Two weeks ago I saw John Grant play a concert here in Utrecht. I'd vaguely heard one or two of his songs before the gig but nothing could have prepared me for how brilliant the first half hour of this concert was going to be.

After 20 minutes I was convinced that this was going to be one of the greatest gigs I'd ever seen. After half an hour I actually had tears running down my face, partly due to the joy of seeing something as good as this and partly because of the heart wrenching content of some of the songs.

The rest didn't quite live up to that opening and it sagged at the end - why do so many artists insist on doing 90 minutes when 60 would make a better gig? However it was still a terrific experience, primarily because of that first half hour although there were other highlights. For anyone who hasn't seen him on this tour, he has no band - just his voice, keyboards and another keyboard player to accompany him. Amazing.

I bought the album the next day and it is as great as it promised to be.