THERE was no angst about the Lightning Seeds Summer Pops gig, no artistic suffering, just an upbeat gig that demonstrated Ian Broudie’s range as a lyricist.

With a few lesser-known tracks thrown in, this was less a “greatest hits” than a “best of” concert and showed how he has managed to sustain his long career.

New songs from the new album Four Winds – including All I Do, written while thinking about living on Hope Street – had a more wistful feel than earlier hits All I Want and You Showed Me, yet were still unmistakably Broudie.

There were new versions of old favourites, too – a more harmonised Lucky You and a pared- down Marvellous that brought out the melody and lyrical qualities, making it sound almost delicate.

Broudie seemed comfortable on the Philharmonic stage and the effect was a gig that felt intimate, despite the size of the hall.

Full-throttle versions of Life of Riley, Change and Sugar Coated Iceberg, with the keyboard taking the trumpet part, finished the set before an encore featuring Broudie’s long-time pal Ian McCulloch.

They dueted on an acoustic take on The Merseybeats’ Sorrow, before the band returned to the stage for Phil Spector’s Be My Baby and an explosive performance of Pure.

In his new song, I Still Feel the Same, Broudie sings: “I hope that the end for me will live up to the start.”

LAURA DAVIS