A party atmosphere pervaded the Apollo long before the Proclaimers sent out a compere to provide the results of the rugby. Couples had come with their kids, tipsy women linked arms by the bar and flags of St Andrew were being draped from the balcony.

The full house and high feel-good factor might have implied that the bespectacled siblings Craig and Charlie Reid are back in fashion, had they been fashionable in the first place. A revival, however, is well under way. Though boosted by this year’s chart-topping, Comic Relief rerelease of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), it began two summers ago, when the pair became festival favourites south of the border and opened the Edinburgh leg of Live8. Released last month, Life With You, their seventh album in two decades, was a critically acclaimed return to the politically inclined anthems of their heyday and, for the first time, the Proclaimers now feel faintly cool.

Not that the band – or their fans - would care to admit it. The Reids revel in their outsider status and, bar a few extra pounds around Charlie’s midriff, looked much as they did in the 1980s.

Time has neither smartened their wardrobes nor softened their accents, and the two new tracks that opened the show – one mocked the honours system, the other took a swipe at rampant commercialism – set their strident vocals to a familiar folk-rock template. A four-piece band stepped up for a triumphant There’s a Touch, while the chirpy country of Everyday I Try, accompanied by a steel guitar, and the R&B piano-backed Restless Soul proved that the Proclaimers can vary the tempo. But it was their old hits that ignited the Apollo, and it was a pity that most were kept for the final third of the set. I’m on My Way and Letter from America, turned into terrace chants by fans, were the exceptions, but between them the show sometimes sagged.

A superb, lengthy finale began with Sunshine On Leith, and featured a guest appearance from a grizzled Wreckless Eric for the band’s cover of his classic hit Whole Wide World. It had couples hugging during Let’s Get Married. When it climaxed with I’m Gonna Be, there was so much jumping that you could feel the floor shake.

By the time of an encore that included King of the Road and Joyful Kilmarnock Blues another 20 years of the singing twins didn’t seem out of the question.

— The Proclaimers play Wolverhampton Civic Hall October 16; Hexagon Reading, October 17; and UAE, Norwich, October 19. Further tour details: www.proclaimers.co.uk

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