As Razorlight, The Kooks and Hard-Fi have found out to their considerable chagrin, you can take a couple of years off and come back to find that only a tiny percentage of your original audience still gives a fuck.
Fears that a similar fate might await the missing-in-action since 2009 Franz Ferdinand are abated the moment the chaps materialise on the Dolan’s stage wearing some of the snazziest strides ever seen on this island. Still blessed with as much hair and as many teeth as when we last saw them, Franz look as delighted to be here as we are to have ‘em.
It’s straight in, no kissing with an opening salvo of ‘Cheating On You’, ‘Do You Want To’ and ‘Tell Her Tonight’, which remind you that Alex & Co. have always sounded a lot punkier live than they have in the studio.
The first of four debutante songs is ‘Right Thoughts’, a jovial janglefest with a hook you can hang your hat on. The girly squeals when Alex sings, ‘I want you to love me!’ are positively Jedwardesque.
‘No You Girls’ and ‘The Dark Of The Matinee’ are greeted like long lost friends – the latter giving Terry Wogan a hometown namecheck – before we’re treated to another newbie, the somewhat meaner ‘n’ moodier ‘Brief Encounters’, which segueways in and out of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’. The Giorgio Moroder thumping bass role is played to perfection by Bob Hardy, who seriously gets his funk on throughout.
Tonight’s other newbies are the poppy ‘Fresh Strawberries’ and ‘Trees And Animals’, a high-octane number purloined from a ‘60s American garage.
Elsewhere, ‘Take Me Out’ has lost none of its lustful urgency; ‘Jacqueline’ still makes you bounce up and down like a kangohammer and ‘This Fire’ remains one of the most orgasmic ends to a set you could possibly hope for.
Job, I’d say, well and truly done.