Gig played on 20/04/06

As much as disbelievers may find it hard to comprehend Embrace's recent run of good fortune, no-one is more bemused than their own frontman. Early on in tonight's set, Danny McNamara stands stage front and declares that having had "another Number One album" makes him want to pinch himself. That in a parallel universe there must surely be another Embrace, "in at Number 15 and back out again the next week", who haven't been picked to write and perform the England squad's World Cup anthem - "The World At Your Feet" sadly isn't aired tonight - and who aren't walking around town in new leather jackets, marvelling at their luck of late.

For all their bluster when they first appeared, back in 1997, Embrace were always about the music, not a self-aggrandising rock star swagger. Not for them the deluded aspirations of sitting at the right hand of Brian Wilson that have blinded, say, Richard "flower power" Ashcroft to the ability to make good, simple, heart-rending pop music instead of hollow, pompous, unlovable anthems to self-obsession. And indeed, as they reach the peak of their success, with the World Cup and hence airwave ubiquity just seven weeks away, it seems little can stand in their way. Except themselves.

Blessed with the best PA you're ever likely to hear in a London venue, through which individual shouts of "We love you, Danny!" can be heard as sharply as the couple chatting like ignorant chimps next to you, Danny McNamara has lost his voice. Well, bits of it. He yodels through the first two tracks before admitting as much, brother Richard doing an admirable Gallagher job on backing vocals. Not so long ago, pre-"Gravity" and "Out Of Nothing", this would have been disastrous but, tonight, sold-out and near-universally adored, it's a mere quirk - if anything, it's a humanising flaw that makes the success that little bit more palatable.

Most of "This New Day" is aired but, as ever, it's their first few singles that really get the goosebumps going. "All You Good, Good People" is second tonight and is bellowed along to en masse, even by 'celebrity fan' Jenni Falconer from GMTV, while "My Weakness" and "Come Back To What You Know" are almost entirely performed by the audience, glad of the opportunity and word-perfect. The odder electro moments from the new album offer a loo-break opportunity for many and the omission of maudlin masterpiece "Fireworks" is a great shame - but entirely explicable, in this none-more celebratory climate.

by Emma Morgan