Amy MacDonald

What. A. Show. That was simply sensational. Ms MacDonald has a voice which can be so gentle one second and yet turn incredibly powerful in an instant. The vocal range on display was amazing and, with the support of her fantastic band, it was a privilege to watch someone with such talent as a singer, songwriter and musician perform. So the show...

Before Amy came out we were treated to her supporting act, who came in the shape of Ben Montague. I'll be honest, I hadn't really heard about Ben until the show but now I own his latest album. I think that sums up my feeling on his performance quite well.

After a short set change, Amy and the band came out to wild cheering (wild for Cambridge anyway - we are usually quite civilised) and went straight into 4th of July to get the show off to a rocking start. We were then treated to a few songs from all three albums in the shape of Poison Prince, L.A., Spark, The Game (which Amy confessed to having reservations about putting on the album - Amy you were wrong, it is a fantastic song) and Mr Rock & Roll. At this point Amy highlighted a doorman in a high vis jacket who was distracting her and so after closing the door on the poor sod (he was there to work anyway!), we were treated to Slow It Down (featuring the Crowd Choir) which is one of my personal favourites from the new album.

We then lost the band, presumably so they could go check on the Barca score, and were given a short acoustic set instead, featuring Love Love, Give It All Up and This Pretty Face, so we could really hear just how good a voice Ms MacDonald is blessed with. Next was cover time with Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson getting the MacDonald treatment with everyone bobbing around in uncoordinated joy, followed by Don't Tell Me That It's Over and, a short speech about her recent illness and going home for a few days leading nicely into The Green and The Blue.

If this was Amy MacDonald at anything other than 100% then that is incredible, she was on stage for near enough a couple of hours straight, pouring energy into her performance and she did not waiver vocally at all. It may have been her recent illness that forced her to sink some Irn Bru at this point, or it could have just been the Scot in her. She spoke now about performing before Scottish Football matches, how much she dreads it but then how incredible the feeling is when she performs. As a football lover she spoke of how Scotland seem to match whoever they are playing, be it Spain or the Faroe Islands, and it was after performing to the crowd at one game that inspired her to write Pride, which she duly performed.

The final three songs of the set were Run, This Is The Life and, the exquisite, Life In A Beautiful Light. The crowd lapped these up and with good reason, the energy and atmosphere in the room was electric by this point and everyone was absolutely loving it. The end of Life In A Beautiful Light allows the band to rock out a bit and Amy showed her class by letting them have centre stage for a bit, simply looking on happily from the side.

The band and Ms MacDonald left the stage but very few members of the crowd were in a rush to leave and so we cheered and clapped and whistled in the hope we would see the songstress again. We were not disappointed, with a four song encore including a cover of Dancing In The Dark, The Furthest Star, Barrowland Ballroom (a song which always gets me dancing even if I am listening to it on my walk to work) and, finally, Let's Start A Band. The entire crowd was extremely please that, once upon a time, Amy MacDonald did indeed start a band.