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I’m Going Home

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A morbidly slow but ultimately touching vignette from France, starring the legendary Michel Piccolia an ageing actor whose wife and kids are killed in a car crash. He mopes around Paris, but is persuaded by an American director (John Malkovich) to take a movie part. He muffs his lines, ensuring no feel-good ending. It earns its melancholia. DVD EXTRAS: Interviews, trailers, production notes, filmographies Rating Star

A morbidly slow but ultimately touching vignette from France, starring the legendary Michel Piccolia an ageing actor whose wife and kids are killed in a car crash. He mopes around Paris, but is persuaded by an American director (John Malkovich) to take a movie part. He muffs his lines, ensuring no feel-good ending. It earns its melancholia.

DVD EXTRAS: Interviews, trailers, production notes, filmographies Rating Star

Eight Legged Freaks

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In a small Arizona town a toxic waste dump creates a plague of hundreds of giant spiders. Cue mass destruction and enormous fun, since the SFX are first-rate, the cast (led by David Arquette) is solid and the script strikes the right balance between laughs and twitch-inducing 'arach-attacks'. The best giant bug movie for decades. DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, commentary, deleted scenes, plus Larger Than Life?director Ellory Elkayem's first award-winning short horror film. Rating Star (PH)

In a small Arizona town a toxic waste dump creates a plague of hundreds of giant spiders. Cue mass destruction and enormous fun, since the SFX are first-rate, the cast (led by David Arquette) is solid and the script strikes the right balance between laughs and twitch-inducing ‘arach-attacks’. The best giant bug movie for decades.

DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, commentary, deleted scenes, plus Larger Than Life?director Ellory Elkayem’s first award-winning short horror film. Rating Star

(PH)

Marty

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Delbert Mann's earnest 1955 slice-of-life drama about an ordinary Bronx butcher (Ernest Borgnine) mustering the courage to find a girlfriend earned four Oscars?Best Picture plus one each for Borgnine, Mann and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, who later penned the far superior Network. It's decently acted and well-meaning but very slight, dated and a little condescending.

Delbert Mann’s earnest 1955 slice-of-life drama about an ordinary Bronx butcher (Ernest Borgnine) mustering the courage to find a girlfriend earned four Oscars?Best Picture plus one each for Borgnine, Mann and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, who later penned the far superior Network. It’s decently acted and well-meaning but very slight, dated and a little condescending.

The Sum Of All Fears

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As Tom Clancy's square-jawed CIA hero Jack Ryan, Ben Affleck's the only man on earth who can prevent terrorists from sparking nuclear showdown between the US and Russia. Not even solid support from Morgan Freeman and Alan Bates can inject life into this dead-on-arrival Cold War throwback. DVD EXTRAS: Commentaries from director, cinematographer and Clancy, documentaries and trailer. Rating Star

As Tom Clancy’s square-jawed CIA hero Jack Ryan, Ben Affleck’s the only man on earth who can prevent terrorists from sparking nuclear showdown between the US and Russia. Not even solid support from Morgan Freeman and Alan Bates can inject life into this dead-on-arrival Cold War throwback.

DVD EXTRAS: Commentaries from director, cinematographer and Clancy, documentaries and trailer. Rating Star

Monster’s Ball

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An immaculate, determinedly unsentimental Marc Forster film, with breathtakingly honest performances from Halle Berry and, especially, Billy Bob Thornton. Death Row prison guard Thornton's family are traditionally racist; Berry's husband (Sean "Puffy" Combs) is executed. In a pit of despair, an unlikely, colour-blind love blooms between the two. One of 2002's best. DVD EXTRAS: Extra footage, cast and film-makers commentaries, isolated soundtrack. Rating Star

An immaculate, determinedly unsentimental Marc Forster film, with breathtakingly honest performances from Halle Berry and, especially, Billy Bob Thornton. Death Row prison guard Thornton’s family are traditionally racist; Berry’s husband (Sean “Puffy” Combs) is executed. In a pit of despair, an unlikely, colour-blind love blooms between the two. One of 2002’s best.

DVD EXTRAS: Extra footage, cast and film-makers commentaries, isolated soundtrack. Rating Star

My Kingdom

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In his final starring role, Richard Harris glowers impressively as the Irish underworld patriarch in Don Boyd's inspired relocation of Shakespeare's King Lear to contemporary Liverpool, Sadly Boyd directs with a low-voltage energy which flattens out intense emotion and visceral violence into brightly lit, blandly shot TV cop drama.

