Halo Maud opened the show, singing in English and French with a three piece instrumental line-up that rapidly changed from pulsing energy to dreamlike atmosphere. A fine, dynamic set featuring many tracks from 2024 album ‘Celebrate’.
Public Service Broadcasting returned to the Corn Exchange with a set drawing on what is now a substantial back catalogue, but of course with an emphasis on recently released ‘The Last Flight’; movingly describing and commemorating the achievements and disappearance of pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart. The stage was like a giant plane control panel, with screens to show the archive clips. The four regular members of the band were stunningly augmented by the vocals and keyboards of EERA and a sound quality and volume that balanced the voice samples and music perfectly.
There were tracks from all their full-length albums – ‘Sputnik’, ‘Spitfire’, ‘Go!’, ‘Progress’ all featured strongly with the rarer ‘Korolev’ as a bonus too. The encore of the glorious ‘Night Mail’, the electropop of ‘People, Let’s Dance’, the dancing astronauts of ‘Gagarin’ and the thought-provoking history lesson of ‘Everest’ were a great distillation of the band’s depth and endeavour at the end of this brilliant show.
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