore -

Hey You
Run Like Hell

Having Ian Cattell on vocals adds a new dimension to both the Rog and Dave parts, but Damian, Steve and Colin still take their share of vocal duties too. Ian and Damian’s harmonies are so good they could start an Everly Brothers tribute. The power of the backing vocalists with four of them in the lineup was amazing. Unfortunately Ola had a cold, so Great Gig was taken by Amy alone, not shared as in the earlier shows.

Highlights for me were:

On the Turning Away - spectacular, beautiful.

Gunner’s Dream – my single highpoint of the show. After singing the first part like an angel, Ian nailed “… and hold on to the dream” with more power than you could imagine and Mike carried on the note into the sax part for the ultimate Floyd moment. I hear it almost makes Mike pass out, but you’ve got to suffer for your art.

Set the Controls - a lot of critics say that The Aussies don’t try to extend or develop the music. This would have shut them up, especially Mike and Damian’s workouts that took the piece where Floyd never did.

The new light show is spectacular. The Pulse tour and then some. They must spend more time programming the lights than most bands do on an entire production. Great new visuals too. No inflatables in Leicester, though, the venue is too small. Skippy was hanging around outside picking up chicks.

A very nice touch before Comfy, when Jason “Abdul Bollywood” Sawford introduced the band. The boys were all called Bruce and the girls were all called Sheila.

This has to be the best live rock show in the world today, at any price. For £23.50, it is just amazing. It’s worth that just to see Mike’s new gay pink saxophone. You could go to this show six times for the price of a Stones ticket.