Live at The Wyldes review: Underworld play first ever show in Cornwall and it's an epic banger

The generational cry of lager, lager, lager alongside some shouting heralded in summer at one of the most joyous musical events I've experienced in Cornwall for quite some time. Underworld - the mighty duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith who look barely older, and in Hyde's case just as energetic, as when they emerged 30 years ago - launched this year's Live at The Wyldes concert series in banging and euphoric style on Saturday.

The former home of the Leopallooza festival is slightly off the beaten track - on the outskirts of Week St Mary, near Bude - which might be the reason why this wasn't as rammed as it should have been, though a decent sized crowd of ageing ravers, younger dance fans and some kids begrudgingly brought along by partying parents were bludgeoned into ecstatic submission by an almighty sound system and the delights of a run through the highs (and deep dives) of Underworld's career.

Looking evermore like a science teacher behind his bank of keyboards and computers, Smith is the alchemist behind some of the greatest dance tunes of the past three decades while Hyde is still the thinking raver's Iggy Pop, his surreal wordplay equal parts singalong nonsense and profound everyman poetry. What they produce remains unique - an act for the feet and the brain.

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Unbelievably, this was the first time they've played in Cornwall and to celebrate we were treated to an extended set, around two-and-a-half hours with a brief break to make the most of this loveliest of venues - bucolic, laidback, friendly, well organised and with a great selection of bars and food places. Unless you live in the area, it's a bit of cross-country trek but it's always worth making the effort (and you can camp as well, of course).

Underworld built from more song-based tracks like Low Burn and Nylon Strung from the criminally overlooked Barbara, Barbara, We Face A Shining Future album into the first bona fide classics of that golden early 90s era: Dirty Epic and Mmm ... Skyscraper I Love You from the revolutionary debut Dubnobasswithmyheadman. Even in the introductory first half there was an absolute onslaught of beats to get us in the mood for what was to come - the tribal Kittens from Beacoup Fish.

A brief respite and the stage awoke with some great visuals and lasers as night fell for the best club night ever in a field. It brought back memories - if you have any brain cells left - of the glorious age of secret and illegal raves hidden down the back roads of Cornwall before so many of us had kids and responsibilities. The saucer eyes of a few of the more wild dancers appeared to show they'd unlocked the shackles of those responsibilities if only for one night.

And what a band to dance your cares away to - the list of joyous anthems was almost endless: the breakbeat rush of Pearl's Girl, which will always be my Underworld go-to, the wonderful slow-build of Dark & Long (Dark Train) as memorably featured in Trainspotting, the sheer electronic abandon of Rez/Cowgirl and the Moroder-esque marauder, King of Snake.

Newer tracks slotted in well - the bonkers celeb list of S T A R, the psychedelic acapella Denver Luna, relentless And The Colour Red and latest single Fen Violet which takes Italian house piano and mangles it into a techno rush.

It all ended, of course, with a song that's almost become a hymn for a hedonistic generation, who are so relieved they grew up in a world removed from the glare of social media: Born Slippy. Mega, mega it was too. What a night (and hats off to Cornwall-based DJ Frank Gane, as big an Underworld fan as you'll find whose life was made when he carried on the dance party after the duo left the stage).

This was just the first - there's something for everyone coming up at The Wyldes in the coming weeks: Simple Minds / Del Amitri on June 22, Anne-Marie heading a bill of some top pop women on June 23, Jess Glynne on June 29, James Arthur on June 30, all brought to an end by one of the greatest live bands on the planet, Idles, on July 21. More details about all the concerts at the website.

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