The Courteeners, 02 Academy Bournemouth (From Dorset Echo)

The Courteeners, 02 Academy Bournemouth

9:57am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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WHO needs an encore anyway? In the good old days an encore was a rarity, a bonus couple of songs if the band felt the audience were worthy and if it was demanded by said audience.

Bravo The Courteeners, who careered through a captivating set and didn’t bow down to the modern standard of saving their two best tracks for the mandatory extra bit.

The Manchester four-piece took to the stage amidst the sound of Oasis’ Rock and Roll Star before their first notes cued pints to fly through the air and excited Liam Fray/Gallagher lookalikes to jump into each other.

And thus the tone had been set.

Debut album St Jude was given a decent airing – not just the usual force feeding of new material – with What Took You So Long, No You Didn’t, No You Don’t and Cavorting sending the busier than expected O2 Academy into a frenzy.

It’s testament to new album Falcon that pretty much every song sounds recognisable, great live and fits seamlessly into the set.

Its first track, The Opener, was a highlight of the night and instantly added to the iPod post-gig.

Will it Be This Way Forever, Sycophant, new single Take Over the World and Cross My Heart and Hope to Fly are sounding like old favourites already.

A two-song acoustic set from Liam Fray was the prelude to a grandstand finale.

“Let’s have a dance then Bournemouth,” proclaimed Liam before an excellent set was finished with Falcon’s standout single You Over Did it Doll and their biggest hit to date, Not 19 Forever.