And so to the Scala to see two artists who have been among the defining artists in 2008 for this publication.

Lawrence Arabia, whose talents deserve as large a crowd as that gathered for him here, earnestly rendered songs from his marvellous self-titled debut. Special praise must go to ‘Thistle Tends To Single’ and ‘Apple Pie Bed’, performed with wit and affection from a songwriter only heading skywards.

Liam’s set brought to an end nigh on a year of solid touring with cohort EJ Barnes. Now, I may be shouted down for this, but while his whole guitar looping-drumming-one-man-band scenario remains a sight to see, Finn is in mild danger of allowing this concentration on distorted noise and effects getting in the way of his songs.

At times tonight it was borderline, which is disconcerting given that stripped of everything these songs are quite, quite beautiful. However, given the fact it’s the end of a long road for him, we can let him off throwing the kitchen sink into this last performance. Plus, all that technological stuff is still very impressive, to the point that I would almost call him a phenomenon of live rock performance. Yes, a phenomenon.

‘Second Chance’ must be the highlight, edging out usual jaw-dropper ‘I’ll Be Lightning’, while a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Birthday’ was enjoyable, if a little pointless. Best of all was when he recorded the audience’s chanting and sporadically threw it in as he built up his layers of sound.

I for one have never seen that before.

Barnaby Smith