Last time the famous four were in Belfast for a concert it was December 1996 at a heaving Ulster Hall, packed full of people excited at individually "discovering" this great new band reheating Celtic rock souffle a la 1970s and coming up with shiny, happy pop music for all ages. The show is now a looser, more confident affair. Only the breakthrough hit Dreams and the windswept Forgiven Not Forgotten rely on backing tracks, and quite unapologetically. Otherwise, it really is all down to Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim, with a little help from the splendid Anto Drennan on lead guitar and a similarly background bassist, whose name was sadly lost in the applause.
There may not, in truth, be a great deal of substance to much of the Corrs' material, but one would have to be decidedly po-faced to argue the case with such a wealth of beautifully simple instrumental hooks, chord changes and vocal harmonies. The singles were all here - What Can I Do and Runaway were the big sing-a-long faves - but the real revelation was Jim Corr's solo spot. His piano medley of Irish airs was sublime and Jimmy McCarthy's No Frontiers provided a welcome breather from the anthems.
The Corrs play at The Point, Dublin, tonight at 8 p.m.