19.35, Radio 1 Stage

Sadness and pain are what INTERPOL deal in. As ever, they arrive onstage impeccably dressed, and audience interaction is absolutely non-existent – at least on a verbal level between songs. The guitar line of ‘Untitled’, drenched in reverb, invites us into their world – essentially, chain-smoking outside New York art galleries in the drizzling rain. New material is at a premium, but then this hardly seems to matter when they’ve got a cast-iron classic of a debut LP to fall back on in the shape of Turn On The Bright Lights. ‘PDA’ and ‘Stella…’ are as brilliant as ever, and when ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ kicks in, a thirty-something Interpol virgin in front of me grins at his friends whilst wielding an imaginary bunch of gladioli above his head, a mark of respect to the ghost of The Smiths which the song summons up. Following ‘Hands Away’, I force myself to leave and investigate what’s happening elsewhere, but at the precise moment that I’m walking out of the tent they start up ‘NYC’. If anything, it sounds even more magical than it did at Glastonbury. Without doubt one of the songs of the festival.