In his final starring role, Richard Harris glowers impressively as the Irish underworld patriarch in Don Boyd’s inspired relocation of Shakespeare’s King Lear to contemporary Liverpool, Sadly Boyd directs with a low-voltage energy which flattens out intense emotion and visceral violence into brightly lit, blandly shot TV cop drama.

Angel At My Table

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Jane Campion's second film (1990) tells the life story of Janet Frame, a New Zealand author who overcame poverty, chronic shyness and (misdiagnosed) schizophrenia to achieve international acclaim. Kerry Fox stars, while Campion hones her own stylistic match of trippy fantasy and gauche intimacy. Earnest, with detours into the ethereal. DVD EXTRAS: Three interviews with Campion, filmographies, trailer, biography of Janet Frame. Rating Star

Jane Campion’s second film (1990) tells the life story of Janet Frame, a New Zealand author who overcame poverty, chronic shyness and (misdiagnosed) schizophrenia to achieve international acclaim. Kerry Fox stars, while Campion hones her own stylistic match of trippy fantasy and gauche intimacy. Earnest, with detours into the ethereal.

DVD EXTRAS: Three interviews with Campion, filmographies, trailer, biography of Janet Frame. Rating Star

The Count Of Monte Cristo

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The ultimate journeyman, Kevin Reynolds is back with his explosively soulless adaptation of Dumas' classic. Formerly solid character stars Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel don Hobbit haircuts and bored expressions as the socially mismatched childhood friends torn apart by jealousy and betrayal. It's clunky and mechanical, and lacking in even the faintest directorial fingerprint, yet it bounces you safely to the finish. DVD EXTRAS: Making Of..., audio commentary, deleted scenes, sword-fight choreography documentary and sound design featurette. Rating Star

The ultimate journeyman, Kevin Reynolds is back with his explosively soulless adaptation of Dumas’ classic. Formerly solid character stars Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel don Hobbit haircuts and bored expressions as the socially mismatched childhood friends torn apart by jealousy and betrayal. It’s clunky and mechanical, and lacking in even the faintest directorial fingerprint, yet it bounces you safely to the finish.

DVD EXTRAS: Making Of…, audio commentary, deleted scenes, sword-fight choreography documentary and sound design featurette. Rating Star

The Doors Special Edition

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Oliver Stone's typically overwrought biopic of Jim Morrison has been much-mocked down the years, perhaps unfairly. It's full of Stone's signature bombast and is characteristically laden with all manner of wild and windy symbolism, but it has rather more going for it than popular reputation usually allows?not least, a surprisingly good performance from Val Kilmer as The Lizard King himself, fantastic duplication of vintage concert footage, especially the re-staging of the infamous Miami bust, and the patently deranged Crispin Glover as Andy Warhol to fucking boot! Worth another look, at the very least.

Oliver Stone’s typically overwrought biopic of Jim Morrison has been much-mocked down the years, perhaps unfairly. It’s full of Stone’s signature bombast and is characteristically laden with all manner of wild and windy symbolism, but it has rather more going for it than popular reputation usually allows?not least, a surprisingly good performance from Val Kilmer as The Lizard King himself, fantastic duplication of vintage concert footage, especially the re-staging of the infamous Miami bust, and the patently deranged Crispin Glover as Andy Warhol to fucking boot! Worth another look, at the very least.

The Glamour Chase

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Considering it was made precisely midway through the 20th century, there's an eerily fin-de-si...

Considering it was made precisely midway through the 20th century, there’s an eerily fin-de-si

The Pain In Spain

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Former 'dvd extras' stars Louis Fulton and Keith Pepe, makers of the superlative Twelve Monkeys bonus doc The Hamster Factor, took centre stage with surprise-hit feature documentary Lost In La Mancha. Detailing seven months of financially shaky pre-production, six self-defeating days of shooting and the eventual collapse of Gilliam's beloved Don Quixote adaptation, Fulton and Pepe capture the wildcard insanity of Gilliam's film-making process without ever sneering at his overreaching enthusiasm. Instead, whether he's giggling excitedly with lead star Johnny Depp or raging at his production designer over the non-soundproof soundstage, or facing stoically an onslaught of calamities that include flash floods, noise interference from NATO bombers, no signed contracts, no props, no horses, and no cash, Gilliam is always the wide-eyed fantasist whose dreams have thankfully remained as large as ever.

