The Lovely Eggs are as, ‘indie’ as it is possible to get. Not in the musical sense but rather in their spirit and in their soul. Since forming in 2006, the husband and wife duo of Holly Ross and David Blackwell have gone against the industry grain and done things on their own label, their own management and their own terms.

Now, they’ve reached the highest point in their career thus far, a date at the legendary O2 Ritz. Manchester, welcome to Eggland.

As the venue lights dim, The Lovely Eggs strolled onto stage dressed in the royal garb of golden crown and cape, a jab at the coinciding jubilee weekend. But as the poster for the show said, “never mind the jubilee, here’s The Lovely Eggs.”

Kicking off the show was the psych-punk masterclass, ‘Witchcraft’,  and it became apparent that the hard-work had already been done by getting to this level, now it was time to blow the roof off the venue. That they did with harsh, hard overdrives breaking through the venues monolithic sound system.

Following this was an audio-barrage of the most energetic punk-rock you’ll ever hear, ‘Still Second Rate’, ‘Dickhead’ and, ‘I Wanna’ woke the crowd up, with arms flailing and even some middle-age-moshing occurring whilst being serenaded by the shouts and screeches of the guitar, and the deep, soul-shaking pounding of the drums.

Fan-favourite, ‘I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too’ whipped the crowd up into such a frenzy, you’d be forgiven for believing that you were in a sweaty tiny, underground venue and not the 1,500 capacity Ritz.

The night climaxed with the upliftingly defeatist, ‘Fuck It’. A slow, introspective build-up soon makes way for a visceral, emotive explosion. Arms were aloft as everyone in attendance belted out the lyrics word for word. The band aimed to host the finals of their, ‘Middle-Age Crowd Surfing Championships’ but heavy handed, aggressive Showsec security temporarily attempted to put and end to it. However, it wasn’t long before reams of mums and dads were held aloft, the spotlights eliminating the sheer ecstasy on their faces. This is what music is all about.

Closing out the set were the glorious cuts, ‘Food’, ‘I’m With You’ and, ‘Return of Witchcraft’. The crowd eating up every single note, lyric and riff coming from the stage with a true sense of glee. As the Egg’s exited the stage those in attendance were begging for more, praying the band break their rule of, ‘no fake encores’. But as the lights came back up in the venue it was clear the band had, as ever, stuck true to their guns.

Pride was the overall feeling within the venue, from the band and more so from the fans. The Lovely Eggs have always refused to play the game and have never toed industry lines so packing fans into a venue of this size seemed like a pipe-dream, and yet they pulled it off.

A testament to the hard-work and talents of The Lovely Eggs, one couldn’t help but feel that this show closed a chapter in the bands storied history. But their next chapter is one of the most exiting in music today.