The sparks fly for Guy

It's the night of several firsts. It's the first time the forecourt of Bridgewater Hall, home to Britain's oldest

symphony orchestra, has been besieged in such a manner by ticket touts, and the first time in the

orchestra's illustrious 150-year history they have collaborated with a local guitar band. The second night

of the two will also be the first time a performance from the venue has been broadcast live to Castlefield

Arena, where thousands of ticketless fans have massed to watch a big-screen relay.

The collaboration has been several years in the making. The initial idea came from the Hallé, who

wanted to do something different around the time of their 150th anniversary. Elbow loved the idea, lead

singer Guy Garvey in particular, having been taken to the Hallé by his grandfather as a young Guy. The

Hallé are, after all, Garvey argues, "the original Manchester band". But it is Manchester International

Festival which has made tonight possible. This year's festival features an impressive international array of

talent, so there's a real sense of hometown pride that two local titans should be one of the highlights.

This is not the first time Elbow have embarked on such a collaboration. In January they performed their all

conquering The Seldom Seen Kid live with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Chantage, Radio 3's Choir of

the Year 2006, at Abbey Road Studios in London. But the Hallé collaboration was planned first and

Garvey has promised that "we saved the best stuff for the northern crew".

Elbow's oeuvre lends itself readily to such a collaboration. They have always specialised in cinematic,

complex, layered songs of multidimensional texture with a pace suited to orchestral backing, and much of

their songbook already has string backing, especially the last couple of albums. Garvey writes songs of

love and loss and the endurance of human emotions - love songs that run the full spectrum from the

desperate vacuum of unrequited love to the euphoric rush of the falling in love again for what feels like

the first time. At the festival launch, he revealed that his girlfriend had pointed out to him that he had

actually written more love songs about Manchester than about any girl. No songwriter since Morrissey

has found the city to be such an inspiring muse, all of which makes tonight even more fitting.

Tonight is also much more of a true collaboration than the Abbey Road performance. Salford-born

composer Joe Duddell, who has orchestrated and conducts the Hallé tonight, has written new

arrangements, expanding and reinterpreting songs from across their back catalogue. They open with

"Station Approach", Garvey's telling and affectionate ode to the sense of relief northerners get when

pulling into Piccadilly station - "I need to be in a town where they know what I'm like and don't mind". At its

close Garvey allows himself a moment to glance around the hall and savour the occasion. "This is a very,

very lovely thing" he smiles.

There's a new, slower, dreamy extended intro to "Mirrorball", Duddell's reimagining of the half light of

early morning depicted in its lyrics, before the signature piano motif drops in, fractured light bouncing

round the concert hall. Much of the first half is drawn from The Seldom Seen Kid, and if one song

illustrates the seismic change in Elbow's fortunes over the last few years it's "The Loneliness of a Tower

Crane Driver". The oldest track on the album, written at a time when their previous record deal was

coming to an end and they didn't have a new one, it's an epic song that aches with desperation,

frustration and longing whenever performed - during rehearsals for last year's Mercury Music Prize

ceremony their performance made old stage hands and hardened technicians cry - but given the added

scale and emphasis of a full orchestra, the effect is almost overwhelming.

On the more raucous "Grounds for Divorce", Garvey leads the audience to clap along and add backing

vocals. There follows a soaring and swooping version of "Some Riot", and the first half closes with a new

extended ending to "Weather to Fly" that prompts a standing ovation at the interval.

The second half draws from all four albums, old favourites such as "Scattered Black and Whites" and

"Powder Blue" from their 2001 debut Asleep in the Back only highlighting the strength of their back

catalogue. Duddell's new orchestrations simply add extra emphasis and scale at times, and at others take

the songs in a different direction or add totally new sections, at several points without the band

themselves. There's an ever-rising swell of goodwill and euphoria but thankfully it only threatens to boil

over during the inevitable closing "One Day Like This", the audience almost drowning out band and

orchestra, backed by the bells of Manchester town hall, which is projected on to the back of the stage.

It's a truly special night, but what is tantalising is you're left with a feeling that this is a band whose star is

still in the ascendant. As much as tonight was recognition of how far they have come and how much they

have achieved, there is the feeling that there is a lot more to expect from Elbow. This is a performance

that will be difficult to match, however. Garvey says it is an evening he will tell his grandchildren about.

One suspects he won't be the only guy to do so.

Luke Bainbridge, The Observer