Former ‘dvd extras’ stars Louis Fulton and Keith Pepe, makers of the superlative Twelve Monkeys bonus doc The Hamster Factor, took centre stage with surprise-hit feature documentary Lost In La Mancha. Detailing seven months of financially shaky pre-production, six self-defeating days of shooting and the eventual collapse of Gilliam’s beloved Don Quixote adaptation, Fulton and Pepe capture the wildcard insanity of Gilliam’s film-making process without ever sneering at his overreaching enthusiasm. Instead, whether he’s giggling excitedly with lead star Johnny Depp or raging at his production designer over the non-soundproof soundstage, or facing stoically an onslaught of calamities that include flash floods, noise interference from NATO bombers, no signed contracts, no props, no horses, and no cash, Gilliam is always the wide-eyed fantasist whose dreams have thankfully remained as large as ever.

24 Hour Party People

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Madchester: The Movie, in which Michael Winterbottom proves his versatility knows no bounds. In lesser hands, the juiced-up story of Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and self-styled pratgenius Tony Wilson could've been scrawny sit-com, but the pace (and the music) makes it zing. Steve Coogan's hilarious as the north-west's answer to Warhol, and it's the first film to feature a joke about the drug dealers of Rhyl. Terrific. DVD EXTRAS: Commentaries from Tony Wilson, Steve Coogan, Peter Hook, Rowetta, Miranda Sawyer and others, "White Rabbit" style guide, 24 deleted scenes, Pills'N'Thrills And Bellyaches documentary, Portrait Of A Film-Maker documentary, Peter Saville gallery, New Order music video "Here To Stay". Rating Star (CR)

Madchester: The Movie, in which Michael Winterbottom proves his versatility knows no bounds. In lesser hands, the juiced-up story of Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays and self-styled pratgenius Tony Wilson could’ve been scrawny sit-com, but the pace (and the music) makes it zing. Steve Coogan’s hilarious as the north-west’s answer to Warhol, and it’s the first film to feature a joke about the drug dealers of Rhyl. Terrific.

DVD EXTRAS: Commentaries from Tony Wilson, Steve Coogan, Peter Hook, Rowetta, Miranda Sawyer and others, “White Rabbit” style guide, 24 deleted scenes, Pills’N’Thrills And Bellyaches documentary, Portrait Of A Film-Maker documentary, Peter Saville gallery, New Order music video “Here To Stay”. Rating Star

(CR)

Boudu Saved From Drowning

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Jean Renoir's 1932 blueprint for Paul Mazursky's heavy-handed 1986 remake Down And Out In Beverly Hills stars Michel Simon as a Parisian tramp rescued from suicidal despair by kindly bookseller Charles Granval. Simon's ungrateful Boudu takes over Granval's house, wife and life, exposing his bourgeois complacency. Enduring, Chaplin-esque social satire. DVD EXTRAS: Introduction by Renoir, essay on the film, trailer for the Mazursky remake. Rating Star

Jean Renoir’s 1932 blueprint for Paul Mazursky’s heavy-handed 1986 remake Down And Out In Beverly Hills stars Michel Simon as a Parisian tramp rescued from suicidal despair by kindly bookseller Charles Granval. Simon’s ungrateful Boudu takes over Granval’s house, wife and life, exposing his bourgeois complacency. Enduring, Chaplin-esque social satire.

DVD EXTRAS: Introduction by Renoir, essay on the film, trailer for the Mazursky remake. Rating Star

Hijack Stories

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Patchy South African drama from 2000 in which an actor, landing a role as a Soweto gangster, asks an authentic underworld figure and old school friend to show him the ropes of crime and carjacking. Lines get blurred. Director Oliver Schmitz makes some still-valid points about race and class issues, but it's no Bullets Over Broadway.

