Difford & Tilbrook, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, 15 July 2014

If Difford & Tilbrook were a bowling partnership you'd want them opening the attack for the England cricket team. Song after song that they played at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal was a hit they'd written for 80s chart fixtures Squeeze and each was absolutely on target.

Their on-off relationship over the years (when Glenn left mid way through the first half of the set with two of Chris's guitars it wasn't clear whether he - or the guitars - were coming back) adds a piquancy to their sharing a stage. But tonight it's definitely all smiles, with a freshly shaven Glenn (courtesy of the Turkish barber round the corner) and a neatly dressed Chris stripping their vast collection of aural vignettes back to their acoustic bones and giving the audience a reminder of why they were once tagged the new Lennon & McCartney.

Sharing tales of their early days gave the back story to some of the songs, and Difford's explanation of why he bought a toy train set (to transport from one side of the room to the other a joint he was sharing) had the audience laughing out loud.

But it was the songs, mainly backed by their two acoustic guitars but with the odd twist of electric from Glenn, that this crowd had come to hear and that means they will remember this gig for many months to come. New arrangements were brought to old classics, from Take Me I'm Yours to Black Coffee in Bed and Pulling Mussels From A Shell and including their biggest hits Labelled With Love and Up The Junction, reminding us that Difford was the lyricist of his generation par excellence and that Tilbrook could write a melody to bring those words alive in song.  And whilst the charts may be a distant memory, Chris said they had been writing together again for the past two or three years so there's hope for the future, pop pickers.

The England bowling attack isn't what it used to be. And the pop charts are a much duller place these days without this pair of pop maestros.

Elvis Costello, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 14 July 2014

Elvis Costello played a two and a half hour concert at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall with a set that ran the entire span of his career, from Poison Moon (the first song of his he ever heard on the radio - he had to turn the lights off in the house while he listened because he was so embarrassed) to three new songs he has yet to record, including one of more than 40 he has recently written with Burt Bacarach.

In between he gave the not quite sold out auditorium (Q. What have the people of Manchester got to do that's more important than seeing Elvis in concert?) a run down of his hits from Alison to Veronica that reminded everyone present just how many times he has graced the top 40 in a career spanning more than 35 years.

Bob Geldof once complained how difficult he found it to write songs whilst Costello seemed able to write three before breakfast, a point underlined when Elvis announced that he was going to play a song he hated and which he'd written in ten minutes as a joke, but which had gone on to become a hit ('but not a big one').  Everyday I Write The Book was greeted suitably warmly by the audience.

As well as the hits, there was some gristle for fans to chew on, including album tracks such as B Movie, Beyond Belief and Mouth Almighty and the rarely played Dr Luther's Assistant.  Highlights were New Amsterdam spliced with a chunk of Lennon's You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and Jimmie Standing In The Rain, which Costello finishes unmiked and standing at the lip of the stage, his voice booming out into the auditorium.

With his fedora, waistcoat and smart suit Costello looks every inch the vaudevillian entertainer that his 2013 Spinning Songbook gigs cast him as.  Had he been born a hundred years ago he would have been on the cruise ships like his grandfather before him.  As it is, he's here now - a walking human juke box who can respond to an audience shout out for My Three Sons or The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes without breaking stride - and we are lucky to have him.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Liverpool Echo Arena, 13 July 2014

Neil Young and Crazy Horse started their set at the Liverpool Echo Arena with a 15 minute rendition of Love And Only Love and finished it with a 15 minute and  feedback drenched Like A Hurricane, with Young beating out the rhythm on his guitar fretboard, all six strings broken.

In between the band went through its back catalogue, with songs from Zuma (Don't Cry No Tears and Barstool Blues) to 2013's Psychedelic Pill plus a song getting its first ever airing on this tour (Who's Gonna Stand Up And Save The Earth).

Young plays with an energy more befitting a man half his age, subjecting his guitars to a series of violent assaults as he does everything he can to extricate maximum volume from them.

The only times he is not trying to turn the volume up to 11 are when he plays either his semi acoustic (on a beautiful Don't Cry No Tears) or his acoustic (for a haunting Blowin' In The Wind, which he introduces as 'one of the best songs ever written').  An equally exquisite Heart of Gold follows, with the crowd singing along.

Young is one of rock's famous curmudgeons, but Grumpy Neil is left in the dressing room tonight, with Cheery Neil all smiles and willing to talk to the audience ('Liverpool is full of hard working people ... who like to go for a beer'), joking with his band and talking to the American Indian statue that is stood stage left overseeing proceedings.

Young is not averse to rewriting a song, and The Way Things Used To Be is abruptly sliced in two and ends with a refrain of 'don't rock the boat'.  The backing singers employed to fill out the vocals are kept occupied throughout the set.

It's a two hour sonic assault on the senses by a band that had to cancel last year's planned Liverpool gig because Frank 'Poncho' Sampedro broke his hand. The rescheduled concert is minus bassist Billy Talbot, who was recovering from a minor stroke.  Young himself suffered an aneurysm in 2005, which has seen him working harder than ever.  This is a band that is still a musical force of nature, but time is catching up with its members.