It was the year when the question on everyone's lips was 'Have you got a ticket?' We pick our critics' highlights from a hectic 12 months of concert reviews

1 Prince

Nothing in British music history has come close to Prince's run of 21 live shows at the O2 arena. It seemed that everyone went, and everyone had an opinion. Here are just a few from our reviews of the entire series.


A great entertainer: Prince
Concert 5: Aug 10
Band leader, singer, dancer, sex god: it was like watching James Brown in his heyday. DC

Concert 7: Aug 14
There weren't any splits in the air, like he did in his younger days. BO

Concerts 8&9: Aug 17 &18th
He's the kind of revolutionary who sells scent to the impressionable but gives his new album away free with a conservative newspaper. AOH

Concerts 10&11: Aug 24 & 25
He rode the guitar as if he was mounted on a wild stallion. HA

Concert 12: Aug 28
He reminds me of a latter-day Cliff Richard - a great entertainer. JLW

Concerts 13&14: Aug 31 & Sept 1
He's always known that pop music is, first and foremost, about sex. MB

Concert 16: Sept 9
What Prince needs is a firm and disciplined director. CS

Concert 17: Sept 12
I love him. I would very much like to marry him. BG

Concert 21: Sept 21
He defies the crowd not to believe this is the greatest show on earth. I for one am convinced. GNtn

2 Led Zeppelin

O2 Arena; Dec 10

For a rock fan, and a writer who has covered some big shows over the past 20 years, gigs don't get any bigger. But could it possibly live up to the expectation? Well: I was blown away.

The familiar old sinew and swagger were still there, singer Robert Plant's voice seemingly untouched by age, guitarist Jimmy Page, his hair now almost white, firing off little solos that were a taste of things to come, John Paul Jones's bass twisting and driving, and the drumming of Jason Bonham (son of the late Zep drummer John Bonham) crisp and powerful. DC

3 Arcade Fire

St John's, Smith Square; Feb 1

They whipped up a series of ever-more exhilarating anthems, which sent the audience into raptures.

After a jubilant encore, singer Win Butler's anarchic whims generated a moment of magic: he marched his cohorts through the crowd and on to the steps outside the venue, where, toy loudhailer in hand, he led them through an acoustic version of Wake Up.

All who gathered round to sing along had joy in their eyes, and a close-up Arcade Fire photo on their mobile phones - a cherished memento of a band on an unstoppable ascent. AP

4 PJ Harvey

Colston Hall, Bristol; Sept 24

My heart sometimes sinks when I hear the words "intimate solo show", conjuring up as they do the prospect of a small, lonely figure playing something delicate and whispery.

But here, the idiosyncratic West Country singer and songwriter Polly Jean Harvey, playing the first of two such performances, was a compelling presence, casting a hypnotic spell over a hushed hall with her songs of fierce longing and heartbreak and torrid sex.

Few people sing with such honesty and authenticity about what she calls The Desperate Kingdom of Love. DC

5 Mika

Koko, London; Feb 22

Well-heeled London trendies and screaming twentysomething women were the order of the day. The atmosphere was consequently somewhere between a moneyed boho soirée and a hen party. They would have raised the roof if he had merely come on, waved and disappeared. THG

6 Bruce Springsteen

Odyssey Arena, Belfast; Dec 15

Bruce Springsteen's knack for catching you unawares with a sudden surge of emotion remains undimmed. The River was devastating in its sparseness and simplicity, and Born to Run long since left New Jersey to become a global citizen.

Yet one of the most affecting moments wasn't even a musical one. Before singing I'll Work For Your Love, Springsteen located a pair of newlyweds in the audience - the bride was still wearing her wedding dress - and dedicated the song to them. When he'd finished, he bowed towards them and said "good luck".

Maybe it was just a bit of crafty showmanship, but it seemed to speak volumes about the way a Springsteen show is never just another gig. AS

7 Patti Smith

Roundhouse, London; May 17

No matter how po-faced and mad-mystic she sounds on record, it's almost shocking when Smith takes the stage, aged 60 but looking essentially unchanged from her twenties: a lanky, floppy-fringed girl with electricity flowing through her. She is sexy and playful, swaying from side to side like a teenager at a disco.

Even more shocking is her voice, which, unlike Bob Dylan's or that of most of her male contemporaries, has grown stronger with age, flowing from tender, country coo to elemental roar. BM

8 The Good the Bad and the Queen

Latitude festival, Southwold; July 14

The brooding melancholia of Damon Albarn's "supergroup" was hardly singalong stuff. But Albarn - in a Victorian-style top hat, a signifier of the band's murky London-flavoured soundscapes - was powerfully charismatic, and the band played a blinder. It was dark, challenging, but hauntingly beautiful. DC

9 Take That

Odyssey Arena, Belfast; Oct 12

They called their last live shows The Ultimate Tour. Where do you go after that? Well, on this evidence, into the universe. Against a backdrop film of planets and stars that was half 2001: A Space Odyssey, half Harry Potter, Take That appeared.

I may never in my life hear screams so loud as those that greeted them. Luckily, M&S seems to have more in its autumn range than the costumes on show, which, it becomes apparent, are all designed to make them wet.

The ghost of Robbie Williams, so omnipresent when they first got back together, seems completely vanquished; there never seems a point when you wish he would return. Without him, the danger may have gone, but the band seem so much happier rolling out pure entertainment. It's perfect pop. BM

10 Beirut

Roundhouse, London; Nov 10

Weary of scraggy guitar bands with nothing new to say? Tired of the same old indie-rock rigmarole with skinny boys lurching around cranking out dull ditties? Then allow me to recommend Beirut, the band led by Zach Condon, the 21-year-old singing, songwriting and brass-playing prodigy from New Mexico. It's a while since I witnessed music so fresh and natural and rich and alive. DC

Sorry, forgot to mention that this was a list compiled by the U.K.'s 'The Daily Telegraph', you know, the broadsheet that reported on all 21 shows.