Don't let the angelic voice of lead singer Greg Gilbert fool you, the Delays can rock.

The band showed as much during their headlining set on the Music Choice stage at the V Festival on Sunday.

The mix of Gilbert's unique vocals with electro keyboard melodies and indie guitars gives the Delays that something different that lifts them above the average.

They combine the different elements with excellent control and incorporate them without any loss of direction.

The beautiful 'Nearer Then Heaven' was the third song of the set and confirmed to the crowd they had made the right choice in avoiding the bigger draws.

This was followed by forthcoming single 'Lost In The Melody', which sounded like it could well surpass the Delay's previous highest chart entry of 16.

The Southampton four-piece carried off the tricky task of closing the Music Choice stage with a confidence that suggested they could move up the billing.

Before closing the set with the anthem 'Long Time Coming' and an encore of 'Safety in Numbers' Greg said: "See you next year on the big stage." On this evidence I wouldn't bet against him.

By Chris Runeckles

Published Sunday August 22, 2004