IN the beautiful south, Glastonbury was sinking in the mud. In the beautiful north, Hull's The Beautiful South were playing to a home crowd in the sun-lit forest glade.

The elegant Americana of New York's Hem had made a gentle picnic accompaniment before Paul Heaton ambled on, in East Coast caravan park hat and Liam Gallagher's cast-off jacket, jaunty as a milkman.

The Beautiful South have always been the band next door, with instantly familiar hooks to their salt-and-vinegar soul, and aptly they opened with We Are Each Other: a unifying anthem for a night when the 5,000 audience would play its part in a show being recorded for possible DVD release.

This was to be pretty much a greatest hits set, plumped up with the singles - This Old Skin and a lovely waltz through Livin' Thing - from last autumn's tongue-in-cheek album of covers. Heaton was in superb voice all night, hitting an early high on I'll Sail This Ship Alone, and after Alison Wheeler had her moments in the sun in Everybody's Talkin' and A Little Time, Heaton reminded you of his band's fading bittersweet clout on an extended Hold On To What?

The hits rolled on: Rotterdam, the ruder version of Don't Marry Her, the ample charms of 36D, and the pub-closing-time encores of One Last Love Song and Let Love Speak Up Itself. Add bouncing giant balloons and superb organisation from the Forestry Commission, and this joyful night was the Perfect 10.

Updated: 10:50 Monday, June 27, 2005