The Streets at Alexandra Palace: A euphoric and hilarious triumph

A concept album about someone losing a thousand pounds down the back of the TV wouldn’t immediately suggest itself as a record that would be rapturously welcomed back over 20 years later as a classic. But as a large black curtain drops down to reveal the bus shelter that adorns the cover of the album and we hear Skinner intone “It was supposed to be so easy” it all makes sense.Because A Grand Don’t Come for Free is a British classic. Losing a grand, finding a girl, losing the girl then finding the money - Skinner perfectly captured the minutiae of British life with a story of love and heartbreak, hedonism and comedowns. This tour is the first time it is being performed in its entirety and outside at Alexandra Palace - high up above London, looking down over the panorama of the capital and its urban sprawl - feels like the perfect backdrop for this story.The fact that it’s also a Saturday night and there are perfect blue skies means the crowd are up for its raucous thrills from the start. It feels euphoric. As It Was Supposed To Be So Easy begins, the reference to returning a DVD on that opening track is one of the only things that dates it (though later, on Get Out of My House, he also changes the woman he fancies to Victoria Wood). The impressively tight band back an in-character Skinner, dressed head to toe in Stone Island, a pint always in his hand, with Roo Savill fantastic in the role of Simone, the girlfriend in the album’s story.The StreetsJames D KellyAs he performs, Skinner draws the silhouette of Ally Pally on the perspex glass of the bus stop and writes Lockdown your aerial (he later says he had been anxious all show that he spelt it incorrectly). Blinded By The Lights is woozily brilliant and cinematic, Could Well Be In beguiling and Dry Your Eyes still retains its emotive potency all these years on, despite how many times you’ve heard it. Skinner doesn’t break character for the whole run through of the album but, as they return to play greatest hits, he becomes a crowd pleasing showman, repeatedly telling us it’s “Not like this when I’m walking my dog here”, seeming genuinely in awe. This second half begins with Blinded By The Lights, takes a euphoric Weak Become Heroes and a brilliantly lairy Don’t Mug Yourself. “Let’s normalise cuddles at Ally Pally,” Skinner says at one point, telling the crowd he feels like “a host on a tv show”. The show ends with Skinner crowd-surfing to Take Me As I Am worried that someone has pulled the Stone Island badge off his top. “Thank you for letting me perform for you where I normally walk my dog. This is the biggest show we’ve ever done and it didn’t feel like that - in the best possible way.” As the lights go down, it finishes as it began, with Skinner again intoning “it was supposed to be so easy” - as they leave the stage, the hard fought hope and joy of the album mingles in the air and reverberates round the crowd