Make Trade Fair Live Review

Make Trade Fair spokesperson Minnie Driver, proved why she'd been a singer before she became an actress with her beautifully sung new single, Everything In My Pocket and an array of down-tempo, mellow numbers as sweet as sugar. And yup, she can definitely sing allright!

Next up (and receiving the second loudest cheer of the night - guess who got the loudest?) were The Thrills - passionate alternative rock that does exactly what it says on the tin - Thrills! With Daniel keeping it truly rock n roll by jumping guitar 'n all into the audience for a spot of crowd-surfing. Cramming more songs into their set, The Thrills rocked out with

Santa Cruz, Whatever Happened To Corey Haim, Big Sur. You Can't Fool Old Friends With Limousines and la piece de la resistance, namely So Much For The City and were joined by Peter Buck of REM.

With everyone except the headliners having now played, it was the turn of the most unlikely comedian to perform at a gig like this, the very unpolitically-correct but outrageously funny Ricky Gervais, who had the crowd in tears of laughter with his 'Scope' jokes and dodgy recollections of playing 'stroke the Rabbit'. "Charity - it's a pain innit," he joked. Fab!

And the time had come for the 'secret' headliners to do their thang, and what a treat - REM showed London why they are one of the best bands on the entire planet, with their incredible set that included all the favourites, from Losing My Religion and Bad Day to new single Leaving New York.

Then, just when we didn't think it could get any better, Coldplay's Chris Martin bounced on stage unannounced to join REM, halfway through Man On The Moon, to huge applause. He sang a verse and chorus before waving to the crowd and returning to the side of the stage to watch the rest of the set... beautifully awesome, a fantastic end to one of the best gigs of the year.page << 1 2 >>