Kosheen @ the Academy

Critics sneer at Kosheen as coffee table drum and bass, but let's face it hardcore drum and bass is like having your head smashed in with a hammer every other second.

Instead Kosheen produced a hugely entertaining mix of pop, rock and drum and bass lite for a particularly up for it crowd. It's also true that dance music live tends to be either faceless bores (Chemical Brothers, Underworld) stuck behind keyboards or nerds (Fatboy Slim, Moby) who are trying a bit too hard.

Thankfully in Welsh diva Sian Evans, the Bristol collective have an out of out performer complete with Basseyese hand gestures and a bellow that sends your eyeballs back into your head.

Evans can work a crowd with great skill and she looks like she is having as much fun as her adoring public. A rarity in these po-faced days and much needed as the rest of the band are a charisma black hole. Why play live if you don't get off on it like Sian does?

Resist was an early highlight as Sian threw off some early nerves and suddenly started to ride the heavy drum and bass working the crowd into a frenzy. This was strangely old fashioned show with lots of ‘Manchester you're brilliant', opportunities to clap along and, best of all, chances to sing along to the hits.

The hits did keep coming with (Slip and Slide) Suicide and Harder keeping the momentum up. Kosheen threw in a new song they are working and it suggested a move away from drum and bass to a slightly rockier sound.

But they saved the best for last with a storming take on Hide U which had it all. Heavy drum and bass, fabulous chorus and Sian totally and utterly in control of the whole thing. On the evidence of this performance, Shirley had better watch her back because Sian could soon topple the Tiger Bay diva and become Queen of the Valleys.