The Courteeners, Look See Proof - Barfly, London - Friday 7th March 2008

This was a short notice, but an action and celebrity packed night. I was idly looking on MySpace on Wednesday night, when I saw that the excellent Look See Proof, whose debut single Casualty is often on my iPod, were playing the Barfly 2 days later. Not only that, but the gig was to support The Courteeners, in a very hastily arranged show. Very excitedly, I headed over to Ticketweb to get some tickets, and started looking forward to the show.

Stopping off for a quick pre-gig pint in the Enterprise, we found ourselves sat on a table with Pixie Geldof, who looked suitably prima donna-ish, and was the first (and least) "famous" person of the night. We then headed into the Barfly, and got upstairs just in time for the start of Look See Proof's set. Four well-spoken boys from Hertfordshire, they certainly looked the part of an indie band, all the haircuts were in perfect order.

I really enjoyed Look See Proof's set - having only heard Casualty before, there were lots of other good songs in their set. The fact that 2 people share the singing duties - the bassist standing in the middle of the stage and leading the vocals, and the guitarist being very active at singing as well - means that the vocals are interesting, and allow for frantic songs with 2 people singing or screaming at once. Add some classic indie pop guitars - I thought the guitars sounded like The Maccabees at times, and you have the ingredients for a decent set. They had some pretty good songs, and despite the sound not being much cop at all, the set was pretty good I thought.

After a trip to the loo which also involved bumping into Liam Fray, The Courteeners played a short-ish set, which again wasn't helped by the really dodgy sound. There was a good hardcore of people towards the front, jumping about lots, much to the apparent bemusement of the Mr Fray. The set started quite slowly, with Aftershow, Kimberley, and Kings Of The New Road, three of their weaker and darker songs in my view - but by the time Bide Your Time properly kicked in, things were well and truly up and running, with a full room, and people trying to get to the front with every new song.

As the set drew on, the room got hotter, sweatier and more into the band, fantastic versions of Cavorting and new single Not Nineteen Forever really getting people involved. The set ended in its usual way, What Took You So Long including the now familiar verse from James's classic Tomorrow. No encore, of course, and it was back downstairs in the Barfly to have a debrief pint. I have no idea what was going on in there later, but Mark Ronson and Ricky Wilson from Kaiser Chiefs were in there - a most decent celebrity haul for an evening - to add to the later reports that Morrissey was watching the gig too.

Setlist: Aftershow / Kimberley / Kings Of The New Road / Bide Your Time / Please Don't / Acrylic / Fallowfield Hilbilly / Cavorting / Not Nineteen Forever / No You Didn't No You Don't / What Took You So Long.