CityLife

Lawrence Poole's top five

THE BOSS!

Bruce Springsteen @ Old Trafford - Not many artists would entice me into the enemy territory, which Man United’s backyard, but Springsteen isn’t called The Boss for nothing. Delivering a master class stadium rock ‘n’ roll complete with stage-length knee-slides and enough pomp and bluster to power a thousand ships – the cries of ‘tramps like us, baby we were born to run!’ could be heard from Deansgate.

Radiohead @ Old Trafford – Back in Trafford, but this time at the more amiable cricket ground, the veteran noisiks plumped for perhaps the nicest day of a wretched summer to mark their return to Manchester. And although the new stuff went down a treat, it was glorious chimes of No Surprises and the sweepingly epic Fake Plastic Trees that melted hearts. Utterly sublime.

Stevie Wonder @ M.E.N. Arena – It may have taken him a good hour to get into his stride, but if you can’t afford a genuine living legend a little time, then who can you? Once the opening bars of Signed, Sealed, Delivered were unleashed it was hit-tastic from then on in with the brassy blasts of Superstitution in particular tipping the masses into delirium.

Glasvegas @ Academy 3 – Arguably the British band of year, this bunch of pasty-faced melancholy merchants gave those sun-kissed yanks Vampire Weekend and MGMT a run for their money in 2008. Ripping into tracks from their self-titled debut amid of flurry of dry ice and flashes of white light – the communal bellowing of Geraldine and Daddy’s Gone will live long in the memory.

Coldplay @ M.E.N. Arena – Performing across three stages and with effervescent frontman Chris Martin leaping around like a sprite who has been at the… well Sprite, the University College London formed quartet showed just why there are currently the world’s biggest band – they know how to put on an arena show. Roll on Old Trafford in 2009.