Move Festival, Manchester’s urban festival extravaganza enters its third year and there is no sign of an improvement in attendance. The weekday timings probably don’t help, nor does the fact that it is the same weekend as T in the Park. The line -ups this year also appear to be somewhat strange.
Tonight’s line- up is pretty strong though. Give or take the opening act, The Cranes. It is probably just as well that not many people had arrived to see them or there may have been a bottleneck at the exits.
The excellent yet unsung Longview are up next. Fresh from a triumphant appearance on the New Stage at Glastonbury, the Manchester based boys grow in confidence with every appearance. They are bolstered by the support of several diehard fans. Yet, as at Glastonbury, they leave having made new friends.
Keane are far from unsung. Their rise to prominence in the last year has been nothing but meteoric. This time last year I saw them supporting the aforementioned Longview. With two Top Ten singles and a best selling album to their credit the question is can they cut it live? After surviving a dodgy sound system at the start the answer is a resounding yes. Yet the crowd seem slightly muted apart from the obvious Somewhere Only We Know and the less obvious earlier single This Is The Last Time.
Far from being unsung, on this appearance, locals Elbow look distinctly overrated. They put passion into the performance but the songs just seem to last an eternity. Newborn and Switching Off verge on star quality but the others appear to be just humdrum.
That brings us to tonight’s star attraction. The Cure have been around eons. Their earliest conception dating back to 1976. Robert Smith has aged and put on a little weight, and there is something slightly disconcerting about a man in his forties wearing make up. However the performance is still sheer class. There are none of the sound problems that dogged Keane. The Cure have it mixed just right. Despite the omission of obvious crowd pleasers like Friday I’m In Love and The Love Cats, the crowd lap it up. There are still Boys Don’t Cry and In Between Days for the non Cure connisouer to enjoy. Robert Smith looks like he is enjoying himself and genuinely doesn’t want it to stop, but the curfew says it must. They promise to be back again and it wont be moment too soon.
MOVE 
