Star rating:***

Finniston were first up on Sunday night. This fine little beat combo's tight harmonies, intelligent lyrics and fine musicianship combine in a promise of great things to come. And they're hip with it, right down to the bare feet of keyboard player of Jolene Crawford. That coolness was confirmed with the announcement that, as part of their merchandising, they do fridge magnets.

There were many Pearl-fishers on the small stage; the five-piece augmented by a string quartet and a two-man brass section. There's no denying the song-writing talents of frontman Davie Scott, and the band is as good as I have heard it. That they are still something of a well-kept secret is curious, but this performance was chock-full of joy, vigour and ambition. Even their perfect cover of Paul McCartney's Let Em In sat seamlessly with the rest of the set.

Scott summed the night up when he described it as a romp through some 20 years of back catalogue, and as a body of work, it more than holds its own.

The set was book-ended by instrumentals, something in which The Pearlfishers excel. The encore, The Vampires of Camelon, was straight out of the soundtrack to that lost 1960s movie we all have in our heads. Kaleidoscopic, it's the kind of music which transports you to another world.