Doves have never ceased to entertain and mesmerise with their filmic, atmospheric and anthemic performances, and they didn't let Preston down.

Velvet-voiced front man Goodwin was faultless from opening with Snowden to ending a spectacular encore on There Goes The Fear.

They teased with the intro to New York, pounced into Pounding and gave us a taste of their latest album, Some Cities.

While full of fantastic tunes, most notably Black and White Town, it was obvious their most recent offering has not yet been as fully embraced as album two, The Last Broadcast.

But while it is good to have Doves on your doorstep, the Guild Hall is not really a suitable venue for the Manchester band, with the mixture of sitting and standing.

Doves were made for dancing -- difficult in what is essentially a snooker hall, as Goodwin was at pains to point out with his BBC snooker theme tune interludes.

And I missed Spaceface -- the only thing absent from a rousing four-song encore of Here It Comes, M62 Song, Some Cities and bongo/cow bell-tastic There Goes The Fear.

Suzanne Geldard