A fairly rudimentary audience boot, but the slightly muffled sound is compensated by a warmth to the recording and most of all by the fact that this is a truly great gig, right from the very start (one of the best versions of Cooksferry Queen I've heard). The version of Persuasion from this tour, with Richard and Teddy swapping verses, is always sublime.

Did Pete Zorn always play flute on Walking The Long Miles...? I'd assume so, but this is the first time I've noticed it, and it really adds to the opening of the song here. To top off a fantastic main set, Christine Collister drops by and lends backing vocals to Tear Stained Letter.

With all those positives out of the way, the usual whinge is that the setlist is almost a carbon copy of other dates on the U.K. tour, albeit with some slight encore changes to better accommodate Christine's presence. I've always assumed the static nature of the band setlists is due to having to work out arrangements before the tour starts, but then how come some rock bands manage to play different sets every night? (Pearl Jam, for example).

Whilst in niggling mode, I've been reading a few comments about the slow-paced Vincent Black Lightning recently, but the positively sedate version here somehow fails to catch light and even lacks the characteristically mind-boggling guitarwork.

None of this, however, detracts from what must rank amongst the best of the 1999 U.K. shows.