A LOYAL crowd of enthusiastic fans had turned out to see Wakefield’s finest The Cribs. And they returned the favour, in their relaxed anarchic style, with a fine set of indie-punk. And we lapped it up.

Casually lumbering on stage at the O2 Academy on the 23 October, to the strains of Kiss’s God Gave Rock and Roll To You, they kicked off with new single Come On Be a No-one from the new album In The Belly of the Brazen Bull.

Effortlessly mixing the old with the new, out came Girls Like Mystery, the (unfortunately Johhny Marr-less ) We Share The same Skies and the wonderful pop of Mirror Kisses, which had the faithful moshing happily.

We Can No longer Cheat You was a rare moment of vocal harmony between the Jarman brothers, whose strength is more evident on joint-chanted choruses that bring the room together with a terrace atmosphere.

Ryan (on guitar) lets his stage presence through more than his brother Gary (on bass), playing the amiable rock kid to Gary’s cooler introvert.

Ross (drums) occasionally takes the limelight by standing on his kit to play, pumping up the energy with the already rocking out brothers.

The highlight came half-way through when their breakthrough hit I’m A Realist was followed by Men’s Needs. Standout Be Safe, accompanied by a projected Lee Ronaldo of Sonic Youth providing the grunge monologue, while the band evoked almost Radiohead-like prog backing.

The Cribs are the authentic indie-band making-good, a fact bore out by Ryan’s anecdote that when they first played the Cowley Road, they spent the night sleeping in the van in the Cowley Tesco car park!

Another Number was heavier than on record, begun by Ryan’s comedic Bill and Ted-like guitar intro, sang along to by the devotees, inches away from the stage.

The singles Men’s Needs and Hey Scenesters reminded the less familiar just how many Cribs tunes make it to the charts, in spite of their lack of rock fame aspiration.

The appropriately titled newie Arena Rock Encore With Full Cast had to be the song to end the night, surely a future anthem for the band, complete with sing-along chants and Ryan’s gratefully turned-up guitar vagueness.

Their Seattle-via-West Yorkshire non-conformism is what makes them more interesting and enduring artistes than some of their current indie peers.

Though their new material indicates the band never really change their musical style too much, a well-entertained Oxford audience left the venue grateful of the fact.

Drew Atkinson