Through the ice and snow I got to the Leadmill by 1925, and was still there late enough to miss the start of The Mirimar Disaster‘s set. Which was a shame, as I really like this lot. Clearly influenced by many of the more ‘intelligent’ metal bands like Neurosis, Isis and perhaps even Tool, you are lucky to get five songs in a set. But oh, what songs. Ten Fifty and Scenario are both awesome, but are both trumped by Leave It All Behind, a stunning Cure-influenced track that winds it’s way to an astounding conclusion. Having spoken to Stocky afterward, the new album is due in “late summer”. It can’t come soon enough.

Chris Clark was the second support, and could not possibly be different. A strange mix of calm techno to begin with, moving on eventually to some quite fierce drum’n’bass. Really good, although much of the crowd appeared not to ‘get it’ whatsoever. Shame he was effectively turned-off at the end, though.

And now onto 65daysofstatic. They are still continuing their upward momentum, but it seems a little slower than many thought. Obviously Pete Doherty’s latest drug-filled escapades are far too important for the music press to be covering new bands…

Anyway. We are eased in gently by the piano-based intro, before like so many 65Dos songs, riffs and melody take over and the opening track Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here finishes in a heart-stopping crescendo. And that is just the warm up for the glorious pairing of oldies I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood and Install A Beak In The Heart That Clucks Time In Arabic, the latter especially intriguing as the drummer gets centre stage for the astonishing electronically assisted drum-solo in the middle – and at few other points in the entire set do the band reach any heights anywhere close to it.

What did really annoy us, especially during a slight mid-set lull, was the amount of fucking talking going on. Really, folks, if you are going to continually chat through a gig, especially a band that do have quiet sections like this, fuck off and talk somewhere else. I have paid to see the band, not hear your banal conversations.

Most astonishing moment was the spliced together bits of Threads while the maelstrom of Hole played out on the stage, an almost perfect mix of sound and vision – and the one moment where the entire crowd actually shut up, and just stood there spellbound as it all unfolded.

The home straight was nearly as good after that. Firstly members of The Miramar Disaster joined them onstage (resulting in two drummers, three guitarists, one bassist and some electronics!) for a run through a track that seemed oddly restrained, followed by the celestial beauty of Retreat! Retreat! (even if it is rather too remeniscent of old Mogwai), and then lastly current single Radio Protector, with the video screen behind giving details of their enviromental awareness, and then many of the individual polaroids that are the covers of the single! The track itself is another slow-burner, that coils round itself repeatedly before ending back where it started.

And that was it, or so we thought, as they obeyed the baying calls for an encore and returned for a spellbinding run through traditional set-closer Aren’t We All Running?. We weren’t running anywhere – certainly not until we were sure they were done…