Patchy South African drama from 2000 in which an actor, landing a role as a Soweto gangster, asks an authentic underworld figure and old school friend to show him the ropes of crime and carjacking. Lines get blurred. Director Oliver Schmitz makes some still-valid points about race and class issues, but it’s no Bullets Over Broadway.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles

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Awful slapstick version of Conan Doyle's tale from 1978, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (as Holmes and Watson) recycling old sketches badly as they head up a cast of vintage British comic talent (Kenneth Williams, Irene Handl, Max Wall). It's basically 'Carry On Sherlock', and it does the memory of all concerned no favours. DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, biographies, interview with director Paul Morrissey. Rating Star

Awful slapstick version of Conan Doyle’s tale from 1978, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (as Holmes and Watson) recycling old sketches badly as they head up a cast of vintage British comic talent (Kenneth Williams, Irene Handl, Max Wall). It’s basically ‘Carry On Sherlock’, and it does the memory of all concerned no favours.

DVD EXTRAS: Trailer, biographies, interview with director Paul Morrissey. Rating Star

The Temp

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Joyously kitsch or shamefully ham-fisted, Tom Holland's Disclosure esque erotic office thriller sees the surprisingly blank Timothy Hutton as a cookie company kingpin with a suspiciously enthusiastic secretary, Lara Flynn Boyle, who has her own secret and ultimately homicidal plans to take over the entire cookie-making empire. Enjoyably silly until it completely reneges on narrative logic or plot cohesion.

Joyously kitsch or shamefully ham-fisted, Tom Holland’s Disclosure esque erotic office thriller sees the surprisingly blank Timothy Hutton as a cookie company kingpin with a suspiciously enthusiastic secretary, Lara Flynn Boyle, who has her own secret and ultimately homicidal plans to take over the entire cookie-making empire. Enjoyably silly until it completely reneges on narrative logic or plot cohesion.

Daddy & Them

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Chronically misfiring comedy written and directed on an off day by Billy Bob Thornton, who also stars. He and Laura Dern are a bickering Arkansas couple, spending time with her eccentric white trash family. Little happens, but the casting of Ben Affleck and Jamie Lee Curtis as husband and wife has to be among the world's weirdest.

Chronically misfiring comedy written and directed on an off day by Billy Bob Thornton, who also stars. He and Laura Dern are a bickering Arkansas couple, spending time with her eccentric white trash family. Little happens, but the casting of Ben Affleck and Jamie Lee Curtis as husband and wife has to be among the world’s weirdest.

An Actor’s Revenge

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Stunningly beautiful and utterly bizarre Japanese fable about a medieval Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa), renowned as a female impersonator, who carries his on-stage portrayal of a woman out into the world in order to seduce and murder the noblemen responsible for his parents' death. The direction is haphazard, the imagery is amazing. DVD EXTRAS: Director's biography, web link. Rating Star

Stunningly beautiful and utterly bizarre Japanese fable about a medieval Kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa), renowned as a female impersonator, who carries his on-stage portrayal of a woman out into the world in order to seduce and murder the noblemen responsible for his parents’ death. The direction is haphazard, the imagery is amazing.

DVD EXTRAS: Director’s biography, web link. Rating Star

The Mendoza Line – The Borderline, London

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"Hey, who wants a button?" yells Shannon McArdle, offering round a bag of Mendoza Line badges with a smile to melt snow. As charm offensives go, this Athens-born/NY-based quintet pulls out all the stops. On-stage banter flows. Guitarist Tim Bracy drawls eccentric but engaging blabber in a delicious Georgia drawl. And with a ramshackle edge to their rolling country-indie, they give the inviting proposition that, hey, we could be playing on stage too. Whether anyone could just plug in and replicate The Mendoza Line's yearning magic, though, is doubtful. Last year's Lost In Revelry cranked up their dazzling qualities by the yard. At turns sunny and good-natured, at others red raw, embittered and heartbroken, the band navigate a rich sound?densely knotted guitars, lap-steels and pianos?matched only by the richness of experience. As "Something Dark" and "My Tattered Heart And Torn Parts" demonstrate, clearly this is a band who've lived and lost a lot. Nevertheless, as the exquisitely lyrical "What Ever Happened To You?" shows, they don't go for brooding angst either. Instead, intelligence and wisdom is their compass after emotional storms wreak havoc. A similar level-headed calm informs their back-porch country, too. The gently lilting "A Damn Good Disguise", played tonight with absolute perfection, is hammock-swaying languor incarnate. Elsewhere, "The Queen of England" hits a mournful juncture somewhere between Dylan and Mark Eitzel. While the astonishing "The Triple Bill Of Shame" weaves a scathing tale of thwarted ambition around Tim's slack-jaw delivery and slow-crawling lap-steels. At the other end of the scale, though, The Mendoza Line crash and clatter like a keening anorak indie band. The breathless rush of "In Your Hands" and "Mistakes Were Made", all fuzzy rushes and one-string guitar solos, bizarrely recall sub-C-86 obscurities The Flatmates. This is no bad thing. Balancing the glum with the glad ensures nobody settles too comfortably in their hazy Americana glow. And besides, The Mendoza Line's exuberant stage presence kind of warrants ramalama guitar blasts. Set closer "It'll Be The Same Without You" nails down stomping pop perfection to the max. Wear the badge with pride.

