The Coral @ O2 ABC, 19 Nov

First up tonight is Neville Skelly, cousin to James and Ian of The Coral, presenting his brand of gentle, country-inflected acoustic rock to an appreciative audience. Skelly shares The Coral's reverence for 60s songcraft – although where they take their cues from the English folk-psychedelia tradition, he recalls the melancholy Americana of early Love.

Bolton's Cherry Ghost have garnered critical acclaim recently, and their lush guitar rock goes down well. The embellishment of their songs with piano, synth and trumpet gives them plenty of dynamism: the crescendos recall Echo and the Bunnymen's more epic moments, although they do occasionally veer into a more bloated anthemic rock.

There is no danger of The Coral succumbing to such pitfalls: their take on dreamy jangle-pop has always had an alluring emotional ambiguity to it. Their fans are a mixed bunch, a hotchpotch of mildly lairy indie-rock lads and more subdued-looking student types. This testifies to their broad appeal, combining a wistful, magical lyrical universe with carefully-crafted classic rock influences.

Recent material dominates: following guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones' departure in 2008, the band are evidently keen to move on. Things are fairly restrained until they pull out the anthems towards the end – Dreaming of You and Pass It On – when some of the crowd get pretty boisterous. The Coral deserve better, for their unswerving dedication to the cultivation of a distinctive sound over the years, than to receive a comparatively muted reaction to their new songs; but then, they've never really been in it for the adulation anyway. [Sam Wiseman]