I got there early – two hours before the headliners were due to appear – which gave me plenty of time to get in the mood and enjoy the support acts The Bracknall and Brogeal. Both went down well with an appreciative crowd who were generous with their applause and who particularly enjoyed the latter’s version of The La’s There She Goes.

The Twang army are out in force, selling the venue out once again, and when their heroes take to the stage they’re greeted like five guests of honour at a party already in full swing. The band open with a double shot from the great-yet-underrated 10:20 album – Take This On and the paean to Brummie pride that is We’re A Crowd. It’s a great song, sung with gusto by Twang fans all over the country, but naturally it’s extra special and even louder here in the city it celebrates.

From then on it’s an extensive and joyful journey through a back catalogue full of sympathetic, poetic and tender tales, documenting the lives and loves of the ne’er-do-wells, never-hads and naughty lasses and lads that populate the Academy tonight, which is why the lyrics are roared back at the band with such enthusiasm and intensity. Familiar, but never routine.

Either Way, Two Lovers and Wide Awake are three such masterpieces. Guapa proves that when they choose to be, The Twang are a dynamic and powerful rock band, and amongst the encores Drinking in LA, although a cover, is beautifully adjusted to tell the band’s own rags to riches story. Cloudy Room was the final number of a glorious evening and was both performed by the band and embraced by the crowd with a relentless energy that proves beyond doubt that The Twang are still enjoying these nights as much as we are, an incredible 21 years after they started out. Long may it continue.

When the night was younger, the anthemic Back Where We Started posed a pertinent question within its plaintive chorus – “Can we forget tonight?”