“Hey, who wants a button?” yells Shannon McArdle, offering round a bag of Mendoza Line badges with a smile to melt snow. As charm offensives go, this Athens-born/NY-based quintet pulls out all the stops. On-stage banter flows. Guitarist Tim Bracy drawls eccentric but engaging blabber in a delicious Georgia drawl. And with a ramshackle edge to their rolling country-indie, they give the inviting proposition that, hey, we could be playing on stage too.

Whether anyone could just plug in and replicate The Mendoza Line’s yearning magic, though, is doubtful. Last year’s Lost In Revelry cranked up their dazzling qualities by the yard. At turns sunny and good-natured, at others red raw, embittered and heartbroken, the band navigate a rich sound?densely knotted guitars, lap-steels and pianos?matched only by the richness of experience. As “Something Dark” and “My Tattered Heart And Torn Parts” demonstrate, clearly this is a band who’ve lived and lost a lot.

Nevertheless, as the exquisitely lyrical “What Ever Happened To You?” shows, they don’t go for brooding angst either. Instead, intelligence and wisdom is their compass after emotional storms wreak havoc. A similar level-headed calm informs their back-porch country, too. The gently lilting “A Damn Good Disguise”, played tonight with absolute perfection, is hammock-swaying languor incarnate. Elsewhere, “The Queen of England” hits a mournful juncture somewhere between Dylan and Mark Eitzel. While the astonishing “The Triple Bill Of Shame” weaves a scathing tale of thwarted ambition around Tim’s slack-jaw delivery and slow-crawling lap-steels.

At the other end of the scale, though, The Mendoza Line crash and clatter like a keening anorak indie band. The breathless rush of “In Your Hands” and “Mistakes Were Made”, all fuzzy rushes and one-string guitar solos, bizarrely recall sub-C-86 obscurities The Flatmates. This is no bad thing. Balancing the glum with the glad ensures nobody settles too comfortably in their hazy Americana glow. And besides, The Mendoza Line’s exuberant stage presence kind of warrants ramalama guitar blasts. Set closer “It’ll Be The Same Without You” nails down stomping pop perfection to the max.

Wear the badge with pride.

