If you’d bumped up to Damon Albarn in 1995 and told him that in ten years time, he’d be playing a sold out five night stand at Manchester’s Opera House to showcase the second album from his fully animated, not entirely tangible side project named after a type of really big monkey, he’d probably have shoved a copy of The Great Escape into your hands, laughed heartily and told you to lay off the illegal substances. Tonight though, this entirely odd yet bizarrely successful scenario has become reality as the whole of Demon Days is performed live for what is only the second time ever. It’s a great success from the off (not many gigs begin with a Daffy Duck cartoon) and this is due as much to the sheer ingenuity of the whole spectacle as it is to the music itself. There’s a string section, several choirs and a constant backdrop of films and images to accompany the largely silhouetted band. Yet oddly, as Dirty Harry and Feel Good Inc let rip, it somehow makes perfect sense that the Opera House should host this unique event. Factor in the plethora of special guests Albarn has managed to rope into appearing – including an impressively unshambolic Shaun Ryder and the reformed Ike Turner - and the resulting experience is something that won’t be forgotten by many. | 
