Whilst on the face of it this tour may come across as a bit of a hodgepodge of a package, there is a defining factor that links all three acts. That is highly charismatic front men. James Bruner, Luke Spiller and Barns Courtney may all exist in their own distinct musical universes, but they share a compelling magnetism that is absolutely captivating. When each of them are on the stage they are like attention hoovers wielding a gravitational pull that sucks all the interest towards them. They all have the innate ability to hold an audience in their hands and it is that allure that makes this evening so fascinating.

James Bruner maybe the third wheel on a two-pronged co-headliner tour but he certainly has his devotees. An overexcited wag in the front row screams “It's the man in the suit” to which he cooly replies “I am the man in the suit who is going to play you a new song”. He may well be in a shiny suit, but he has forgotten his shirt (which to be honest is a schoolboy error during a Mancunian September) and it isn't long until he is standing bare-chested in front of an adoring crowd. He and his bandmates join a veritable list of young things doing old music exceptionally well. He wears his considerable debt to the late lamented Jeff Buckley on his sleeve and regularly cites him in interviews as being a cornerstone inspiration. But he isn't just copying his style and substance for a new generation, he is taking the blues and deftly repackaging it in an accessible but still highly reverential fashion.

He is brim-full of youthful confidence, that cocksure demeanour when you know that you're onto a good thing. But it never boils over into arrogance and you can tell he is generally moved by the response that he gains. Support acts are usually there just to give an audience more time to get to the bar, but his faithful reinterpretation of white boy blues is genuinely received with an almost headline status rapture. It's not clear whether he has cleverly managed to win over the followers of the Struts and Barnes Courtney or whether he had a sizeable fan base to start with, but as his short but sweet set clambers to an end, the baying voices threaten to lift the roof off this listed building.

Let's be honest, The Struts have stalled a bit. When the inhabitants of ROCKFLESH towers first encountered them around 2015 it looked like their rise would be stratospheric. They had an aurora unlike any other act we had come across. They fitted into the burgeoning new wave of classic rock but there was something else about them. They have a kinetic hypnotic energy that put them light years ahead of their peers. They also had Luke Spiller, simply the greatest frontperson that this country has produced in absolute decades. However nearly 10 years on they are not quite at the imperialistic heights that we had imagined. Those who love them, absolutely love them and for an hour and 10 minutes, the beautifully rendered confines of the Albert Hall rings with utter adoration. But they still feel like a forbidden fruit, an unknown pleasure that is hermetically designed for the mainstream but is yet to fully engage with its attention.

It is needless to say that they are absolutely superb this evening. They are every great legendary rock band you've ever seen (or watched footage of) rolled into one astonishing performance. Luke is still a dynamic dynamo of pure unadulterated energy. He bounces around the stage like a toddler on tartrazine. His winning card is despite the obvious egotistical intent he still comes across as genuinely likeable. He also knows how to work an audience. Debuting a new unrecorded song is usually the kiss of death or at the very least a signal for a mass exodus to the loos and the bar. But not in Luke’s hand, he uses it as a mass participation endeavour teaching the winnings throng the words to the new song ‘Can't Stop Talking’.

If the unfamiliar material is getting the audience going, then they move into euphoric mode when The Struts kick into their “Greatest Hits”. ‘Kiss This’ becomes a communal singalong ripped straight out of Queen at Wembley, whilst during ‘Put Your Money on Me’ he rolls out every single rock 'n' roll crowd participation chestnut at his disposal. We all know the time-honoured standards of “freeze on the spot” or “I sing this and you sing that” are old hat and us rock 'n' roll veterans have seen them done a million times before. But Luke manages to breathe such new life into these well-worn cliches. As is now traditional the show culminates with ‘Could Have Been Me’, a karaoke mainstay still desperately waiting to happen. The Struts are quite simply the greatest pure rock 'n' roll band this country has spewed out this century and whilst they are utterly utterly fantastic this evening there is still that lingering thought of why they are here and not selling out multiple nights at Heaton Park.

Barns Courtney has also been a bit of an underground success story. He's been at this for 20 years but has never seemed to have been caught in the headlights of the mainstream. Which to be honest is both odd and also a massive shame as the stuff he is doing is eminently commercial. He possesses an astonishing set of larynx. He belts out every song in his 15-strong set with utter conviction and melodic harmony. Here's one of those voices which could recite the telephone directory and make it sound extraordinary.

Musically he and his band come across as sonic magpies fuelled by Spotify and the ability to be influenced by so much of what has come before. In their mix you have gospel, blues, country, heavy rock and every other intermittent point in between. The crucial factor is that they make it work. It doesn't feel like a disparate list of genres, instead, who it's a melting pot of styles that blend together to create something that feels simultaneously vintage but also startlingly new.

Barns himself tries to match our Luke in the energy stakes. He is all over the shop, whether it is visiting his dad up on the balcony or clambering up to give Jed Elliott from The Struts a hug. He also seems equally at home living out the rockstar persona with twirling mike stand, as he is when he is alone belting out the torch song standards. But let's be honest it is the latter where he really really excels. The performance of ‘Glitter and Gold’ is exceptional, a hair-at-the-back-of-your-neck moment as his voice crescendos in in fluctuating ecstasy.

So putting aside so as the token yank, this evening was firmly about the hidden treasures that exist within the British rock scene. Both The Struts and Barns Courtney are extraordinary performers but neither have moved beyond an adored cult status. Maybe that's where they are both comfortable, but this shows that both unfurled this evening prove that they could easily hold court in an O2 or a Co-op arena, let's hope that they both get the chance.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Barns Courtney + The Struts + James Bruner