Wayne’s World

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The Flaming Lips Manchester Academy THURSDAY JANUARY 16, 2003 Pandas, aliens, gorillas, giant rabbits and Jetsonesque robots. Enormous spinning glitterballs spewing kaleidoscopic prisms. Silver confetti, fluorescent strobes, glove puppets and vistas of Teletubbies. At the centre of this Fellini-meets-Barbarella-via-Trigger Happy TV weirdness lurks Wayne Coyne, dappered up like a carnival barker on a mission. "People often live their lives looking ahead," opines the fortysomething leader of America's foremost exponents of mind-melting symphonic cyber-pop, "or to the past, when things were better. What happens is people forget how to live right now, for the moment. And who knows? Tonight may be the last show we ever do. I say you've gotta make the fuckin' moment last. Make right now matter." As statement of intent, the nub of Coyne's philosophy can be traced directly to his father's death during the making of the Lips' 1995 album, Clouds Taste Metallic (the point at which their wilfully freakish psych-rock shifted into an altogether more daring realm of sonic adventure), and shored up by the death-triggering triumph of last year's stunning 10th album and Uncut poll-topper, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. If the latter was the Oklahoma trio's attempt to glean meaning and joy from unfathomable cosmic design, then tonight's live experience is the physical manifestation of defiant struggle, of hope forever sprouting eternal. These days, Lips shows bubble with unmatched communal warmth. This heat?from fans dancing on stage in $500 furry costumes to Coyne leading a throng-a-long of "Happy Birthday" to two random crowd-goers?may not have been what Pete Townshend exactly envisaged when he dreamt up that doomed utopia of band/punter communion, Lifehouse, but its effect is as curiously exhilarating as anything I've seen on stage. Their music?like the incongruous optical riot?shouldn't really work, but does so to glorious effect: sadly rippling piano effects over stumbling hip hop beats wrapped in sensory-shifting symphonic dubscapes, all strained with that strangely suspenseful Coyne tremble that suggests the answers to the Big Questions are within reach somewhere over the next cloud. The most beautiful, fragile moments ("All We Have Is Now"; "In The Morning Of The Magicians"; "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton") are counterpointed by ebullient crashes through the classic "She Don't Use Jelly", Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" and the megaphone-wielding "Lightning Strikes The Postman", but it's the likes of "Race For The Prize" and the magnificent "Do You Realize??" that truly transfigure. Honourable mentions go to auspicious support, British Sea Power, and Badly Drawn Boy, whose unheralded three-song prelude to the Lips' appearance came with a much-applauded Joe Strummer tribute during "You Were Right". No stealing of thunder from the main act, though. The Flaming Lips, genuinely humbled by the affection they inspire, urge you to love, live and fill thy cup. Somewhere, there's a panda costume with your name on it.

The Flaming Lips

Manchester Academy

THURSDAY JANUARY 16, 2003

Pandas, aliens, gorillas, giant rabbits and Jetsonesque robots. Enormous spinning glitterballs spewing kaleidoscopic prisms. Silver confetti, fluorescent strobes, glove puppets and vistas of Teletubbies. At the centre of this Fellini-meets-Barbarella-via-Trigger Happy TV weirdness lurks Wayne Coyne, dappered up like a carnival barker on a mission. “People often live their lives looking ahead,” opines the fortysomething leader of America’s foremost exponents of mind-melting symphonic cyber-pop, “or to the past, when things were better. What happens is people forget how to live right now, for the moment. And who knows? Tonight may be the last show we ever do. I say you’ve gotta make the fuckin’ moment last. Make right now matter.”

As statement of intent, the nub of Coyne’s philosophy can be traced directly to his father’s death during the making of the Lips’ 1995 album, Clouds Taste Metallic (the point at which their wilfully freakish psych-rock shifted into an altogether more daring realm of sonic adventure), and shored up by the death-triggering triumph of last year’s stunning 10th album and Uncut poll-topper, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.

If the latter was the Oklahoma trio’s attempt to glean meaning and joy from unfathomable cosmic design, then tonight’s live experience is the physical manifestation of defiant struggle, of hope forever sprouting eternal. These days, Lips shows bubble with unmatched communal warmth. This heat?from fans dancing on stage in $500 furry costumes to Coyne leading a throng-a-long of “Happy Birthday” to two random crowd-goers?may not have been what Pete Townshend exactly envisaged when he dreamt up that doomed utopia of band/punter communion, Lifehouse, but its effect is as curiously exhilarating as anything I’ve seen on stage.

Their music?like the incongruous optical riot?shouldn’t really work, but does so to glorious effect: sadly rippling piano effects over stumbling hip hop beats wrapped in sensory-shifting symphonic dubscapes, all strained with that strangely suspenseful Coyne tremble that suggests the answers to the Big Questions are within reach somewhere over the next cloud. The most beautiful, fragile moments (“All We Have Is Now”; “In The Morning Of The Magicians”; “A Spoonful Weighs A Ton”) are counterpointed by ebullient crashes through the classic “She Don’t Use Jelly”, Pink Floyd’s “Lucifer Sam” and the megaphone-wielding “Lightning Strikes The Postman”, but it’s the likes of “Race For The Prize” and the magnificent “Do You Realize??” that truly transfigure. Honourable mentions go to auspicious support, British Sea Power, and Badly Drawn Boy, whose unheralded three-song prelude to the Lips’ appearance came with a much-applauded Joe Strummer tribute during “You Were Right”. No stealing of thunder from the main act, though. The Flaming Lips, genuinely humbled by the affection they inspire, urge you to love, live and fill thy cup. Somewhere, there’s a panda costume with your name on it.

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